Last year I traveled from south to north Vietnam. One of my last stops there was Sapa a small town in the mountains. Sapa was way much too touristy but from there you can do hiking trips to smaller villages where the Hmong minority lives.

The woman on the picture was the guide of our small hiking group. All the way through green rice fields up to little villages she was talking about the Hmong and their life.

The Hmong are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. She told us that family is the most important thing and that every tribe there has a old wise person that gives advises. They mostly live in very small cottages with one room where everything is done: cooking, sleeping, living. So we went to her own house where we meet her children and her husband and cooked together. The family didn’t have a bathroom or toilets nor electricity. “The kitchen” is a hole in the ground where you can make a fire to cook.

But the food was actually really good, we had rice (of course) with cabbage and other vegetables.

The men are normally working on the rice fields to get food for their family. Cows and pigs are running around, as well as water buffalos. The women take care of the children and sew these  nice colorful clothes.

This hiking trips was one of my best experiences in south east asia and just another example that you do not luxury to be happy.

On this market in Durban we where the only white people although there live a lot of white people in South Africa. The sad thing about this country is that black and white people are still separated where ever you go. Even though they live in the same city, there are different quarters for each race, different restaurants, different parts of the beach etc.

It seems as if especially the white people are so afraid of the black that they can never enjoy their lives.

They put huge walls with electric fences around their house, install cameras and hire security guys. Some almost never leave their house until it is really necessary. And if they go out they always carry a gun with them.

How boring would our world be if we all had the same skin color, the same religion, the same culture and the same mindset.

The more different a culture and a country is, the more I am attracted to it. There is so much to explore and so many things to see that you have never seen before. You will see things that make you wonder,  things that leave you breathless.

In April I went to South Africa, first to Durban and then to Cape Town. This picture has been taken on a market in Durban. Most of the women there covered their faces with loam to protect their skin from the sun.