My trip to Sapa seems like a long time ago now, though I’ve only been back for two and a half weeks. The cool temperatures, clean air and mist were a world away from Saigon’s humidity and smog. When the sun came out for the last few days, I was even a bit disappointed. These pictures were all taken in the countryside and villages around the town over the course of a few long-ish walks.
I took this picture in Bac Ha, but it didn’t seem to fit in my earlier post, as it was taken on one of the side streets, rather than in the market. It’s not the sharpest picture I’ve ever taken, but I like it, so I’m posting it on its own here.
She was making rice noodles in a tiny street-side kitchen in the late afternoon. I liked the way she was lit by the fading sunlight outside, and I liked her style. Her slightly incongruous black suit jacket made a great contrast to the bright colours worn by the Flower Hmong market traders elsewhere in town.
I paid a couple of visits to Ta Phin village while I was staying in Sapa. There’s something very compelling about the Red Dao women and their red head scarves.
Saturday morning in Can Cau market. Mud underfoot, mist above. Women buy and sell, men smoke and drink rice wine.
Sunday morning in Bac Ha market. Hoped to capture a sense of place, but ended up concentrating mostly on patterns and portraits.
Long Bien bridge spans the Red River in Hanoi. In the middle of the river is “the island”, a small slice of rural Vietnam within sight of the city.
One of the reasons why I went back to colour for my trip north was because of all the greens, yellows and reds I knew I’d come across. If yesterday’s post was all about the green and yellow, today’s is all about the red. I met this Red Dao (“zow”) mother and daughter in Ta Phin village, north of Sapa. The family was entertaining a local policeman with rice wine, and they invited me in to join them. The policeman didn’t want his picture taken, and I wasn’t going to argue with him, but the women of the house were happy to humour me. This shot was taken just inside the side entrance to the house, where they were nicely lit by the sunlight from outside.
I’ve just got back from two weeks in northern Vietnam, mostly spent in the hills in and around Sapa and Bac Ha in Lao Cai province, near the Chinese border. I have a stack of pictures to sort through and I haven’t worked out how I want to present them yet, but I thought I’d start by posting a couple of single pictures of the week. There’ll be a longer series or two of pictures in the near-ish future.
This shot was taken on a misty, murky afternoon in Cat Cat village, a short walk from Sapa. The rice harvest was pretty much over by the time I made it up into the hills, but these farmers, for whatever reason, were a little behind everyone else.
Without an H 