The most beautiful time to photograph peach blossoms in Ha Giang is after the Lunar New Year, when the cold on the rocky plateau gradually dissipates, the new peach blossom buds begin to bloom. Peach blossoms in Ha Giang usually bloom later than peaches downstream. Because the weather in the high mountains of Ha Giang is often very cold, the peach trees often hold buds for a long time. Only when there is sunshine and the weather warms up, the peach blossoms bloom brilliantly.
On sunny afternoons, I often scoured deep into the villages along the Vietnamese-Chinese border, dumped my car at a certain corner, and walked into very small, winding trails, meandering behind the houses with earthen walls. There, the road is hidden in corn patches higher than a person's head, hidden in the pigs in the corners of the mountains.
I stopped by the stone fence and watched the peach trees bloom. So many flower seasons have come to this place, so many men have carried civets through here, so many afternoons of sunshine sparkle in the eyes of children going to school, and so many laughs have followed the footsteps wrapped in leggings, following the rhythm of swinging colorful balls from the skirts of women in the border area.
I took the picture and stood quietly again, trying to keep this sparkling moment in my memory. In the future, every time I reminisce about a time when "I have gone", I open the photos to be immersed in those moments that are still fresh and intact.
The highlands of Ha Giang in spring are often overcast and gray. When there is no sun, peach petals cannot come off. He used to have to wait for a ray of sunshine to appear for a whole week. In those days, he had to survey all the areas he wanted to photograph. For example, seeing a beautiful peach tree growing on the rocky shore but there is no sun, you open the compass to see how the sun is in the east-west direction? What is the composition against the sun? You also have to calculate what time the sun will be there, when the sun will go out? Look around to see if there are any mountains that are too high? If you shoot the sunrise from the east and there is a mountain that is too high to block the sun, just go to sleep, sometimes the sun will rise at 8 am. Or if you shoot to the west, sometimes 3 and a half in the afternoon the sun has disappeared from the mountain, 4 hours to shoot is a complete failure.
When the peach orchard hides, the layer is revealed through the hazy mist. That is really the soul and love of Ha Giang. The photo has very beautiful sunshine, very shimmering but the dark and cold days really bring the breath of the mountains and forests.
The first time he came to Lao Xa village (Dong Van, Ha Giang), Le Viet Khanh said, he felt like he was lost in a fairytale. At that time, there was only a small slippery dirt road, which he had to walk in for about 4 hours. And when he arrived, the scenery appeared in front of him, making him feel overwhelmed. The walled houses of the Mong people are roofed with dark brown yin and yang tiles, hidden in the red of the peach orchards, interspersed with plum trees blooming white.
Crawling deeply, I found that what I knew about Ha Giang was still too little. Sometimes I get into a dirt road without knowing where it leads. Just like that, they ran into the village, searched every corner, followed the small trails that sloped back to the top of the mountain. Inside the small roads, turning sideways, turning backwards, there are still many corners that I only know now.
Ha Giang is a beautiful rocky plateau land of Vietnam. The 4 seasons all have different special beauties.
This spring, come to Ha Giang!
According to VOV
Photo: Le Viet Khanh