It's a go!

Well, it's now official: Death Valley it is.... Can't wait to go there!! ;-) It's a little last minute to make plans but a little backcountry camping never anyone.

While researching our destination, I did a lot of research on what has been taken there before and was amaze by the variety of scenery I saw. But more importantly, I stumble across a few darn good photographers, most of who’s work can be seen on Flickr.

What a fun website this is! I just join recently and can't seem to get enough of it. It is fun and somewhat educational to have to opportunity to compare work with photographers from all around the world. And it raises the bar too, which is always a good thing. Just go to the website and do a search on 'death valley'... Sure works my anticipation!!

Well, that's it for now, see you soon!
H.

Going to Vegas baby!

Good evening everyone!

It’s official, am leaving for Vegas in about a week! YAY! While the many attraction in the city are more then appealing – if you embrace the ‘fakeness’ of it, which I totally intend to do - am also excited about my first encounter with the South West USA area.

Although I can’t wait to see the bright shiny lights, the natural wonders of the area are also calling my name. But since am short on time, I’ll only be able to visit one of the many natural parks on the area.

While Grand Canyon seems an obvious choice, my buddy and I are extremely torn between Zion Park and Death Valley. Both offer photographic dreamscape opportunity but there is something about Death Valley… The idea of getting back in touch with the desert – I previously and an intimate encounter last October of which I’ll tell you all about it soon – seems like an amazing opportunity. Am curious : what would you choose?

But with any opportunity come some challenges. Some of the best landscape photographers have shot both these locations so the stakes are high… I think it will be interesting to compare how I saw the Great West to what other have seen. Like this amazing shot of Red Rock Canyon taken by my buddy. I know am looking forward to it! H.

Food for taught - part two

Good evening all! As promised, here are a few more market shots from Vietnam. Have a good beginning of week everyone! :-) H.

Food for taught - part one

Hello everyone,

My previous post was suppose to be my last one about Vietnam but then I realised that I barely talked about one of my favourite thing to do while traveling: visiting the local markets.

And the food markets in Asia are definitely worth a visit. Full of life and colours and strange food, they are a shutterbug AND an epicurean dream. I guess that would explain why I love them so much… ;-) So I couldn’t resist doing one – or two – extra entry about Vietnam.

But doing justice to the markets I visited in Vietnam only in with words in extremely difficult. The experience is too sensual, to intense. Between the roasted meat smell mixing up with a more muddy, fish like perfume, the sounds of locals chatting and going around there business, the fun and new colours and shape of food you’ve never seen before and the occasional escape of a chicken or eel cutting you off, you’ll always be busy.

So instead of loosing myself in words, here are a few pictures taken in the many Vietnamese markets I visited. They can never do justice to the real thing but I hope they’ll inspire you to swing by the local food market on your next trip.

Happy Easter everyone! H.

Lucky girl - in HCMC

It just seems like I have all the luck in the world... Now considering that I'll be going to Vegas soon, luck is a good thing to have with you!

Am actually the lucky winner of two tickets on Alaska Airlines. Now considering where they go, I'll have some tough decision to make: Hawaii or Anchorage? Will keep you posted on how it goes....

Back to my Vietnamese account, a final note on the Mekong Delta and our return to HCMC. While in the Delta, we also visited impressive pagodas. One of the most impressive one was located in My Tho, the usual base for Mekong Tour as the city is very close to Saigon.

Vinh Trang Pagoda is a quiet and beautiful sanctuary. While visiting the temple, we got lucky enough to meet one of the monk who treated us to a spontaneous and inspired talk on spirituality and the power of soul. It was priceless and a unique and a nice end to this part of our adventure.

After our Mekong tour, we drove back to HCMC and only stayed there two days before we had to head back home. It was the end of our trip and we were getting pretty tired so we stayed low. We only did two things while in HCMC: visit the presidential palace.

Now call the Hall of reunification, the presidential palace is located in ward one, the down-town district of HCMC, where you'll also find the colonial City Hall, Ben Than Market, art museum and the former U.S embassy.

The Hall of reunification allows traveler in intimate encounter with Vietnams icon 'Uncle Ho'. The visit takes us through the official and formal rooms but also deep under the building in Ho Chi Minh Bunker. Visitors are also treated with a propaganda documentary on the famous president's life.

