Wednesday, September 20, 2006




I love these pictures, not because I am on each of them but because they show exactly what I am looking for today: diversity and mixity.

Theses pictures were taken in Sapa, in the north of Vietnam. Sapa is still a remote area where tourists go but due to the difficult access, they are not too numerous. Unfortunately, this will change in 3 years from now when a big high way will be built, changing the 10 hours train trip into a 3 hours drive. Anyways, Sapa is an area where a lot of tribes are still living like 100 years ago (except from the Yamaha and Minsk bikes all over the place...).
Thanks to the GM of the hotel I am working for, we had access to places where we did not see tourists. Once you take a car and drive further in the mountains, you get access to villages that are amazingly colorful. People still wear the traditional costumes, made out of local materials.
Idoia, the friend I traveled with, and I started playing a very funny game: both of us had a camera. I would take a picture of the kids in the village or market and then show them on the screen how they looked like. Then they would all surround me to see it and then Idoia would take a picture of them. It was really cool because the kids would start laughing and be very natural. You could read so much emotion and happiness in their eyes. I really loved it.
I often say, with a smile in my voice, that I want babies. I truly want as I love to be surrounded by them. I am touched by their innocence, their natural attitude. They are like virgin stones; you can carve anything on them.
I believe some of the kids we've seen had never seen themselves before... To be honest, I sometimes was afraid to catch louses as they were soooooo dirty. I guess if they had 1 shower a month, it was a maximum. As their clothes are handmade, they only get 2 sets a year. And they do not wash them every days....

I think I am very into different cultures and discoveries. I should have been born 150 years ago and be the captain of a boat going around the world to discover new territories to trade with. I could have been Jacques Cartier and travel around the oceans, hoping to discover a new world...

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