2008 March | ::Photos Unscripted Blog::

Updated: Vietnam Photo Recap

March 27th, 2008 kim

Updated Again: Given the how many photos are in this post, it is taking me forever to write all of my comments. We now begin our second installment of Kim & Trevor Go to Vietnam… With limited commercial interruption…

-Trevor

Update: Kim has ~~asked~~ forced me to update the post so here we go…

Kim: I’ve waited 27 years to visit Vietnam and after returning home, I have no regrets! It was a spectacular country full of wonderful people, beautiful sights, and exotic food. We took over 3,000 pictures while on our 3-week tour of Vietnam so this handful of images doesn’t do justice of recounting all of the things we did. We were constantly on the move and never stayed in one place more than 2 nights. I’m recruiting Trev to post brief descriptions later…

Trevor: I had always wanted to go to Asia. I’ve been to Europe, Mexico, Australia, the Caribbean, and New Jersey. Asia is arguably one of the more “difficult” places to go to. It was also GREAT to understand Kim’s heritage. We’d love to take our kids there one day so they can understand why mommy cooks with with chopsticks and why we always have rice on hand.

On with Trevor’s narrative…

Reading really made the flight go back a lot quicker. I am reading “Ajax Security” and “Pillars of the Earth”. Both great books. One is about hacking web applications, the other about mid-evil cathedral building. For those of you who read Pillars, Tom the Builder, Jack and Phillip are my favorites. I wish William would die in a fire. You Pillar-heads know what I am talkin’ about.

One of the big surprises that we were not prepared for were the scooters. Our guide told us that there are over 7 million scooters in Vietnam. There are really no stop lights, no crosswalks and no rules. Actually there is one rule. The vehicle with the most lug nuts wins. Always.

This is my father in law (Kim’s dad). He doubles as an evil scientist. Mu ha ha. This is actually from a trip to an optometrist. Glasses are cheap in Vietnam. It only took 3 trips back to the place to get the glasses right.

This is my mother in law. For those of you who have never experienced “Chi Venne”, she is a shopping, bargaining, deal-making, negotiating, unstoppable rebel force. Needless to say she was an invaluable asset to our excursion. Not only would she negotiate the price of some coconut candy, but she would get us a great deferred payment plan with a low interest rate.

We went to many temples and pagodas. The following shot shows hanging incense. These spiral cones will burn for a month. The little tags you see have the names of the family who donated the money for the incense. It smelled great but I had to be careful not to walk into a lit stick or let ash fall on my head.

These are some kids that we ran into fishing on the Mekong Delta. Chi gave them each a few dong. They were nice.

While we were on Turtle Island in the Mekong, we took a pony-cart ride. Chi said that we had to pay the pony extra for carting Paul around.

This lady rowed/pushed our little boat down the river. I’ve spent the last several months at the gym and I still don’t have forearms like hers.

After the pony and boat ride we stopped at a hut for a pre-arranged lunch. The lady rolled fish/spring rolls for us at the table. Everything was fresh and really, really tasty.

This is the Victoria Can Tho. We checked in at night and left in the morning (below). We wished that we could have stayed for a full day to enjoy the pool, etc. We shot this as we walked past the pool to board the boat on the way to the floating market. I think we left one of Kim’s Canon battery chargers at this hotel. More on that later.

Interestingly enough the was a Canon event going on. Kim was all like “HEY WHAT’S UP PEEPS!!! WORD UP!” And were were all like “yeah, no one gets that you photo nerd” and then she was all like “Oh no”.

Side note: The largest Canon factory in the world is in Hanoi Vietnam. No free samples as it turns out. And our guide wasn’t down with Kim and I running onto the factory floor and grabbing all we could carry.

After we left the Victoria Can Tho we took a boat to the floating market. The locals start shopping/selling at 4am. The tourists get there around 8 or 9. This lady was selling these potato-looking things only they taste sweeter. Since I couldn’t peel it, I didn’t try it.

One thing I was having a hard time with was understanding where I was in the country. So I bought a map. This allowed me to complete my SUPER TOURIST look.

This is a guy selling Chi (Kim’s mom) a coconut. Another coconut. I think that we bought so many coconuts that the price in Vietnam spiked while we were there. Chi has a huge heart and was really nice to the street vendors. Of course, I ended up having to drink it.

This is a shot from our balcony looking towards the mainland. This is the Vinpearle resort on an island off the coast of Nah Trang. It was as nice at it looks. The only complaint we had was that the bartenders are still learning. They didn’t know how to make a rum and coke and Kim’s pina colada was undrinkable. I am sure though that over time they will get little things like that figured out.

