Birds Chirping: Vietnam Before the Storms

I trekked through the northern Vietnamese region of Lao Cai from the capital Hanoi in aid of charity. Both Hanoi and the Northern region have been hit by floods over the last three months – its worst rainfall in the last 35 years. These pictures serve as a visual memory of life before the floods.

Hanoi is a bustling, metropolitan city, but at the height of the floods approximately 100 neighbourhoods were under a foot of water. Bikes are the only way to get around Hanoi, even to go to school. In 2005, 60 per cent of the Vietnamese population was under the age of 30, making life-expectancy figures poor.

Cars are hard to spot in the capital city, with millions of mopeds and motorcycles cramming the streets.

Tourists, children, market goods and even fruit and vegetables are transported by bicycle. Despite the number of bikes on the road, pollution is heavy in Hanoi and smog is a daily occurrence.

Crossing the road is a hazard, even before the flooding, with hundreds of motorbikes lined up in race formation.

These soldiers take a break in the grounds of the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The nearby mausoleum is home to the body of Ho Chi Minh, former President of Vietnam, which was embalmed after his death in 1969.

After an overnight train journey from Hanoi city, travelers reach the outskirts of the Sapa Valley, with its winding mountain tracks and natural streams.

Sunrise is the best time of the day to catch the morning mist as it settles over the Sapa Valley and rainforest.

Rice growing is the main agricultural venture of northern Vietnam; these watery fields have doubtless been washed away with the flooding that has to date left 92 dead.

Nestled in the mountainous region are numerous villages – some unconnected by road – such as this tiny village of Ban Ho.

Streams and waterways play a vital part for the farming industry in Vietnam, irrigating rice paddies and providing water to the villages that don’t have water systems installed in houses.

The Sapa Valley ridges are thick with rainforest – which is interspersed with lagoons and huge slabs of thick rocky terrain. Villagers bathe in the lagoons, or play as these teenagers are, but have to check each others legs and arms afterwards for leeches.

Remote villages are virtually cut off from the rest of the world. Northern Vietnam is populated by a number of tribes, including the Hmong, who speak the Hmong dialect. Villagers walk into the main Sapa Valley town on a daily basis, to sell their handcrafted embroidered items.

Every village in the region has a school, which always flies the Vietnamese flag. While some of the schools are poorly maintained, education is provided for all villagers.

Discipline is a must for these school children, who are lining up ready for their classes. As many of their families work the farms and rice fields, older children look after younger siblings, caring for them in the classroom.

Waterbuffalo play a pivotal role in village life – providing transport, meat, milk and leather.

Houses are built using huge bamboo stems and dried leaves from the rainforest’s abundant trees. Although the steep slopes of the Sapa Valley seem stable to the eye, land and mud-slides are common – often taking entire villages down the hillside.

Village children are curious of the tourists that trek through the valley, and they often pose for pictures whenever visitors pass through their land. Some villagers are very poor, living on the fruits of the valley soil.

Hmong tribesmen are extremely agile and nimble. Climbing up and around the slopes of the Sapa Valley is seemingly easy for them. Although appearing black, their clothes are dyed with Indigo, using traditional methods. The material is actually a deep shade of blue.

After the rice is harvested, the husks are burned to the ground. This age-old technique apparently improves the soil for the following year’s crop.

In the farming villages everyone lends a hand. This young girl was leading a herd of waterbuffalo to graze, after a morning at school.

The rice terraces are unique to the Sapa Valley landscape throughout Vietnam. With such heavy rainfall, these carefully-constructed mud terraces are likely to have been completely destroyed.

Neighbouring Trung Ho is a larger village, with a number of tarmac roads. Although the village is larger, it is expected to have been hit just as hard by the flooding and torrential rain. Villages such as these are often left helpless by the force of landslides originating at peak tops.

Villagers with transport stop off at some of the home-made market stalls offering mainly goat meat...

...from the abundant rambling stock. Some villagers take jobs in the city of Hanoi. The capital also has a thriving market scene – both permanent and temporary – with everything from clothing and textiles, to meat, fruit and vegetables and even ladders.