Living overseas certainly has it’s advantages. New horizons, a diverse international group of friends, the constant sense of discovery, trying to make sense of the seemingly absurd. And then there’s the visits from friends back home. I get to put on my tour guide hat and share a bit of this incredible place with some of my favourite humans. My friend Evan came out a couple of months ago and it was his first trip to not only Vietnam, but to Asia, so I had to show him some of the good stuff. With only two weeks, we had to make some choices and with weather definitely being a factor, we chose to keep it simple, see some friends of mine and go exploring up north. We had a few days in Saigon to baptise him in fire with the frenetic energy and chaos of where I call home and then we headed off on the road to Central Vietnam, Hanoi and up into the northern mountains for a motorbike adventure.
Normally, my travel photography is absent of the people I travel with and I kind of do this out of respect for people’s privacy. That said, I think I’m going to start showing some more of these types of images. The people you travel with and sharing incredible places with them are often the best part of traveling so i want to start saving those memories too and having it a part of this whole travel diary.
Central Vietnam welcomed us with impeccable weather up until the day we left and we thought we were lucky to leave while we were ahead only to be greeted with Hanoi’s trademarked wall of grey as we touched down in the northern capital. That being said, there’s something about Hanoi and its old charm that kind of goes hand in hand with the overcast. After a quick stop over, we headed up to Sapa to make it our base for a northern motorbike trip up to Muong Hum and the surrounding little villages. Some questionable roads guided us through the fog and drizzle to the little outpost of Muong Hum. The skies cleared just as we were rolling into town, and it was such a sight for sore eyes (and asses) after the hours of jarring travel to get there. While the rice paddies weren’t electric green like in the post cards, the rugged landscape of Northern Vietnam never fails to deliver. Smooth winding roads led us through villages and epic mountain passes back down to Lao Cai on the Vietnam-Chinese border on our way back to Sapa. As we had our morning coffee on the river over looking the border, we chatted about how clutch it was that the weather cleared for our ride. I think the gods heard us. No less than maybe 10 minutes later, the heavens opened up and that 30km motorbike trip back up the mountain into Sapa was a cold and wet one. A bit grim, honestly. Apparently, these same gods have a sense of humour because the rain stopped just as we were pulling back into Sapa. Cheeky ones they are. No blue skies for the weary, however,, but some wildly Blade Runner-esque fog made for some incredible scenes as the sun went down and the neon lights cast their glow across the city.
Because the weather up north was less than ideal, l opted to lean into the mood and shoot loads of black and white seeing as there was a distinct lack of colour in the environment anyways. Everything here was shot on the trusty little Fuji x100v with the two little adapter lenses (28 and 50mm equivalent). My favourite images are probably the ones at the end so make sure you scroll all the way down!
Hoi An
Hanoi
Sapa and Muong Hum
