Mysterious Indochina: 100 years ago

The Indochina Peninsula, located in southeast Asia, is a favorite destination 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 see the village market, the way of which certainly has not changed over the past 100 years. Here is a hut of opium smokers, a drug common in this part of the world, side by side are the houses of a wealthy and poor family, and near the river is an ancient Buddhist temple.

All this and not only is in the pictures of 1914-1916, which reached us a century later thanks to an unknown traveler who miraculously wandered into these mysterious lands. The photographs depict not only the life of ordinary village people and their way of 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. onethousandninehundredeighteen

Halong Bay. 1915

Hanoi. Opium smokers drink tea. onethousandninehundredfifteen

Hanoi, 1915

Hanoi. Paul Dumer Bridge, 1915

Sampan in Halong Bay, 1916

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

An opium smoker. onethousandninehundredfifteen

Village market, 1915

Haiphong, 1915

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

Hanoi. Hemp Street, 1915

Hong Gei Mines, 1918-1921

Hanoi. Paul Bert Street

Hanoi. A group of local nobility, 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. onethousandninehundredfifteen

Chinese huts. onethousandninehundredfifteen

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 Ha Dong Province and his wife. 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. The head of Ha Dong province with his family. onethousandninehundredfifteen

Members of the Saigon Theater troupe. onethousandninehundredfifteen

In the photo on the left: Hanoi, 1914. In the photo on the right: 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. onethousandninehundredfifteen