This morning we woke up early for a good feed in the hotel before setting off on another 14km trek. This time though, we aren't coming back tonight, we're staying with a Black H'mong minority family in the village of Tarvan. Black H'mong wear dirfferent clothes to the Red Dao and are also Catholic whereas the Red Dao are buddhist. Our guide today is Mang, a lively 19 year old Black H'mong with interesting views and very modern for the region. We set off on a track with a large number of tourists before Mang takes us off the road and up a small dirt track that leads directly up the mountain! Today's walking is harder than yesterdays, but more adventurous and fun, and Mang walks just as if she's a mountain goat, and when we tell her so she laughs and says she's been doing this all her life! She takes us past big crops of a certain smokable soft drug and when we ask her about it, she says everyone always asks, but they make their clothes from the stems - the hemp and the leaves don't get smoked! she also shows us wild plants and digs up some fern roots for us to eat "candy" she calls it, but i think it tates like fern root!!!!!

We visit a small workshop for the hemp clothing and see how they weave the material and then dye it, we also see some local instruments and try them out, but we're not very tuneful!

She takles Ian and Simon into the rice paddy to helkp the locals out for a few mintues when they are harvesting the rice - it looks like hard work and the boys agree!! As we continue walking Mang talks excitedly about one day travelling and meeting her German boyfriend just like any other 19 year old girl would. It's a hard transition for this generation. They want to become more worldly and earn money but also love their traditions and customs. Mang has a good education, but so many of the tribes people don't go to school and their families think they are lazy for being tourguides and not working in the fields.

She buys us some sugar cane to try and we say goodbye to Simon as we walk another 30 minutes to the home we are staying in for the night. It's a simple home and the kitchen consists of a fire to cook over. Our hoss are the same age as us and have a 7 year old and a four month od baby. After dinner with rice wine, they took us to their neighbours home where they are hand pummeling sticy rice to remove the husks. This is done with a giant pestle and mortar amd s really hard work - they all seem o be really drunk and keep making us drink shots of rice wine! They are very friendly and we make our way back up the hill to our beds for the night.

In the morning, we have another 3 hours hiking over hills and rie paddies to catch our motorbike back to sapa to prepare for the overnight train - SOFT CLASS sleeper this time woohoo!! We are also sharing a cabin with Tiff and Simon that we met on the overnight bus from Kunming, so it should be a more pleasant journey!