Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Vietnam Part 2

These kids cycling to school just blew me away...  My bus was stopped for a lunch break somewhere in between small town and smaller town Vietnam.  It was blazing hot as we sat at the lunch counter drinking soup... The traditional Vietnamese breakfast, sometimes lunch, dinner and/or midnight snack- Pho... mmmmmmmm...



During my visit to the hill town of Dalat, I booked an "Easy Rider Motorcycle Tour" for the day.  On the back of what was barely a motorcycle down very windy and beautiful roads I watched the Vietnamese country side whiz by...  We stopped to meet some very cute kids with very dirty feet!  My favorite :)


This woman and her daughter were making rice wine in the back of their house from tons of rice.  I was going to try some, but just a whiff was enough.  This "wine" could probably fuel a large aircraft.
Next, was the tour of a silkworm factory.  I had visited one before in India, and this time I was ready to shoot.  The process is fascinating and the imagery captivating!  I am not sure this tangle of raw silk will ever be used, but it looked so beautiful to me, hanging there in front of the cocoon farm.
The cocoons are collected and washed in warm water, where the silk threads are pulled apart by hand and spun onto a wheel...


Then, in the same factory, there are woven into the silk used to make all types of clothing and fabrics and later dyed...