Sapa


Sapa, laying two thousand meters high among the North Vietnamese mountains, is one of the most romantic regions of the country. In the inaccessible valleys a large number of little peoples and particular languages have survived from before the Chinese and Vietnamese conquests. Lowland Vietnamese live here in a small number only since in this valley with a pleasant climate and clean air the French in 1912 founded a military sanatorium and resort. Above the valley rises the 3,142 meters high Fan Si Pan, the last peak of the southern Himalayas. The region with several rare animals and plants – many of which endemic only here – was declared a national park in 2006.

Ilya Stepanov, one of the best Russian photo bloggers was here in March, and since then he from time to time publishes a new beautiful photo series on the town, the surrounding area, a Hmong peasant house where he was invited in, a little buffalo herdsman. Here we present his enchanting images as a collection, and if there will be a new series, we will also add it.










5 comentarios:

Rupert Neil Bumfrey dijo...

Absolutely superb set.

Your blog was discovered via G+, so I only post links through there.

Studiolum dijo...

Thanks a lot, also in the name of the photographer. As I extensively read the Russian net which for linguistic barriers is inaccessible for most readers outside the former Soviet Union, I regard it as my duty to share with them the gems I find there.

I’m also curious of the possibilities of G+, but my attempts to discover them have been hitherto refused in lack of an invitation. As since yesterday this is not necessary any more, I will try my hand at it – perhaps I will also discover other interesting sites through it.

Faruk Ahmet dijo...

Beautiful! And incidentally, "sapa" means "remote, secluded, out-of-the-way, inaccessible" in Turkish :)

In my experience at least, G+, unfortunately, turned out to be a strangely underused, awkward imitation of Facebook, where dozens of people you do not know add you to their "circles", not because they are really interested in you and the things you share, but just for the sake of boosting their numbers. I'd recommend Friendfeed instead: a much more streamlined and direct experience of 'sharing' without all those excessive and useless technical shenanigans the other two offer. Great community, too.

Studiolum dijo...

Çok teşekkür ederim! The Turkish meaning of the name is very fitting indeed. Much more than its real, Chinese etymology 沙霸 shā bà, ’sandy place’, as there is hardly any sand there near and far. (Probably the Chinese is also only a “phonetic” transcription of a local Hmong or Yao term.)

Thanks for the recommendation. I know only a little bit of Friendfeed – actually, I discovered it through Turkish users, and the few I follow there are Turkish, too. I have already thought about experiencing with it, as it seems as a good combination of bookmarking and short publication, a combination of the positive sides of Facebook, Tumblr and Delicious.

Faruk Ahmet dijo...

Rica ederim. It's not surprising that you've discovered FF through Turkish friends, I guess: since its acquisition by Facebook it lost a great deal of US users but it is still extremely active in other regions, with Turkish and Italian ones, I think, being the biggest communities.

I'm not registered at the moment, but would love to find you active there when I get back. If you ever decide using it more actively, please let us know where we can find you. Cheers!