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snaps + other junk

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Medium Format Photography Workshop @ The Fox Darkroom in Melbourne

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DAY 10~13 - Mountains and Motorbikes

ACT 2

The cold and fog and rain caught up to us and there was no escaping it wherever we went today. It was miserable. Out came all the ponchos and shower caps and whatnot. I became the traffic controller version of Batman.

And Winnie a dancing teletubby.

Notice the loud wailing laugh. It's not mine.

We had to make frequent stops, including one lookout over the canyon. This was a popular spot for tourists to take a few snaps. The ones in private cars and buses waltzed out into the open with their comfy ripped jeans, hoodies and umbrellas, and I silently hated them while I was rustling about in my trash bag pants.

The thick fog meant that we could only see maybe 5-10 metres in front of us, it was super dangerous. At one point Quynh and Winnie disappeared into a dirt track that was uphill hoping to take a short cut and get around a slow moving truck. Our bike didn’t have the right tyres to handle the slippery mud, so the bike stalled, then started to roll backwards and finally unceremoniously fell to the side with both of us still on it. Luckily, I got away with only a scratched ankle and a couple of bruises.

We didn’t do any sightseeing today. Only thing we managed was a pic of Winnie in a field of flowers covered in fog. We stopped around a busy bend in the road for this, whatevs, we’re tourists. Along the road, plenty of fallen rocks and huge boulders everywhere, including one that was at least 2 metres high and wide. Intermittently we were held up while workmen cleared the road. Best not to go travelling in Ha Giang in the winter months, folks.

When we finally made it to the homestay in Nam Dam that night I had never been so glad to be indoors and get dry. A Dao couple owned the place, and we were the only guests, so it was a nice intimate dinner. Topics of conversation included Quynh teaching Kien how he could have avoided the motorbike fall and Kien explaining the Vietnamese vs. Thay generational and family hierarchy to us with tiny balls of tissue. I can’t really recount what I learnt because, surprisingly, all the balls of tissue looked the same. 

At 5am the next morning, I was woken up by Winnie, doubled over in pain. In sheer helplessness I went to get her some hot water from the kitchen and was creeping around looking for a stove kettle only to realise this is the 21st century and even people in rural Vietnam have an electric one. Then I sat and googled 'severe stomach cramps Vietnam' before asking myself why am I turning to tripadvisor for medical advice and decided to wake our guides up and they called an emergency taxi to a local hospital. Kien had to interpret for us as the doctor came to see Winnie, but it didn’t look like he was could do much for us. Not gonna lie, was pretty shit scared. Kien, with his signature Option 1 and Option 2s, suggested we could wait and see if Winnie feels better before retuning to the homestay or call a taxi and take her to the international hospital in Ha Giang (1.5 hours away on the mountain pass btw) I kept demanding Option 2, but Winnie and Kien were reluctant.

Eventually Winnie puked a lot of black water (demon!) and got better (it was black because of charcoal tablets), but not before the most bizarre and hilarious search for a non-squat toilet took place (”I think it needs to come out the other way”), involving running Winnie in a wheelchair across the road to a hair salon and Unbreak My Heart ringtone suddenly playing as she was in the dark bathroom and using Kien’s phone for a torchlight. Nice callback there, life. When we left the hospital in a taxi a couple of hours later, it’s as if the whole community came out to watch us get in the taxi. What a couple of diva drama queens.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep and eating comfort food.

Oh and later that afternoon, Quynh also got sick too - he had something with pig intestines for breakfast and it probably didn’t agree with him either. Oops. 

That night, we took a taxi home, but as luck would have it, we were stuck in traffic for about an hour because of an accident, and theres only one road in or out of town, the bottleneck was incredible.

Generously, the tour company let us stay in the dorm rooms at their office for free that night, and we had dinner with the staff and a couple who were travelling from Saigon. The warmth and hospitality that they showed us was amazing.

What a fucking epic.

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DAY 10~13 - Mountains and Motorbikes

Our trip around the Dong Van - Hà Giang loop can be divided into two Acts:

Act 1 - Beautiful serene landscapes

Act 2 - A very scary nightmare (that is also very funny now in retrospect)

Our guides Kien and Quynh picked us up at the hostel and after a brief stop at the office, they padded us with shin and elbow guards, strapped our carry-on suitcase to the back of a bike and off we went.

ACT 1

The first day of the tour included a very tranquil and lovely walk through a Thay village. We strolled past the locals as they worked and Quynh, who does not speak much English, brought another friend along that would accompany us on this four day journey, Google Translate. 

