The haystacks, trees and houses of this village somehow find footholds among the rocks of the forbidding landscape
One of the most memorable aspects of the Mã Pì Lèng Pass is the fact that people seem to conduct normal lives in such place. This particular village stands near the road just before the highest point of the pass.
The village from further along the road
The road is seen here snaking away from the village into the pass
This is not the only village in the pass, but it is near enough to the road for the camera to reach. The tiny 'fields' and precarious hold of the houses, is similar to that we see in County Clare and both are examples of life in a
karst
landscape.
Women and girls on the road by the village
Hân parks the bike to catch a shot down into the gorge
Hmong village woman with the pannier basket seen in many Far Eastern countries
Here the women are carrying their loads along a path that skirts the rock face
...here using a crash barrier for a rest
Bundles by the roadside at a distance...
...turn into people carrying bundles of corn stalks often twice their height....
A detail of the area at the junction of the pictures below. The red soil from here ends up flowing past Hà Nội as part of the Red River
Here the village is seen at the left and the ...
...gorge drops away to the right
And a wider version of...
...the previous two pictures
A local man from the village talks to Hân with little more Vietnamese than I have. He explained how in the dry season they had to collect all their water from the river in the gorge 2,000 feet below, when we met him he was sitting at the road side enjoying the view every bit as much as we were - those two points tell much of the story of life here
The approach to the Mã Pì Lèng Pass
The road between Sa Pa and Mount Phăng Xi Păng
The Mã Pì Lèng Gorge
