The River Lô seen from a bridge just beside Truyên Quang City. There was another view
of this river
on the last page. This was taken from National Highway 2c - Quốc Lộ 2c. The 'Lo' of the river, and the 'Lo' of the road, are totally unrelated words
The last page had photos from the north west of Hà Nội, this page continues from there passing on in a northerly direction to the neighbouring province of Truyên Quang. Provinces in Vietnam nearly all use the same name for the whole province as for...
...the provincial capital. These photos are from the hinterland to the north-east of that city. This is a land of sugar cane and tea. Here some shots of the making of sugar loafs - tea will come later in this journey - and of (yet another)
simple roadside market.
The mountains that protect Truyên Quang...
...riverbank houseboats...
...out in the river small floating fishing huts
While photogenic, the combination of thatch and plastic roofs does draw attention to the way less sustainable materials are intruding everywhere
Out to the north-east of those mountains, the country returns to more gentle undulations
Flower names so often defy translation, we lack equivalents, they do not commonly use Latin
This seems to combine thistle and mint characteristics
More certain ground - the sugarcane harvest
Near to those fields of sugarcane, is this small unit turning the cane
into loafs of sugar
These simple boxes are laid out...
...just beside the woks of boiling sugar
Wooden partitions are then inserted
The dividers, which define the loaves, are added
A wok is brought to be poured into the moulds
But my obsession with markets and sunsets cannot be placated any longer - a roadside market in the same area
The young worker takes a break to look at the strangers - a tee-shirt on a sugar high
A meat stall with an intriguing book - closed to us
Cabbage delivery...
...and maybe some boxes of fruit for a stall
The true face of Vietnamese markets - sociability (and more meat)
Flowers are an important aspect of that social life
The burden of grand-parenting
The photographer spotted
And general pleasure at this minimal encounter
So to those concluding sunsets
Here seen across the River Hồng...
...at the south of the province, just north of Hà Nội
Trailers...
On the next Picture Posting page, attention is to pass to the neighbouring province to the east - Thái Nguyên.
The next page
of the Mosaic Section is to be headed 'Selling Ourselves'.
Or go to the contents Go to the contents of the Mosaic Section. of the Mosaic Section. Monitors can keep the layout, which phones may need to discombobulate.
The previous page had photographs from the Viẹt Trì Plain, north-west of Hà Nội
...guide to this site