This photo depicts our guide, Thao showing staff at the Cao Son Ecolodge a digital photo she took of them when the cook's wife dressed in the traditional Red Dao dress of the village. Judy bought this dress for two million dong ($125). It took two years for the craftsman to embroider, and she walked four hours to our village on the chance we might buy it.
On this trip we started in Hanoi, but concentrated on the Northern Hill Tribes, going to several markets and ending up twenty miles from the Chinese border with special permission to be there. We were the only Westerners in an area populated primarily by Flower H'mong, but also twenty other ethnic minority groups, identifiable by their unique dress.
For a more detailed account of our trip go to: http://vietnamtrip2008.blogspot.com/
