http://www.chescaislost.com/

I felt like I hadn’t seen civilisation for weeks. The jungle looked like a thick carpet of moss, covering everything in swathes of emerald green. We followed Bien into what looked like the middle of a bush – The path was not really a path but a certain route that Bien and the porters knew like the back of their hand.

This region of Vietnam, with its jungle-clad mountains and fertile pastureland, has usually kept itself to itself. The recent discovery of the largest cave in the world here, plus a labyrinth of world-class cave systems, has brought new eyes to this seemingly untouched part of the world. Maybe that’s what two weeks in Saigon will do to you, or maybe it was the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but rice fields and mountains. Days were spent cycling through the villages, while every evening the sunset coated the rice fields in a powder of gold.

The Paduang practice began several years ago after thousands of the ethnic tribes fled their homeland to escape the Burmese army’s program of forced labour, slavery designed to help the army defeat various separatist armies among Myanmar’s order. Thai tour operators created a village for the women and advertised their sensational attraction to international tour companies around the world, charging $12 per person to see the women and additional fees for photography and videos. They also invented a cheerful dose of propaganda; the village is typical of Paduang lifestyle, and the long necks, another of Thailand’s endangered minorities, are political refugees supported by the Thai government, not some freak show. Paduang villages in Thailand are bizarre worlds created by Thai tour operators, and the women receive no official support or legal endorsement from the Thai government.

The front was open, like a garage, and a smiling man sat behind a table. You could hear TV’s blaring, shoes lay outside the doors and people chattered in their doorways. We even had takeaway one night, and I promise you that few things feel as indulgent as a takeaway when you’re travelling. Also, my Airbnb code if you want £££ off