A Chance meeting

I met Thanh May as i was heading back to the studio this morning. She was trying to make a sale and I was trying to brush her off but in the process I discovered a very interesting and beautiful woman with a good command of English even though she cannot read or write.

We soon started ot talk about her head dress and she was keen to point out the differences between the many Red Dzao groups scattered along the Sapa Valley. She comes from Thanh Kim, one of the farthest villages form Sapa in this district.

I invited her in to the cafe where she agreed to be drawn. In my last few weeks in Sapa, I have vowed to overcome my fearof failure with poirtraits by concentrating on them almst exclusively.

This took about 20 minutes and cost me 40,000 vnd ( $1.80 US).