These Bai girls are dressed up in their traditional clothes for the weekly Dali market. Note the totally western dress of the Chinese to the right.

This Bai women is doing embroidery while waiting for customers at the Dali market.

These girls are of the Naxi ethnic minority from the city of Lijiang in the northwest of Yunnan Province. They were quite cheeky when I asked to take their picture.

These two women are also Naxi from Lijiang.

A couple of Hmong girls at the weekend market in Sapa, Vietnam. At this town near the Chinese border many ethnic groups come to trade each weekend. They come so sell to each other, Vietnamese traders, and the many tourists who come to see them. It was cold and rainy this day so these girls were trying to keep their hands warm.

This Hmong family welcomed me into their home about 3 hours walk from Sapa. They fed me lunch and when I asked if I could take some photos got really excited and said yes, but they wanted copies. This was a bit problematic given that they lived hours from the nearest road and had no address. I finally said that I would make copies and find another tourist to bring them to the weekend market where the young girl on the right goes on weekends to sell trinkets to the tourists. In Hanoi I had the film developed and found a British tourist who was going to Sapa and gave him the photos. I hope he found her, but I have never heard from him.

This is a photo of the whole family inside the house. These people have their photos taken all the time by tourists and never get to see the results. I hope they could enjoy the twenty or so photos I took of them.

These women are from the Red Zao ethnic group. They are also visiting the weekend market in Sapa. Unlike the Hmong, who are quite open to having their photos taken, the Zao are rather shy and many of my photos are of their backs.

Besides shopping for goods, the Red Zao also use the weekend market for finding mates. They live in small, widely scattered villages so these encounters are the only chance to meet potential suitors who are not related. These 3 girls are flirting with the guy on the right.

I have heard of there being Black Zao also so I would assume that the women on the right are from this branch of the group.

These women are also at the weekend market in Sapa and are from the Giay minority.

This women and two others were picked up by the boat I was riding on while headed up the Mekong in Northern Laos. I am not sure what minority group she belongs to.