Vietnam '08 - Mountainous surroundings of sapa town

Chrissiebeez_NL

Part 1 Hanoi: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=103813
Part 2 Sa Pa: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=103726
part 3 Saigon: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=105997
part 4 Ha long - Cuc phuong: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=124298
part 5: Whale island - Hoi An - Mui Ne: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=124820
part 6: Dalat - Cu Chi - Mekong delta: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=126400


Northern Vietnam: Sapa

Although some of you may have visited Vietnam in 'less than ideal' circumstances, my girlfriend and i had the chance to visit this beautiful country free of choice and marvel at its beauty. Hopefully i can take you along with us on our trip from the north of Vietnam (Sapa, Hanoi, Ha long Bay) to the south (whale island, mui ne, dalat, saigon, mekong) and let you see the wonderful sights and people of Vietnam.

Surrounding countryside


Farmer working the field


swimming with buffalo's; small minority village


Young boy walking his buffalo


H'mong tribe woman carying her child in a cloth


visiting the local market and buying some healthy foods

some other things sold on the market **WARNING GRAPHIC**


Negotiating on the price and having laughs on the local market

Unfortunatly this region has been hit by a typhoon a week after we left and the subsequent floodings have killed over 100 people according to vietnamese newspapers (probably more). Please take a second to think about these people that own so little but have so much.

more parts of vietnam comming as soon as i'm done 'shopping' them :rolleyes


C&C always appreciated

Tee Why

That buffalo shot is great.

Chrissiebeez_NL

thanks for looking and commenting

my girlfriend (who normally takes the opinion that a DSLR is too heavy to bother) is especially proud of that one

mountainhouse

Beautiful work! The greens! Wow! Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to more. Would love to hear more about the trip. Any particular photographic challenges?

Chrissiebeez_NL

mountainhouse wrote:

Beautiful work! The greens! Wow! Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to more. Would love to hear more about the trip. Any particular photographic challenges?

Hi mountainhouse (just read your somewhat of a fellow dutchman )! Thanks for looking and commenting!

Our trip took us from north to south vietnam in six and a half weeks so we had enough time to stray around and meet local people. Vietnam is a country of extremes in every way. You meet the nicest and the lousiest people, you see the most beautiful places ever, only to stumble upon the grosest, shabbiest place you have ever seen

as far as photographic challanges.. in Sapa chances are good that you will be surrounded by locals trying to persuade you to buy something off them which can be hard when your composing the shot.. and although we had great weather, i've heard others had poor and a waterproof surrounding foru your bag should be handy in case a downpour starts. other than that Vietnam is a really photogenetic country and (apart from trafic) pretty safe so you can just whip out your camera and snap away.

mountainhouse

Chrissiebeez_NL wrote:

Hi mountainhouse (just read your somewhat of a fellow dutchman )! Thanks for looking and commenting!

Thanks, but I'm not sure I qualify anymore.... my American accent is too bad. Happens when you leave Holland as a 4 year old.

..... again, looking forward to more photos!

vietnam_dgriner

you have Great trip Chris!
and colors in the pic are great!. wish i was there. im in southwest of vietnam and far away sapa.

Chrissiebeez_NL

thanks nhan!

Because Vietnam is so long there are so many different landscapes! I wish i could capture it as well as you have in your posts in the landscape section.

If you find the time and you should really visit the region, it's a world apart from the south of vietnam (beautiful in it's own way).

Awais Yaqub

Amazing ! very well

Chrissiebeez_NL

thanks awais!

comming from you, that means a lot

Brody

Beautiful Images !!
I was one of those people who were there in "less than ideal" circumstances (you can see some 35 year old images in my Smug album if you like) but the bad circumstances were due to our clueless politicians (deja vu?), not the Vietnamese people.

I was very fond of the culture, the landscape and the people, and made many friends while there. Your pictures really brought back some great memories of the better side of my visit. Whenever not on duty I spent all my time with the locals and buried myself in the culture. Even when flying, I was known as the 'candy man' because I carried bags of candy for the great kids at the villages in the 'friendly zones' and they swarmed us when we landed. Wonderful kids. I do want to get back there some day.

