Each Sunday morning a market takes place in Muong Hum. We spent 3 hours there and I was fascinated by the tribal people and the transactions taking place. It’s off the tourist trail, so there are no vendors touting souvenirs at visitors and it was very interesting to stand back, observe, and photograph the authenticity of it all. I think […]
Mountains and hills cover around two thirds of Vietnam and our photography tour was to the mountains in the north. The scenery was stunning, the air was a little cooler, and we felt as if we were seeing the ‘real’ Vietnam, instead of the popular tourist spots that can feel rather commercialised. Our focus (pardon the pun) was to be […]
After we had visited the incense village, we drove to another village to see the ancient art of making fish traps. On the way there we stopped at a home where they made rush mats, and below we see them being stencilled and trimmed. I can’t resist an old wall with traditional or old items hanging up. Fish traps are […]
Before our photography tour started, we added on a day trip from Hanoi. The drive time to our first destination was 1.5 hours, and we made a brief stop on the way to photograph a large area full of lotus flowers. One photo that showed the scene just didn’t have any impact, so I chose to concentrate on individual flowers. […]
Hanoi is a crazy busy city! We stayed in Old Town where the streets are narrow, and full of people pulling carts full of various items for sale, restaurants, cafés, spas, hotels, bicycles, scooters, motor bikes, cars, tourist buses, tourists on foot, locals, vegetable sellers, heat, and humidity! It’s almost impossible to walk on the pavements (sidewalks for my American […]
I last visited Vietnam in February 2020, immediately before the World shut down. My best friend from my school days and I had recently turned 60, and we wanted to go on a bit of an adventure to mark the milestone. There were mutterings around the world of a certain virus turning into a pandemic but that wasn’t going to […]
A last minute decision when browsing the EasyJet ‘inspire me’ options was to go to Venice for 3 days. The journey involved a short flight from Bristol airport (which is only 15 minutes from my home,) a waterbus transfer after landing in Venice, and very necessary step by step directions from the AirBnB host, as without doubt, everyone gets lost […]
Jaipur was our final destination and the header image above is one of my favourites. Before actually getting to Jaipur however I wanted to visit a famous stepwell or ‘Baori’. Stepwells were a hugely important for people in years gone by, not only as a source of water but also as social places where women would catch up and chat. […]
Upon arriving at our beautiful hotel in Agra, we were greeted with a flower garland, which was a lovely way to start our stay there. A few hours later we went to the red fort, or Agra fort as it’s also known. The fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is actually a walled city. Below is the emperor’s […]
Between National Parks and other locations we had a few car journeys of 5 hours or so. I was rather dreading them but actually found them fascinating as there was so much to see along the way. The distances weren’t enormous but there are no motorways, hence the long travel time between places. Here’s a selection of photos taken on […]