We stopped a few times to take in the view and take snaps. There were buffalo. And a goat that freaked out when we got close and tried to run away but instead ran at us.

In the afternoon, during magic hour, we took an off-road track up a mountain side to look at an absolutely stunning view. It was a difficult road to get up! Could quite easily fall to your death, really. But worth it in the end, because we didn’t die.

That night we stayed at a homestay in Du Gia, a large elevated wooden hut. We were fed handsomely and given lots of corn spirit/rice wine that they call ‘happy water’. The Vietnamese name everything Happy. Happy water, happy room (toilet), happy road (read on). That night they also specifically installed a TV to watch the Vietnam vs. Philippines football match.

The next morning we woke up to eggs and pancakes and a very quiet and serene morning view. There was a lot of riding today, we stopped a random cafe, and had some drip coffee and played music from a DIY boom box (below), including Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart, which eventually became the theme song to the entire trip, along with Despacito.

By early afternoon we had made it to the Ma Pi Leng area just outside of Meo Vac. We stopped at the end of an unmarked walking trail, (which turned out to be the butt end of the Ma Pi Leng Sky Path). Kien pointed to the mountain top very very far away and said that’s where we’re walking, then he said, Option 1 (he liked giving us two options all the time) we hike. Option 2, we can skip it and go rest at the homestay early, “you’re so skinny, we don’t have to go” Which made us all the more determined to do it. The path looked across the valley and down towards the winding road, and all the while I was cursing and complaining. It was steep. But only because we were doing the trail BACKWARDS (Kien said he didn’t want to ruin the surprise of the beautiful view by starting at the other end...hm, I don’t think I would have minded).

The road carved into the side of the mountain was the happy road - the Ma Pi Leng pass. On the way down, Winnie finally got the chance to take instagrammable creepy pictures of ladies working in the flower fields. 

Kien showed us a red canna plant that you could suck sweet nectar from its flower.

We also got chased by an aggressive dog. By the time we made it back to the end of the trail near Meo Vac Homestay, it was dark. That night we stayed at another homestay of this lady who used to run a business trading with the Chinese (Meo Vac reaches the Chinese border) and could speak Mandarin. She had two cute kids running around. We also met two other Aussie girls from Sydney who had booked a tour with the same company and meeting them and their guides was like looking into a weird parallel universe. They were lovely though, and that night we were plied with happy water and there was a lot of karaoke and dancing, the poor children were eventually dragged into the furore and made to dance with us like puppets.

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Hoi An, Vietnam

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Sunworld @ Ba Na Hills, Vietnam

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Dragon Bridge, Da Nang

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The Mekong, Vietnam

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Cholon (District 5), Saigon

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Saigon by night

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DAY 9 - 🚕🛫🛬🚕🚌

We flew into Hanoi in the early morning today and then took a taxi straight to My Dinh bus station. Hanoi was a bit of a shock, as soon as we got out of the Grab, we were harassed by a hoard of men all the way up to the station entrance, probably asking if we need a taxi but wasn't quite sure because it was all in Viet. It was the first time I also really heard the Northern accent as well - it almost sounds like a southern dialect of Chinese, very short and choppy.

We got on a sleeper bus to Ha Giang, where we'll spend the next few days on a motorbike tour through the region. Vietnam's sleeper buses are interesting. They're padded flooring with double storey 'bunks' lined in three rows down the bus, the seats are adjustable but their default position is lying down so you can get some rest during the long journeys. Plastic bags are handed out to everyone so they can take off their shoes.

Because we didn't understand the language and didn't really know what the etiquette was or the process of these journeys so had to just watch and copy what everyone was doing. Half way through the six hour journey the driver stopped and everyone piled out, turns out it was a toilet / meal break. As we got closer to Ha Giang, there were a lot of random stops along the way, sometimes it was for shop owners who were getting their goods delivered by the bus, other times it was locals loading stuff on to the bus. Other times they were actually stops along the route for people to disembark at smaller villages. The driver would yell out the approaching stop, and then voices on the bus would yell back. Fascinating economy.

The driving was fast and furious and with excessive horn action, so much so it was kind of hard to sleep.

When we finally made it, a group of drivers were waiting for us at the bus door, 'Taxi? Taxi? Taxi?' Intense. Luckily for us, the hostel was a short walk away.

The hostel offered a “family dinner” where everyone in the house gathers for a meal - kind of a lovely sentiment - and then promptly went to bed.

