“Black Hmong Lady” Sapa, Northern Vietnam

This photo was taken on our recent trip to Vietnam & Thailand, an amazing experience.  I fell in love with Vietnam…….

We left OR Tambo on 17 April and Arrived in Bangkok the following morning and got onto a flight for Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam.  After ‘n quick trip to the Tam Cốc channels we got on the overnight train to Lao Cai.  In the morning when we arrived we were transported by bus to Sapa.  Sapa, is a frontier town and capital of Sa Pa District in the Lao Cai province in northwest Vietnam. It is one of the main market towns in the area, where several ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao, Giay, Pho Lu, and Tay live.

The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.  Hmong are rich in culture, art and family and are distinguished by costume/dress (fabric patterns represent fruit, vegetables, farming, chickens, eggs, etc.)  Vietnamese Hmong women continuing to wear 'traditional' clothing tend to source much of their clothing as 'ready to wear' cotton (as against traditional hemp) from markets, though some add embroidery as a personal touch. In Sapa, now with a 'standardised' clothing look, Black Hmong sub-groups have differentiated themselves by adopting different headwear; those with a large comb embedded in their long hair (but without a hat) call themselves Tao, those with a pillbox hat name themselves Giay, and those with a headscarf are Yao. For many, such as Flower Hmong, the heavily beaded skirts and jackets are manufactured in China.

The lady in the picture are one of the many “vendors” in town.  They are less “aggressive’ than the lady vendors you find in the rural villages.  I think the reason is that they do more sales in the towns and thus “less desperate”.  The picture was taken just after we arrived and unpacked at the hotel in Sapa.  I was mid-morning and quite misty with the sun just breaking through every now and then.  I knew then I was in for one amazing trip.

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Focal Length	300 mm (Canon 70-300 L IS lens)
Shutter speed	1/200 sec
Aperture	F 5.6
ISO	100
Club Competition	Gold, May 2013, 5* Winner, Senior winner

Andre Norris 5*