Mid Autumn Moon Festival

The Mid Autumn Festival is held during the full moon on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. It is said that the family oriented festival came about when busy parents working in the fields during the bright harvest moon decided to dedicate this time to lavish their children with attention. There are dragon parades, games and food, but the highlight comes after dusk when lanterns with hand written prayers are launched. This happened just outside our apartment and made for a surreal night.

Vanishing Asia- The Khau Vai Love Market

Photos from a special section in the Wall Street Journal about a market located in the remote mountainous northern region of Vietnam on the Chinese border. The region is settled by various minority groups- Dao, Lolo, Giay, and Hmong people, who come once a year to the market above the town of Meo Vac where they can meet and drink and get to know people from outside their family group. Some come for the all night singing and dancing and drinking and others come for the lovin. With the opening up of the frontier region to trade from China and regional tourism the market is undergoing rapid and permanent change.





Khau Vai village, site of the annual love market that is famous throughout the mountain villages.





White Hmong women.




Hmong children living together in an extended family at the border of the frontier area.




A Hmong boy stands at the Ma Pi Leng Pass in Ha Giang Province, one of the poorest and most remote places in Vietnam.




A market stall holder sells imported cheap plastic Chinese trinkets to a Nung girl, in blue, at the Khau Vai Love Market. There is a distinct lack of authentic minority wares such as clothing and silver jewlery at the market.





A Hmong lower primary school grades 1-4, yellow building at left, in the Ma Pi Leng Pass in the Meo Vac District of Ha Giang Province, where the teacher is a self-taught Hmong speaking Vietnamese woman.

Vanishing Asia- The Khau Vai Love Market

Ruou and Hoa, a Hmong couple, both 20 years old from Ha Giang Province traveled an hour by motor bike with their daughter to celebrate their 5th anniversary since meeting at the Khau Vai Love Market.






The mountainous region beyond Meo Vac town, gateway to the Khau Vai love market, is one of the poorest and most remote areas in Vietnam.






Khen flute players perform a traditional flute dance, in which Hmong men must play their instruments without pause, with the best dancer attracting attention from the girls at the market.






Hmong women carry farm tools in the northern Frontier Area which borders China in the Ha Giang Province, about 150km southwest of the Khau Vai Love Market.






A Hmong couple from neighboring districts in Ha Giang Province reconnect at the Khau Vai Love Market after several years apart.






Tourists have left their mark on the authenticty of Khau Vai, where a Nung girl was photographed.






Tourists from Hanoi photograph a billboard at the boundary of Meo Vac city, a city rich in ethnic minority culture, as they make their way to the Khau Vai market. Meo Vac is the gateway to the market area about 20 km. above the city.

High Noon at Sewage Canal

Ha Noi Drainage Company director general Nguyen Le says 450,000-510,000 cubic metre of waste water is presently discharged daily in the city. More than 90 per cent of it is directly poured into the drainage system without being treated.

This includes waste water discharged from industrial zones, hospitals and factories, he says.

Only 5 to 7 per cent of waste water goes through any standard treatment procedures. The city currently has one big waste water treatment factory, North Thang Long-Van Tri, and two small treatment stations, Kim Lien and Truc Bach.

"Water of the city’s drainage rivers and canals is usually black in colour and gives off putrid smells, which affects human health and the environment," he says. -Viet Nam News Service

One More from Bangladesh

Pubro Bhuterdia, Kedarpur, Babugonj, Barisal, Bangladesh-A mother with her child takes wheat at a food distribution center sponsored by Save the Children.

Hanoi Skyline

The view of downtown Hanoi at sunset from our apartment balcony.

Etc.

Barguna, Bangladesh- Three young workers pause from their road building to have a portrait made alongside the portraits of two former prime ministers. They are wearing cardboard crowns that were given out in the town as part of an advertisaing campaign for a national wireless service. (ref. May 23rd entry)





Barishal Dsitrict, Bangladesh- A woman stands at the back of her shelter provided by Save the children after her home was washed away by cyclone Sidr in Nov. 2007. Officials with the NGO have taken note of the higher water line as rising waters in the delta region threaten structures and livelyhood.





Pubro Bhuterdia, Kedarpur, Babugonj, Barisal, Bangladesh-A farmer who has lost the use of his field due to flooding points to a bag of rice he will take away for his family at a food distribution center sponsored by Saudi Arabia.





Dhaka, Bangladesh- A man stands on the city pier directing a ferry landing.





Pubro Bhuterdia, Kedarpur, Babugonj, Barisal, Bangladesh-People wait for the opening of a food distribution center sponsored by Save the Children.





Bangladesh- Village elders discuss the needs surrounding a new girls school in their village.

New Work

These are some of my favorite photos from work I did for Save the Children in Bangladesh on their emergency response after the November 2007 cyclone Sidr. This family lost their home and two children in the storm and were left hopeless. About 2 months ago they gave birth to a baby girl.






Women wait to have their babies inoculated at a health clinic in the remote delta region of Barguna, Bangladesh.






Mother and baby live with their family in a shelter after cyclone Sidr washed away their home.






A village caregiver keeps babies cool in the 105 degrees heat while their parents build a field to market road.






A boy carries rice to his home with a bucket provided by the local Save the Children office.







A school girl writes on the blackboard during an after school program designed to give village children structure to their day.






A produce buyer with his pick from a community garden grown by villagers to promote food security.






A woman rests with her son after working in a community garden grown to promote food security.






A woman collects wheat from a food distribution center organized by Save the Children in the southern delta region of Bangladesh, where food prices have inflated to unaffordable costs.







A baby is weighed at a growth monitoring and promotion health clinic organized by Save the Children Community Health Volunteers.

Back in Hanoi (for a week)

Liz and I returned from separate travels, Liz in Bangkok and Nepal and myself in the far north of Vietnam and Bangladesh. We'll have a proper post and lots of photos coming soon but for now a random offering photographed on a street in the small southern Bangladeshi city of Barisal...

How We Spent the Remainder of Our Break

Quiet and lovely Phu Quac Island is about 350 km west of Saigon and only a 40 minute flight but it is a world away from the blaring horns, poverty, stink and claustrophobia of the city. In six days of ultimate relaxation we didn't move far from our beach loungers.

Break to the Mekong Delta

Liz and I got a break from Hanoi and traveled down south to have a brief 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta. We chose a group tour since it afforded the best access in the most efficient way. Fellow travelers and local people we met were great company and a welcome change from the cold shoulder we generally experience up north.
My birthday fell at the end of the tour and amazingly Liz surprised me on the bus trip with a birthday cake she bought on our last market stop as we headed back to Saigon. By far the most unexpected birthday cake yet!

Ba Trieu Diva

Vietnam ain't no backwater anymore.

Dragon Attacks Local Woman

There was a dragon hanging around our neighborhood during festival week. Liz had a friendly run in and as it turns out the fire breathing varmint was a harbinger of good luck. He (or she, we never found that out...not even sure how dragons work that way) was taken through the neighborhood and paraded in courtyards to bring good fortune. Later that day we found a really great bonsai for sale on the street for a song, so I guess it worked out.

Laboring on the Red River Flats