"One must endure a few caterpillars if one wishes to become acquainted with the butterflies." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Today is our test day.
Do we really deserve Vietnam? Are we strong enough to keep smiling and remain kind despite the heat, humidity, and physical effort? Will hardship unite us or divide us? And can we match, even briefly, the resilience and kindness of the Vietnamese people who have been welcoming us into their world for almost two weeks?
 

Day 11 : The group shows some signs of fatigue | Mr Linh's Adventures

Ahead of us lie 16 kilometres of discovery and 700 metres of ascent. Thon Tha hands us over to Khuoi My and Khuoi My to Lung Vai. These are not some mythical characters, but tiny Tày and Dao villages hidden in the mountains. We begin at an altitude of 200 metres and climb to nearly 900.

Today, I am reminded once again how important inner motivation is when discovering the world. The tropical heat grows more intense. Not every body is accustomed to climbing in such conditions, but even fewer minds are capable of ignoring the weather and continuing to notice the small miracles of nature all around.

I can sense a kind of concentration in our group. Many of us are simply trying to stay centred.
The higher we climb, the more this saw-toothed mountain range reveals itself. How curiously nature has worked to create such regularity. It could almost be someone's teeth;  someone with an enormous mouth and countless teeth. As we gain altitude, the ridges multiply. The heat creates a hazy veil in the air, giving those repeated silhouettes a mystic touch.

That is one of the gifts of the day, though only some of us are able to fully appreciate it.
 

A new stilt house, recently built | Mr Linh's Adventures

“Today we might meet some leeches!“ says David in the morning, “But don’t worry - David Long has a very big experience, he knows how to deal with them.“
Yes, today we also reach the jungle! Another reward for our physical effort. But perhaps it is too hot, even for the leeches. Maybe they have chosen to hide beneath the cool, humid bark of the trees or relax quietly in the damp soil.
"So where are those promised leeches?!" I hear one of us wonder with disappointment during our picnic lunch.
And somehow that makes me smile. I remember feeling exactly the same disappointment during my first weeks here in Vietnam, even though my relationship with leeches is not a particularly friendly one.

The vegetation of this day matches perfectly both the summer heat and our sweating group : today's world is full of giant fans at every step. What a pity that these fans are purely decorative for us - they could really do the job of a fan!

Despite the fatigue, each of us stops from time to time to admire and photograph the leaves of the giant fan palms. We see them used everywhere as natural shelters and sources of shade. Motorbikes parked in front of houses are protected from the sun beneath them, rice-field machines rest under their giant green umbrellas, and a woman working far away in a rice field seems to have attached one of the leaves to her back. A little further on, several women sit beneath their shade beside an enormous pile of corn cobs.
 

A woman at work, under a blazing sun | Mr Linh's Adventures

For those of us who are still able to see beauty through the sweat, nature keeps offering gifts: colourful butterflies and flowers, a few enormous golden orb-weaver spiders, the beautiful star-shaped red fruits of the lance-leaved sterculia, and innumerable other small wonders.
We pass a New House Party – one of those that David told us about yesterday. How cool to hear the theory and immediately encounter the practice! People arrive carrying bags of gifts. Well, that must be rice, happy water, and perhaps a chicken or two?

A couple of boys spend their summer holidays playing with long, sharp, dangerous-looking agricultural tools. A bunch of teenagers accompanies us for a while, showing off and clowning around on their bicycles, until we reach a huge suspension bridge crossing the gorge and disappear from their lives as suddenly as we entered them.

And we did it.
We all made it.
Despite fatigue, doubts, and a few moments of rebellion.

Now our superhero Duy (our driver), picks us up and takes us to discover completely new worlds. The Chinese border is closer than ever. The mountains have changed their face. The landscapes of the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau seem to have undressed themselves, freed from all superfluous clothing. They reveal their rocky nature, rising directly from the plains like icebergs emerging from the sea.
 

Daily life at the turn of a lost village | Mr Linh's Adventures

Quản Bạ rewards us with a well-deserved good night's sleep.
And at the end of this day, I feel that every part of my body has done what it was made to do.
This body was not given to me to remain idle, but to carry my soul wherever it longs to go.

I feel so alive.
Because of the effort.