our next stop takes us to vietnam, visiting ho chi minh city & hanoi. these shots are less city tourism and more from the car shots between factory tours.
I suppose I could have named this blog “Vietnam traffic”, because that is the subject of most of my shots. We spent only 24 hours in each city and most of the time in a car visiting factories. I did my best to capture some shots from the car window as well as a really short walk in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short, save me some keyboard time). I did manage to get out for a couple of runs in HCMC but was not able to bring my Leica along for obvious reasons, pity because I got some nice shots on my phone. I will cheat and add those at the end of the blog.
the photos
All taken with my Leica MP and 35mm voigtlander pancake lens on Kodak Ultramax film (I think!). The comments for the photos are under the photos this time which after nearly 10 years of doing this blog I never really thought about changing.
HCMC is much more modern than I would have imagined, with skyscrapers along the Saigon river. It is the most populous city in Vietnam (14 million!) and used to be called Saigon. It is also the financial centre of Vietnam.
Really cool bridge over the Saigon river, fun to run over too!
Views on the highway out of town, the city is very sprawling. We spent a few hours in the car each way so plenty of things to look out of the window at (although harder to photograph!).
I quite like how this shot came out although I missed a bit of the composition as the driver suddenly accelerated.
I quite like the inside the taxi type view.
Markets & mopeds is how I would describe this part of Vietnam.
I was initially drawn to the old signs and it was only after I developed the image that I saw the dog wandering along.
View of Landmark 81 in the background with of course loads of scooters everywhere. Landmark 81 is the tallest building in Vietnam standing at 461m, it is a very impressive skyline.
I cannot overstate how many mopeds there are in this city. Crossing the road is not for the faint of heart - you basically have to just walk and now stop and they will go around you. Vietnamese people put their arms up as they cross the road, presumably to be seen. When I did it on an early morning run a local man laughed and said I did not need to raise my hand because I am so tall I can be seen from a long distance! Made me laugh.
You could stand here for an hour and there would still be mopeds going by. Every few minutes there is a tiny break in the flow but not an actual empty street so you just have to go for it - I have never experienced anything like it.
I love this shot with Landmark 81 building in the background and a Vietnam Airlines plane waiting to take off.
tHE PHONE SHOTS
Some digital shots (sacrilege) taken from my runs below
overall observations
With such a short time in Vietnam and a lot of it spent in a car or flying between HCMC & Hanoi, I feel like I only really got to experience it properly during my early morning runs. I would love to go back and spend more time experiencing this fascinating country. The people are really lovely.
Join me tomorrow for another post on this mini series.
Seeya!
Neil
