Summer Travels

This summer I went travelling with my family to Vietnam the highlight of which was Sapa in Northern Vietnam. Astonishingly beautiful mountains and endless green stepped rice paddies.

We went hill trekking with 2 of the local tribes - The Black Hmong tribe and the Red Dzao tribe. We met some of the children and my 2 yr old son got to sit on the water buffalos in their villages. The women wear beautiful tribal clothes which are made by hand from Hemp, dyed with indigo and embroidered with incredible detail. One of the Black Hmong coats can take 3 months of dedicated work. In their societies it is expected that they have a new set of clothes every New year, not a small task!

The Red Dzao shave their eyebrow and front hairline to signify their 'married' status. I managed to do do at few sketches of the rice paddies from where we were staying at Topas Eco Lodge.

The culture of the tribes is fascinating, they have their own witch doctors and do not use western medicine at all.