This is the whole crew on a boat. I am not even really sure where this was as we were on so many boats during our trip. I think this was on the way to the Nha Trang aquarium.

This an ancient throne where… actually it was a touristy photo spot where you too can be a king, or queen.

Ah street food. Chi bought everything everywhere where ever we went. I think that Vietnamese street vendors must have sent each other text messages because they sure knew that my mother in law was in town. We ate all kinds of stuff from street vendors and never got sick. I think the thing that saved us from a “run to the jungle” was the fact that we didn’t eat: local water, ice, peeled fruit, lettuce and my mother in law made sure that all the food we bought was for “American taste”.

We drove from Danang Hoi An. Hoi An has a very Chinese and Japanese influence as you can tell from the roofs and buildings. Hoi An’s shopping area is a bit touristy but still really fun. Our guide Hoang is there on the left.

These are some hand-made lanterns that made for a colorful shot.

The number one American wedding photographers on this street in Hoi An are shown below.

Rice. As it turns out there is a lot of rice fields in Vietnam. I’ll never complain about working in our garden, having to mow the lawn, etc. again.

This is a shot of me (Trevor) settling into our room in Hoi An. One nice thing about our trip was that while we had an aggressive schedule, we had nice relaxing resort stays sprinkled in to keep us sane.

For those nerdy techies (like me) who were wondering… Finding an Internet connection in Vietnam was rather easy. If you could move within range of a wireless signal. Here, our wireless would only work if I was outside. Other places I had to put my laptop in the window of the hotel room to get it to work. Vietnam runs wireless like they run the rest of their servers… insecure. So it should always be easy to snag an IP for a few minutes. The best Internet was in Hue where the hotel had a 2mbit connection. DSL is the dominant residential connection (768/256k).

Beware, the government monitors all Internet usage. This is one area where the US is still lagging behind the communists. I kept my rants encrypted or waiting until I got back home where they could be monitored without a warrant by my government.

When most Americans fish, they do it to relax. The guy in the shot below is not fishing for relaxation.

Kim’s Mom walked from our resort to the one next door and started chatting up the security guard. The next day, Paul and Chi were on his scooter going to his house and some local non-tourist food stalls. She came back with a TON of food and beer. We moved some of our hotel room furniture out onto our patio and had a nice little picnic.

The next day we got up at 6am and went over to the beach for a nice walk during sunrise.

We found this guy raking the sand with a water buffalo. A Mercedes-Benz water buffalo evidently.

One of the more magical spots to take a picture. In front of an exhaust vent it seems.

One of my favorite Vietnamese foods is Banh Xeo (pronounced bang-soww). It is essentially a Vietnamese pancake. More info is here. Hue is known for making really good banh xeo and she did not disappoint. Here is our cook in action.

Side note: Pretty much anyone that works for any regulatory agency would have a stroke if they came to Vietnam. This would include FDA, OSHA, TSA, Health Inspectors, etc. I have the “sausage” mentality. I don’t want to know how its made, I just want to enjoy it.

Here we are grubbing out. Banh Xeo and Beer = awesomeness.

This is our hotel with some Germans tourists in front of it. Wait, sorry, actually this is the Citadel of Hue. This is where Kings lived and where Ho Chi Minh massed his troops during the “American War”. US General Westmorland bombed the troop concentrations here to much controversy. Everything was repaired but they did leave a single bombed bout building as a memorial to the conflict. The building showed signs of shrapnel and machine gun damage.

After the Citadel we made our way to a Buddhist temple where we found these kids studying. I don’t know about you but I do better when I don’t have tourists taking pictures of me when I am trying to study.

After translating this carving and then correcting the writers grammar, Kim snagged this shot of me.

That night we decided to go out. Rather than take a taxi cab, we figured we’d have a better chance at getting killed on the streets in Vietnam if we rode around exposed on a cyclo. Chi negotiated a price with the drivers before they saw us. I am sure they saw the error of their ways when they realized they would be pushing around some big Americans. We gave Paul’s driver a lil’ some-ting extra for his efforts.

Just to set the record straight, Kim hates beer. She actually grabbed my beer to be used as a prop in this picture. Sure it was “Unscripted” (har har). Luckily she didn’t spill any and returned it to me right away after the shoot.

I am not 100% what these signs say but I am pretty sure that Bun is just that, a bun or bread of some sort. Com is rice (you sorta tend to see that everywhere). The rest, I don’t know. But it was all delicious.

This is Kim acting like:

1. A fly.

2. A ninja who is not good at her job. At all.

3. A deranged chicken-wing-flapping dancing gnome

4. A cold tourist on the top deck of a boat in Halong Bay.

#4 it is!

