MAY 2023 · ESCAPE
Vietnam - Our Red Dao hosts in Sa Pa
Sa Pa, Lào Cai Province
May Kim grew up in the valley below Sa Pa and has been guiding since she was a teenager. She knew every plant on the trail — what it was, what it was used for, what it was called in the Red Dao language. She pointed things out without slowing down, without performing. The knowledge was just there.
The Red Dao women wear indigo and red. Heavily embroidered bags hang from their shoulders. The headwraps are distinctive — tightly wound, high, a dark red that reads almost burgundy in cloud light. Walking through the terraced fields, the colour of their clothing against the green is precise, not accidental.
The family we stayed with had a wooden house at the base of a slope overlooking the paddies. Inside: an open fire with an iron pot above it, a hard earth floor, a shelf of tools. One woman in a red headwrap stirred food in that pot while the others worked outside. The smoke went up through the roof structure. Three generations of the family, photographed in black and white: a grandmother sitting with her back to the far wall, two others beside her, the interior light finding only their faces and hands.
She knew every plant on the trail — what it was, what it was used for, what it was called in the Red Dao language.
Sa Pa — May 2023
The dogs were an ongoing concern. May Kim had told us before we started that the village dogs could be aggressive. She was right. She positioned herself between us and them at every threshold, which happened often enough that it became a kind of relay — gate to gate, farm to farm.
Outside one house, someone tended the fire alone, crouched in the doorway with a stick. Nobody was supervising; this was work, not play. A woman in a cone hat walked the road above the paddies, a woven basket across her back, not looking at the camera. Another crouched in the banana plantation examining the leaves, checking something specific that I couldn't identify.
In the afternoon, a woman in indigo and red stood at the edge of the valley, facing away, the mist over the mountains behind her. The basket on her back was worn, the straps frayed at the shoulder. She was looking at something in the middle distance. She didn't turn around.
Red Dao villager in red headwrap stirs food in pot over open fire
Black and white portrait of Red Dao women sitting together with firewood
Red Dao woman in traditional hat and embroidered clothes by muddy water
Red Dao trekking guide in red cap crouched on logs in mountain landscape
Red Dao woman harvesting with traditional woven basket among green crops
Red Dao woman in indigo and red walking through terraced rice fields
Red Dao woman in traditional dress from behind, heading toward misty landscape
Red Dao girl walking road with cone hat and backpack, Vietnam countryside
Red Dao woman in traditional dress with embroidered bag among green plants
Red Dao woman sitting by burning fire inside simple mountain home
Red Dao villager tending fire at hearth in traditional home, backlit
Red Dao person in misty landscape beside muddy pond and mountains
Red Dao woman in traditional dress standing in misty valley with river
Red Dao woman in red headwrap and basket among lush forest vegetation
Red Dao family in traditional attire sitting and working in mountain home
Red Dao child tending fire in rustic wooden home interior
Red Dao woman inspecting plants in garden with traditional basket
Red Dao family gathered around fire inside home, multiple generations
Black and white portrait of three Red Dao people in home interior
Black and white of Red Dao family around fire in rustic dwelling
Red Dao trekker walking through tall bamboo forest in mountain valley
Red Dao woman working in terraced rice fields with mountains behind
Red Dao person in banana plantation surrounded by tall green leaves
Red Dao woman in cone hat walking through banana trees in forest
Red Dao woman examining crops in lush green forest plantation
Red Dao villagers inside wooden home looking out toward mountain valley
Red Dao people in home interior silhouetted against mountain landscape
Red Dao family with children sitting outside wooden home in mountains