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DAY 8 - 🌧️

I made the grave mistake the day before of commenting aloud about how lucky we were that we've missed most of the rain hammering Saigon, Da Nang and now Hoi An. So the weather gods decided to shake things up on us.

There wasn't a lot of sightseeing we could do, so Winnie and I spent most of the day ducking in and out of shop and cafes. We went back to the tailors a few times for fittings.

When it rains in Vietnam, everyone on motorbikes instantly turn into Batman. Their gigantic colourful ponchos flap wildly in the wind. It's a lot of fun to watch.

Plastic fantastic.

We did stumble upon the gallery/museum of local photography Rehahn. A French guy who has been travelling all over Vietnam on his motorbike trying to document and photograph representatives of all 54 ethnic minority groups dressed in their traditional dress, in Vietnam. So far, he has met 40 something of the groups. Beside each portrait, there is a set of traditional dress on a mannequin, in all its intridicate embroider glory.

The photographs are stunning, but the stories accompanying the display talk a lot about how some languages and traditional dresses are disappearing. Some languages are only spoken by the elders, who do not read or write, making the language almost impossible to document. Some dresses aren't made anymore, as the younger generations see it as old-fashioned or the skills were never passed on. So Rehahn has started this project in order to preserve the cultures and raise money to give back to the people.

That night we also walked into Le Loi Workshop a gallery/silk embroidery workshop with completely embroided paintings. We spent a few minutes admiring them in awe. The paintings were of rural life in Vietnam and also included a lot of agriculture scenery. They rendered the shades of lighting so well, especially because the thread adds that extra bit of gloss to the image. It was mesmerising!

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DAY 7 - Hoi An

Hoi An is an old quaint town by the water with lots of signature yellow buildings. It is also the custom tailored clothing capital of the country (maybe even the world!)

As our taxi took us through the town towards our Airbnb, we must have passed dozens of stores. I tried to resist the temptation but failed miserably. I mean, it was hot and humid and we were fast running out of light breathable clothes to wear...so...

The airbnb was on an islet off the mainland, accessible only by one connecting bridge (or water). It looked out over some beautiful scenery...

And the bathroom is hella beautiful but very impractical... water goes errywhere.

We had breakfast at White Rose, a place famous for it's dumplings and...pizza. Not in the traditional sense. It was more Viet dumplings and sweet and sour Asian salsa on crispy fried wonton type of pizza. Odd for viet cuisine, but very good!

We wandered around town for a bit, saw the famous Japanese Bridge, unfortunately there was a bridge troll that wanted us to buy a ticket to walk on the bridge. So we turned back. Meh bridge anyway.

Everything here is ticketed, it's a very tourist town unfortunately. We even tried visiting the Tran Family ancestral home, but was kicked out - I did ask to take a photo though...

For lunch I had my first Banh Mi in Vietnam...its was so mmmmmmmm. The bread was fragrant and crispy and yumyumyum. The place also had a pet lizard.

During the evening they close off a section by the river for a night market and pedestrians. A plethora of boats with lanterns float along the water making it a very pretty sight. Many of the restaurants face out towards the river with a balcony, so that guests can enjoy a lovely view. I don't have pictures of this because the phone camera is not so great at night time photos. You'll just have to imagine it and see for yourself.

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DAY 6 - Bananananananana Ba Na Hills

There's a Sunworld theme park at Ba Na Hills, just an hour outside of Da Nang. It's the place where the viral sensation Golden Bridge, aka Hand bridge is. As tourists, we felt it's only right that we act like tourists and go see it.

The theme park opens at 7am, so we were there by 7.30. Some of the staff were still arriving for work...lol. The plus side was that the bridge was almost deserted. But downside...it was shrouded in fog. So much fog, we could barely see both hands.

Creepy.

Eventually the sun did come out though.

But no matter from whichever angle we took pictures, the photos look surreal - almost CGI like.

Sunworld is an odd place. It's a theme park that contains a fake French Village, but also a place with a dozen buddhist pagodas and temples. The different areas are connected with a network of cable cars (longest in the world apparently).

Currently it's still under construction and yet to be completely finished. Hence every now and then we see something like this around the corner...

RIP all the rides that did not make the cut.

Winnie and I spent the morning running around on all the rides (for mainly kids, but whatevs) for most of it we were the only ones taking the ride. We went on the Indiana Jones shooting game ride three times. No queues!

The highlight of the day was definitely this...thing...