This is a cave that was formed in one of the rock-islands. Any place where there is a lot of limestone, you’ll find caves. So when we found out that we were going to a cave, I instantly thought of Luray Caverns in VA. This cave was much, much bigger and cavernous (ding). This cave was discovered by the Vietnamese in 1993 (which surprised me). Some fishermen saw monkeys running in and out of one area and wondered what they were doing. That’s when they discovered the cave.

Of the great things about our trip was that our tour was private. Every place we went we had our own boat, our own van, etc. It made it really nice. Our boat is the one furthest out.

Fresh fresh seafood. We stopped by a floating fish store/farm.

One nice thing to have was a set of binoculars. I was checking out some hawks that were landing on one of the islands.

The best wedding photographers on this boat in Halong Bay.

This is a shot from yet another temple that we went to. I am going to take a stab and say that this is a Confucianism based temple given the lack of Buddha. I must admit that the day we went to this temple the jet lag and intense travel schedule was starting to catch up with me. I really really really wanted to take it all in but bottom line was that we were all exhausted. Sleep deprivation + jet lag + muggy weather + Ancient Indo China history = coma. Sorry Confucius.

Confucius say, have Vietnamese coffee before you come next time.

Here are some woven hats. I wear one when I mow the lawn so the neighbors think that Kim is puttin’ the whip to me, Vietnamese-style.

Below is the best shot we could get of the Hanoi Water Puppet show. On the left are singers and instrument players. On the right are the actual water puppets. I guess however I don’t need to explain that to you, our astute readers. If the water puppets used the microphones it would be a.) dangerous given the electric shock, b.) pointless since water puppets can’t talk, silly.

Water puppetry is an ancient art form. The entire show was in Vietnamese so I could only pick up loose plot lines. Most of it had to do with kings, fishing, farming and dragons. I am glad that I went to see it since it is a HUGE tourist draw. It was just the right amount of time.

Ah the train ride from Hanoi to Lo Cai with my in-laws. The shot below was taken with a 17-40mm lens. Kim would use this lens to capture a huge wedding hall or large space. Real estate agents use this to make a small space look large. That said, the room below was tiny.

Here’s a recipe for fun: Take 4 hot and sweaty tourists, remove shoes, climb to the upper bunk. Rock the mixture back and forth for 11 hours and what do you have??? Why the Tulico Lo Cai Fun Train!

Actually, it was a lot of fun. I have not slept in a bunk bed since I still had a crush on Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. This train runs from Hanoi to the Chinese border town of Lo Cai. I had a hard time sleeping because I wanted to look out the window the whole time. Around 5 hours into the ride I looked out and was able to make out tiny villages and peoples homes. We were seriously in the middle of no where (I think). Suffice to say that it was just spooky/amazing. Kim and I both felt like we had been transported back in time.

At 4:45am the conductor came around and banged on our doors to wake us up. We were about 10 minutes outside of Lo Cai.

Needless to say, we were a little groggy. The train tracks were are on are only 1 meter across (or something) where as most modern tracks are wider, thus offering a smoother, less rocky ride. Anyways, it wasn’t the best sleep ever but the experience of taking the train was a LOT of fun. One fun fact is that the train’s WC/restroom/bathroom is a squat. Those of you that have traveled outside of the US will know what I am talking about. The funny thing is that you could see right through the hole on to the tracks. So when you did your business it went right outside. I used the rest room about 7 times that night due to the sheer novelty of it all. It was not until after we made it to Lo Cai that I was told that the train featured a modern non-squat toilet if I had went to the other end of our car.

May I offer my sincere apologizes to Northern Vietnam.

Here is me with 4 tickets to get out of the train station. Note bags on the cart and under my eyes.

Once the sun came up we left Lo Cai and made our way towards Sa Pa. It was a 1.5 hour van ride through very twisty switchbacks. I knew that it was serious when even the van driver and guide buckled up. We probably shot over 100 frames on the drive. Here’s a small sample. This is a small farm with water buffalo. If you look closely to the left you can see people working. We really felt like we were far out in the mountains.

Our guide said that the usual tourist market had been rained out or was otherwise too muddy for us. Given the amount of mud in the market he took us to, I would have hated to see the other market. The market we went did was NOT for tourists, which was cool. The people there were genuinely curious about us and followed us around. It felt like they had not see westerners before. They were especially curious about my mother in law and her ability to speak English and Vietnamese. Or they were just watching in awe as she bargained.

The shot below is an ethnic minority woman who was selling natural sticky rice. Kim and her mom had some, I didn’t.

This was a shot that Kim took as we were driving down the mountain at 100mph. The people off to the side of the road were very curious to see westerners driving by.