In my year there, I flew all over the country, but I spent most of my time from Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City south to the tip of the country. I'd love to see anything from the Mekong Delta like Can Tho, Ca Mao, etc etc - you know the list. Also, if you know any other Smuggers with good albums I'd love to know about them.

Great photos and capture of a piece of the culture. Thanks for the memories, John

Chrissiebeez_NL

Brody wrote:

I was one of those people who were there in "less than ideal" circumstances (you can see some 35 year old images in my Smug album if you like) but the bad circumstances were due to our clueless politicians (deja vu?), not the Vietnamese people.

I was very fond of the culture, the landscape and the people, and made many friends while there. Your pictures really brought back some great memories of the better side of my visit. Whenever not on duty I spent all my time with the locals and buried myself in the culture. Even when flying, I was known as the 'candy man' because I carried bags of candy for the great kids at the villages in the 'friendly zones' and they swarmed us when we landed. Wonderful kids. I do want to get back there some day.

In my year there, I flew all over the country, but I spent most of my time from Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City south to the tip of the country. I'd love to see anything from the Mekong Delta like Can Tho, Ca Mao, etc etc - you know the list. Also, if you know any other Smuggers with good albums I'd love to know about them.

Great photos and capture of a piece of the culture. Thanks for the memories, John

Hey john!

I'm glad and honoured that my photo's gave you back some good memories.

First of all, you should if you want to. It's a magnificent country! Looking at your photographs (superb quality by the way! ) I think you will definatly enjoy a visit to this country because a lot still looks the same and a lot of things are still being done in the same manner. out of the city it is fairly common to see things as: Washing in the river, wooden houses, woodfire stoves, boys riding their buffalo's, vietnamese carying ridiculously large things on bicycles/motorbikes, bustling markets, ploughing the rice fields, old people sitting on the streets, and most importantly kids laughing and waving at you.

The one thing that cheered me up inmensely every day were all the small children saying "hello" to you and waving and laughing. Everywhere you went you saw these young kids having fun and smiling at you, comming up to you to practise their english and asking your name, your age, whatever. I can certainly see why you looked them up in your free time

if it's any comfort, generally the vietnamese are doing fine now. they dont want to think about the war and look toward the future. i spoke to quite a few vietnamese and they hold no grudge toward america. Although the governmental views and propaganda can be quite thick at times, i did find myself in a former US political prison looking at a photo of john mccain being dragged from a lake with two vietnamese at one side of me and one american tourist at the other in an officially still communist country so it can't be that bad.. luckily times are changing.

As for the mekong delta, we also visited it but unfortunatly on a tour because of time restraints. Therefore we didnt have much oportunity to meet local people and indulge in their lifestyle, but rather had everything roll in front of us like a 2 day long movie. I'll post the photo's on this forum as soon as their out of the darkroom

Nhanfoto (also on dgrin) lives on phu quoc island and we were supposed to meet up but unfortunatly couldn't. :cry I'm sure he has a lot of photo's of the mekong delta.

Chrissiebeez_NL

Brody, i dug one up for you.

mekong delta kids waving at us

Brody

Thanks much for sending the Mekong Delta image. I also re-visited your album and see that you've been very busy overnight - my night, your day - There are a bunch of great new images in the album that weren't there yesterday. I have to say, I know that many years have passed since I was there, but some of the scenes are exactly as I remember it... The street scenes with the zipping motor bikes, the countryside, and the shots of the villagers are exactly the same.

Again, thank you, and excellent capture of the essence of the culture.

Take care, John

Chrissiebeez_NL wrote:

Brody, i dug one up for you.

mekong delta kids waving at us

NeilL

All very fine shots, C, in the photojournalistic style. You obviously got involved with the people and their country. Your photos have a personal feel to them. There are some beautiful, memorable images, such as the mother carrying the baby, and the boy with the buffalo.

A great experience for you, I think, personally and photographically.

Thanks.

Neil

dadwtwins

Great shots, I enjoy this style of journalistic shots. It gives everyone an insight into the culture of the people. Thank you for the share.