Homestay at Mai Chau Unlike their mother, Ba Vuong’s five daughters never need submit to the ordeal of teeth blackening. The White Thai matriarch seems sanguine about the past as she tallies the dollars flowing in from foreign guests who sleep over in her solidly-built longhouse amidst the rice paddies near Mai Chau in hill country southwest of Hanoi. If visitors take for granted Ba Vuong’s flush toilets and showers – mandated by the government – they do relish the nightly folk dance performance by the young women of the village troupe, richly costumed in black, white and royal blue. A night spent under a mosquito net in the longhouse offers a welcome contrast from the air-conditioned chill of urban lodgings, even if the cotton mattress does little to soften a floor of split bamboo.

Images scanned from original 35mm transparencies.