Photo: The Girl in Blue

I came across this young girl in a rice field several miles outside the Vietnamese town of Chau Doc. I had rented a motorbike for the day to explore the backroads in this portion of the Mekong Delta, stopping frequently to take photographs. In this border region (Cambodia is only three miles from where this shot was taken), some Vietnamese are ethnic Khmer and thus look more Cambodian than Vietnamese. This girl's darker skin is one indication of her Khmer heritage. And her smile--well, that's an indication of her joy, so easily found in these parts.