WTF

Despite the weirdness and grotesqueness of the theme park, it was still a beautiful place. We didn't think we would have so much fun.

By 3pm, we were all theme parked out and done. Our driver met us at the entrance and we avoided the peak hour traffic back into town.

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DAY 5 - Da Nang

Got up at 3.30 for a 6am flight. It seemed like a good idea at the time of booking.

When we arrived in Da Nang, our airbnb was only available in the afternoon, which meant 6 hours of zombie walk through the city.

Consulting Winnie's well researched list of local eateries, we had some bun beo/bun loc/bun nam for breakfast. It's glutinous stuff wrapped in banana leaf with a bit of meat in the centre.

We attempted a bit of shopping but ended up spending a couple of hours hanging at a Taiwanese cheese tea place using the free wifi. Look, we needed to take it easy alright.

And then we thought we might as well treat ourselves to a foot massage. I was reluctant at first but did not regret it when I was lying down with my eyes closed for an hour. In true Vietnam essence though, there were tradies jackhammering next door. You can't have everything.

When we finally checked in it was nap time. And when it came to dinner we ate at a pizza place.

The one thing we did achieve today was seeing the fire show at the Dragon Bridge. It was meh.

We went straight home afterwards.

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DAY 4 - Cholon

Saigon's District 5 is the city's Chinatown, also named Cholon. Part of the trip here is to see where our parents grew up and the area they lived in until the late 70s.

Before we get to that, I had also found a murder mystery puzzle / walking tour based in Cholon called Urban Tales. It's half escape room, half self-guided walking tour around the streets of Chinatown. So we decided to combine the two and spend the day 'going back to our roots'.

In the morning we arrived early to have breakfast at a Hu Tieu place. Most local eateries in Vietnam have a specialty and only serve a couple of dishes whether it's a specific type of noodle soup or sticky rice or whatever, but for Winnie and me who don't speak Viet, as soon as we sit down, we're brought food - no need to ask us what we want, the locals will decide what we want and how much of it we need. It's great.

Afterwards, we walked a few blocks and saw Winnie's parents' place on the corner of a main road. Although, a lot of the residential buildings in Chinatown are still there, it's hard to imagine what the place was like 40 years ago.

Our Urban Tales adventure started in an old apartment block, it was a rare glimpse of what people's homes look like, often we're too uncomfortable with walking into residential blocks just in case we're intruding on people. It was a bit like the older blocks in Hong Kong. Anyway, we were introduced to the fictional murder case by a lady named Van and given a map, then shown a crime scene to search for clues. Then, we headed out ourselves in search for the 'killer'. The clues led us to small local shops and temples around the area. The owners would recognise we were part of the game and offer us envelopes with more clues. Most of them greeted us in Canto first, save for a few actors who were waiting for us to give us more detailed instructions in English. The game is brilliantly designed by a French guy so you could see a bit of the local culture and people, although because the game is timed, it's easy to be so caught up in solving the murder that you don't pay attention to your surroundings.

We solved the case btw. Anyway, afterwards we went looking for my parents' old houses. They both lived within a couple of blocks from each other.

Dad's family owned a confectionery and random goods store downstairs, the building has been redone, but still there.

Mum's was a little harder to find. There was no specific address number but she mentioned that it was close to an old theatre. I couldn't find it at first, so we ducked into a nearby Cafe to get out of the heat and regroup. The cafe owners spoke Canto, so I asked them where the theatre was, turns out we couldn't find it because we were standing right underneath it.

The place is a relic now. Eventually we found the apartment block at the other end of the street, leading to the main highway. Half the building is still there, but the other half, where mum's apartment was, has been demolished to make way for a road.

In the arvo, by pure coincidence, and in another completely different district, we ran into one of the actors from Urban Tales. He was heading to the bank.

For dinner we took a home cooking class to make Mi Quang with a lady named Lua. She taught us how to mix nuoc nam, papaya salad and Che, which is a coconut milk, tapioca, sticky rice dessert which you can add all sort of other things to it - like corn or taro etc. To be honest we were so tired from walking around all day that it was hard to pay attention, but it was nice to sit down and chat with a local, and a guy named Nick from Vancouver. It was Nick's last night in Vietnam and overwhelmed by the amount of food he still hadn't tried, so Lua wrote him a note in Vietnamese to show to all the vendors so he could fit more food in, she even wrote the English translation on the other side, "I am very full, but I just want to try, can I please have a little bit, really" bahahaha