After the most exciting exploration of the North-East of Vietnam, we are back in Hanoi today, saying goodbye to Josh and Bien and the trusty car – though not before Josh was pulled over for driving through a red light and fined (there’s a long story but maybe not for a public blog). The kitty paid.
I have been wanting to post some images of the beautiful mountains and rice fields we’ve seen in our travels, but my photos convey nothing of the splendour of the countryside. So Bien has very kindly agreed to let me post some of his photos instead. For more of his wonderful work, see his Flikr account.
I am always better when there are people in the photo so here’s a young girl working on the steep slope of the rice field:
Her family were also working so hard bringing everything they had so carefully harvested up the mountain:
And finally, I had to include these two women we met in the nearby town when we were desperately looking for lunch (I persuaded Bien to chat to them to allow me to take a photo):
Stunning. The majesty and sheer scale of those rice steppes cut into steep mountains are so hard to capture. Did he take these from the road with you folks, or from one of his hikes up into the mountains? Nice work in any case!
What stunning shots of the scenery
Completely agree – the sheer scale of these vistas is astonishing. I think Bien took these pictures from the road rather than hiking – the road is spectacular and runs along the top of these valleys.
The views were majestic – I’ve never scene anything on this scale
Such beautiful scenery – thanks for posting these! It looks like a wonderful trip and you must be a bit sad to say goodbye to Bien and Josh.
We were very sad to say goodbye after such a magical time with them – fortunately, we’ll see them tonight for dinner before setting off on the next part of our trip.
What a privilege – and how handy – to have a translator, photographer, and also a writer for Lonely Planet with you on your travels. Couple that with blog-writer extraordinaire, we are privileged to accompany you on your journey. And we readers get to avoid scary things beginning with ‘s’, also handy.
Indeed, Tash ! I’ve never travelled with such a multi skilled entourage ( though have accompanied the blog- writer from time to time). It’s worth adding that Josh and Bien are very serious about food and food planning so eating well was also well covered by the entourage…
And it would not be the same without your acerbic wit and admirable company, Sue.