Over the course of a month in spring of 2018 we made our way by boat, train, taxi, and motorcycle from the Mekong delta to the city of Hanoi. From there we took an overnight bus to the mountain town of Sapa, near the Chinese border. The region is home to the Hmong people, who have lived there for hundreds of years.

Several years before, a British couple had started a business to support Hmong women by having them act as walking guides into the surrounding valleys. We were introduced to Ying, a 26 year old traditional Hmong woman who had married at 16 and had five children. She had stopped school at sixteen but spoke four languages fluently. After buying food with her at the local market we walked for six hours to her family home at the top of the valley, where she invited us to stay the night. She gave us her bed while her husband and the children slept in the dining room. The following morning Ying led us back down the mountain before saying goodbye.