A town nestled in a valley.
This is the last in my series of posts of pictures taken on 18apr04 while in Vietnam. It's kind of a hodgepodge, but in truth, so were my experiences; and I couldn't’ve really predicted how some of these little finds, understated and unexpected, came to rank amongst the greatest delights of my memories of this hot, humid, (Michigan can sometimes do a decent imitation: it was 93 degrees today:) and rapidly changing country. I treasured these experiences especially because they are remnants of a way of life that is disappearing.
More Vietnamese cattle. Like everything else in Vietnam, they're smaller than the american ones, and always were this solid tan color. In fact as a rule, there was less variety in the domesticated animals than here—two-three breeds of dogs; cats were ordinary shorthairs—I think I might've seen one or two Siamese. Flowers were abundent, but more limited in variety. It gave a nice sort of ‘locality’ and unity, I thought.
I was absolutely fascinated by these little roadshine shrines, and took many, many pictures of them. Offerings, so I was told, typically include up to five elements: incense (which you see here); light (i.e. candles); flowers; food; and money (real or not). Roadside shrines typically included incense and food, maybe flowers.
I loved them for their seeming age (there a goodly number of buildings in Vietnam that look as if they <em>ought</em> to be 50 or 100 years old but in reality are less than 20), their organic quality, the moss growing on them...
I liked their scale...
...I liked the way they were just sort of gently tucked along the road, without fanfare. And of course they gave me an excuse to get my aching butt off the saddle and take a picture.
file originally created 7jun05
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
