Video produced/edited by Theo

Hello, my people!

We woke up with the best feeling from our comfortable beds in the family home. I even went back to sleep for a few more minutes because it felt so good in the bed. We had chicken soup provided by the family for our breakfast. I wasn’t in the mood to eat the whole of it because the chicken tasted weird but the rest tasted okay, I just gave my bowl to Alen because he was still hungry and he ate the whole of his bowl. Then we got ready and left the family home. We rode the van to our next location.

We were dropped at the location where we could walk 5 miles to the cave. We walked for 3 hours and a half, plus it was not just a flat surface it was hilly so our legs got really tired but we did see fascinating stuff along the way. We walked right by water buffalos and saw people working on the farm, while their babies were with them not complaining (in America, babies would keep crying and complaining). We also saw a child outside naked playing with mud without any adult supervising, and the nature of Sapa.

We finally arrived at where the cave was at. Of course, we sat down and drank water to regain our energy and reduce the tiredness in our legs and shoulders because we also carried backpacks. After around 8 minutes, we got up and entered the cave, my first impression, it was pretty small. In that cave, we had to be really careful with our heads from hitting the roof and there are multiple areas that are slippery. I did hit my head once on a spike and it really hurt so I became way more careful. Some of us also saw the bats in the cave flying around but I didn’t get to see one. We explored to the end of a small cave and there was the entrance to the bigger cave but our guide said it was more dangerous and there were no lights in there so we didn’t go there and went back to where we entered the cave. We got out of the cave and it was raining so we put our raincoats on and went to the family home nearby for our lunch.

We entered and the family started cooking, we chilled for a while and then went to their backyard. Our guide said the water in huge barrels and cooking etc is for their bathing water, birthing babies, and medicine with herbs. And then, we went farther and saw flowers that only bloom in the new year. We went back inside and our food was ready. I was grouped with a group of boys (7 of us). We had to eat everything or it was considered disrespectful to the family. We tried to eat the whole thing and it was still a very hard task for us because it was way too much food even for us 7 boys but we managed to eat everything. Our mission is accomplished!

We got in the van and returned to the family home that we were staying in. We took a nap and chilled for around 1 hour. After 1 hour, outside was still foggy and raining so we canceled going to the peak of a mountain in Sapa, so instead we chilled for another 2 hours. We went marketing; none of us brought anything except the girls, they brought earmuffs with a remote control with the bunny ears moving which was very random.

We went to the mart. I didn’t buy anything because I already had snacks that I left in the family home but everyone brought something. Then we walked to a restaurant, I ordered terrible food that I really couldn’t eat the whole thing and I was already pretty full from our lunch anyway. We went to night marketing after. Lev, Niven, and I spotted a shirt that we wanted and we went straight for it, it had a cool dragon design and was fully silk. Niven ended up getting it, and Lev and I got another shirt. We didn’t see anything cool anymore so we left and hopped in the van.

We arrived family home and we got to taste rice cake and water buffalo jerky. We liked water buffalo so we (10 people) brought 1.5 kg of water buffalo jerky and split but we still haven’t gotten it yet. I didn’t like rice cake at all, it is just not for me. We got to pack up for tomorrow and do our tasks.

Good night,

Dylan