Mysterious Indochina: 100 years ago

The Indochina Peninsula, located in southeast Asia, is a favorite place for tourists all over the world. Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia — each of these countries is attractive in its own way. Here you can spend a wonderful "vegetable" vacation, swimming in the sea and enjoying exotic fruits.

However, if you want to get to know the real Indochina, you should go outside the hotel and drive at least to the nearest, or better — to the farthest village in the province. Take pictures of everything you see, and you will realize that the pictures you received can hardly be distinguished from those that were taken 100 or more years ago. Here is a woman rinsing laundry in Halong Bay (Vietnam), and here are high — altitude tea plantations. Go a little further and you will see the village market, the way of which has certainly not changed over the past 100 years. Here is a hut of opium smokers, a drug common in this part of the world, the houses of a wealthy and poor family stand side by side in the distance, and an old Buddhist temple is located near the river.

All this and not only is there in the pictures of 1914-1916, which came to us a century later thanks to an unknown traveler who miraculously wandered into these mysterious lands. The photos capture not only the life of ordinary village people and their everyday life, but even the family of the head of the province of Ha (Vietnam), as well as important local chiefs and the military.

Hong Gei, 1915

Tonkin. Live chess. one thousand nine hundred eighteen

Halong Bay, 1915

Hanoi. Opium smokers drink tea. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

Hanoi, 1915

Hanoi. Paul Doumer Bridge, 1915

Sampan in Halong Bay, 1916

Hanoi. Military Mandarin, Governor and Chief Prefect of the province

An opium smoker. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

Village market, 1915

Haiphong, 1915

Buddhist Temple on the way to Tam Dao, June 4, 1916

Hanoi. Hemp Street, 1915

Hong Gei Mines, 1918-1921

Hanoi. Paul Street Bertha

Hanoi. A group of local nobles, circa 1920

Halong Bay, 1915

Copper mine, 1915

Municipal officials gathered in front of the Town hall, 1915

Hanoi. Rice market, 1914-1915

Hanoi. Sampans and the Paul Dumer Bridge, 1915

Hanoi. Street Tinsmiths

Highlands on the border with China

Two opium smokers, 1915

A wealthy family in French Indochina. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

Chinese huts. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

In the photo on the left: members of the Saigon Theater troupe, 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. Hoang Chong Pu, Governor of Ha Dong Province in 1914

In the photo on the left: Tonkin. The head of the province of Ha Dong and his wife. The year is 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. The head of Ha Dong Province with his family. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

Members of the Saigon Theater troupe. one thousand nine hundred fifteen

In the photo on the left: Hanoi, 1914. In the photo on the right: the priestess of the three worlds, 1915

In the photo on the left: the priestess of the three worlds, 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. The local boss. one thousand nine hundred fifteen