The highlight of my wife Kristin's and my trip to Viet Nam in June 2009 was our homestay with an ethnic minority family in the country's northern highlands. We hiked with our Black Mong guides from Sa Pa, the regional market town, to their small village clinging to a mountainside. Are five hard hours, we arrived at our host's home, which had no running water but did have electricity powering just one gadget, an old incandescent light bulb hanging in the center room. There we had a fresh lunch prepared over the stove, which was an indoor fire pit. Then we visited the home of one of the other guides, where we learned of a recent tragedy. Learn more about the experience by clicking the pictures below and visiting Kristin's blog entry, "Accidents of Birth."
