Despite the solemn expression, people in northern rural Vietnam are very welcoming. A man comes out to greet me on the tiny road that runs towards the Ha Giang Loop some ways north of Hanoi. He emerges from the front yard of his house as I pass through his village on motorbike and accompanies me to an empty lot adjacent to his house where he poses in view of his thatched roof home. Near Chợ Tân Yên, northern Vietnam.

The landscape along the road into the far north of Vietnam. Near Chợ Tân Yên, northern Vietnam.

Children come out to the road to say hello in front of their thatched home in the background, near Chợ Tân Yên, northern Vietnam.

Two women tend to their buffalo in a vast open field as one of them talks on her cell phone while I came around a bend on motorbike— not at all imagining the scene that lay before me. I pull over immediately, shut off the bike, and ask to photograph them. They agree, very nonchalantly and what I capture is what you see. I am amazed at both the landscape and what transpires before my eyes, fully aware that I am in a different world.

Deeper into the scene, the women begin herding the buffalo along out of the field and down the road, much to my delight and amazement.

A scooter rider passes through a Tolkien-esque countryside as a giant billboard looks on. 150 kilometers or so north of Hanoi.

A thoughtful man outside a bicycle store at a roadside snack stop on the road to the Ha Giang Loop, a couple hundred kilometers north of Hanoi. He is very open to being photographed and even tries to offer up one of his young relatives for a photo, but she is not so inclined (and that is why you don’t see her pictured here).

Kids play with guns everywhere in the world and this small village in the north of Vietnam is no exception.

A local villager north of the Dong Van District, just 2 km’s south of the Chinese border. He greets me upon my exit from my hotel with a kind smile.

Life appears much as I imagine it would have 100 years ago or more here just 2km’s south of the Chinese border, north of the Dong Van district. Signs appear in Chinese and the pace is very slow.

China lies in the mountains just beyond this village in the far north of Vietnam.

The motor scooter is truly the family vehicle in much of SE Asia. Some families also travel on motorbike. Here, a family of four travels the high and narrow roads of the Ha Giang Loop headed for a family gathering of some kind, with what looks to be a bird of some kind in tow.

People in Asia do not suffer from the addiction to safety devices that many people in America have long since accepted as normal. Ha Giang Loop, northern Vietnam.

A beautiful stretch of road on the Ha Giang Loop.

Entire families of ehtnic minorities including the Kinh, H'Mông, Tày, and Lô Lô peoples walk along the road along the Ha Giang Loop for what appear to be long distances. They are not in a hurry. I stop to say hello and we have a shy exchange before I bring out simple sweets to share with the children. They cry out for fresh fruit but what can I do?

A mother and her children pass the time outside of their small, family run grocery shop in Meo Vac, which sells locally made moonshine, among other things. Far north of Vietnam on the Ha Giang Loop.

Motorbike repair shops exist roughly every few hundred meters or so in Vietnam, even in the most remote of regions. The teenagers that work there and other older men offer all knowing service that always takes care of whatever you need and usually costs about two or three dollars US.

A sister watches her younger sibling and offers me a smile while the family laundry dries.

Wifi is prevalent in even the farthest reaches of the north of the country, although I don’t think to ask for the password today. I’m too absorbed by how life looks here and how gracious this family is with their time and allowing me to photograph them.

The motor scooter IS the family vehicle in many parts of Asia. Wanting to start an Instagram titled ‘Asian Scooter Pics’ I settle instead for capturing several compelling shots of families out and about, this time in Hanoi on a lively night.

Asian Scooter Pics.com
Have you got your decorative pollution mask on?

Unfortunately, the masks that most Vietnamese use to protect themselves from pollution are simply made of cloth of some kind and don’t actually block any pollutants. Not any more than a common scarf, that is, which is better than nothing— at least for me.

Asian Scooter Pics (child daredevils edition)

A vegetable vendor at a night market in the northern Vietnam city of Hanoi offers a welcoming smile as rain begins to fall lightly.

Come up with your best caption for this photo. What is this couple thinking? Did they just have a fight? Look at how she’s sitting. Passengers often ride like this— sideways— on scooters in Vietnam. Old Quarter, Hanoi.

AsianScooterPics.com

Classic shot that you’ll see replicated countless times in a day anywhere in Vietnam. Playing by different rules, safety occurs differently here.