The more I travel, the more I realise that worldviews are not necessarily formed by specific events or moments, but rather by the nuances and sense of wonder that a place leaves in you. When I think back on my motorcycle journey through Vietnam, there are memories I recall with vivid clarity. Like the way the late afternoon rays would transform terraced mountainsides into scenes from mythical fairytales or how the air, thick with the lush scent of buckwheat and conifers filled my wandering spirit with each inhale. I recollect an overwhelming sense that this was a land of kindness, and even though I rode with no route in mind, when community and the collective good are a way of life, there is no such thing as being lost or alone. You are in a culture where unannounced visits and chance encounters are met with open arms, wide grins, and shared cups of tea.
Meet the Women of Vietnam
As a woman and a photographer, I find myself particularly and intrinsically drawn to observing and learning about the lives of women of other cultures. The gentle, yet outgoing nature of Vietnamese women meant this would be an easy and beautiful journey. Wherever I rode, local women seemed as intrigued by me, a solo female traveller, as I was of them and would often gesture for me to join them, even inviting me into their homes. In the Ha Giang region, I met Dao, Hmong, and Tay hill tribe women who, without hesitation, invited me to try my hand at weaving their delicate flower wreaths and patiently shared with me how to craft their bamboo baskets. I met women in Mai Chau who encouraged me to have a go at their wooden looms, giggling as they guided my clumsy fingers in the ways of their ancient crafts. I rode alongside women as they led their water buffaloes to rivers to drink, and watched in awe as women vendors in Hoi An butchered their own chicken and fish, bartering for top prices in the bustling markets.
Love & Leadership
I witnessed women carrying towering loads of bamboo and firewood up mountainsides, while grandmothers sat in the shade storytelling, connecting the past to the present, smoking from a water pipe or sipping on rice wine. Girls in villages carried young siblings on their backs while their mothers harvested the fields, and enterprising women in the cities offered river boat tours and handcrafted intricate outfits. The women I met were kind, resourceful, strong, and wise. They were connected to tradition, the land, their families, their surroundings, and to a sense of place. This journey through Vietnam strengthened within me the already deep sense of wonder, appreciation, and awe that I feel for all women and our place in this world.
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Women of the Hmong hill tribe gather in a field of buckwheat flowers in the mountainous Ha Giang region of Vietnam.
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A farmer tends to her crops in the rural district of Meo Vac in the Ha Giang region.
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Woman carrying towering loads of grass in the Meo Vac district.
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A group enjoys a river boat in the bustling tourist section of Hoi An Old Town.
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A female vendor at the weekly market in Hoi An.
All photographs courtesy of Julie Anne Davies.
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