“Jungle Depths”, Somewhere in The Ho Chi Minh Road, Vietnam

South of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, the tarmac twists and turns towards an extremely sparsely populated section of the Ho Chi Minh Road. In high points one can see the strange shapes of deeply forested limestone mountains. Inside of them the air is damp, perfumed and crisp. 

“Shared Solitude”, Lang Co, Vietnam

Behind the sandy, tropical strip of Lang Co there’s a huge field of rice spreading towards a horizon filled with the Truong Son mountain range. I stopped for a few minutes contemplating my solitude, the solitude of the people inhabiting in such scenery, wondering how different that view was a couple of days before, when the rain hit us all hard. Me and them, in solitude.

“Red Flag // Yellow Star”, Kham Duc, Vietnam

While passing by many different villages in Vietnam I felt that most of them shared identical properties. The communism era might have left the country, adapting itself to contemporary standards. but its roots remain untouched. Vietnamese flags; central reservations with perfectly cut bushes and flowers; political messages; red and yellow colors.  Cờ đỏ sao vàng. No one is different and everybody is the same. Vietnamese villages, Kham Duc included, comply with such idea.

“Cà Phê Break”, Kham Duc, Vietnam

Driving for so many km’s in the  winding roads  of Vietnam, with its impossible to predict tropical weather, had me being very frugal with what I carried. Helmet, motorbike keys, gloves, a pocket with some cash, sun glasses, cigarrettes of a local brand, a lighter and a phone without access to data. Stopping for an iced coffee or a pho,  I would take them all out  pondering if I was forgetting  something. “Where’s the camera?”

“Cầu”, Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam

The Tran Ang Crossroads is the meeting point  between the Eastern and Western Ho Chi Minh Road that surround the magic Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. Just before that crossroad, where I  had to choose one dream at a time, there’s a small bridge signifying, in this precise moment, the past, present and future for me. I crossed many beautiful bridges in Vietnam, many bridges in other places, but none has the emotional weight of this one.