A visit to the palace makes for a nice eye opener especially if your coming from the north. It's very interesting to hear what the people have to say here about the communist regime. Many Saigonese were forced out of the city to country re-education camp or were strip of their belongings for the good of the regime. A human reminder that in conflict, one person's victory is another one's lost....

Have a great one everyone! H.

Mekong blues

Hello everyone! Hope you are all had a very good St-Patrick and that you’ll now be able to get the rest you surely deserve…

Getting back to the trip. After our visit to the Cu chi tunnels, we headed to the Mekong Delta for a few day excursion. The area is quite unique and is a definit most if you are thinking of wondering south of HCMC.

The Mekong Delta is the usually referred to as Vietnam’s food reserve since about 50% of all the country rice reserve are harvested there. But in addition to rice, the delta plains are also appropriate for shrimp, fruit and sugar cane plantation.

The Delta river is actually taking source in Tibet’s high land and is running all the way across China before reaching Vietnam and crossing to Lao, Cambodia before it finally reaches the China sea.

One of the favorite departure point for your excursion in the Delta is Can Tho province since it is easily accessible from HCMC. From there, you’ll be able to easily visit many interesting surrounding villages. While in the area, we highly recommend that you take time to visit the floating markets. They are truly unique and offer countless photo opportunities…

Obviously, life in the Mekong delta revolves around water. The river is use as for transportation, but also as garbage disposal facilities and sanitary for many families living right on the banks or directly on the river. Needless to say that pollution is extremely high and that many health problems can be directly link to this problem. One can only hope the government will one day really invest to improve water quality of the delta.

Have a great Monday everyone! H.

Going under : The Cu Chi tunnels

About forty kilometres south of Hanoi lays one of Vietnam most popular tourist destination: The Cu Chi tunnels. No trip to the city would be complete without a day at Cu Chi.

The ingenious tunnels run for throughout the province for approximately 250 kilometres and some tunnels had up to 4 levels! At it’s peak, this network spread all the way to the Cambodian border. It took the Vietnamese a little over 25 years to complete all the tunnels whose construction started with the Indochine war.


It is however for their use during the Vietnam War in the sixties that the tunnels are better known. More then simple communication channels, the tunnels were developed and used as hideouts, hospital, military reserves and shelter where Vietnamese families would live.

A visit to the site allows you to walk around the site to sample the complexity of the network and ingenious conception. Some entries to the tunnels were kept to allow us to get an idea of their tyniness: most North Americans can’t even fit pass the hips!

About 2 km of tunnels were enlarged just enough to allow tourist an underground experience. Crawling in those for a few minutes is sufficient to give you an idea of the suffocating and oppressing feeling the Vietnamese had to deal with. The experience brings your visit to an all-new level of understanding but is not recommended if you suffer the smallest claustrophobia. I personally had more then enough after a few meters…

You can find interesting information and articles on the BBC website and on wikipedia.

***

That being said, St-Patrick’s day is just around the corner and the celebrations already started in beautiful Montreal. With beer dressing up in green and all the pubs feature traditional Irish music, there is no reason to stay in! Am still dealing with a little headache from yesterday’s outing but will definitely be celebrating again. Cheers everyone! H.

The not so crazy Crazy kim Bar of Nha Trang

While sampling the beach stores and multiple bars in Nha Trang, we came across a very special lady owner of a very special bar and restaurant.

The Crazy Kim bar is named after its owner, Kim Le. Kim first left Vietnam in the early 80’s looking for a better life. Her journey brought her all the way to Canada where she lived and studied at Concordia University in Montreal for twelve years. Having studied in education, she decided to come back to her roots for a temporary teaching position in Nha Trang.

It’s not long before Kim realise the booming city has a very dark secret of which Nha Trang’s street children are the most numerous victim : like many other popular asian beach destination, Nha Trang was dealing with it’s own child prostitution issues.

Appalled by the children abuse, she embarks on a sexual predator chase, helping authorities to catch a few offenders. Rumour has it that the name ‘Crazy Kim’ came around that time…

But investigation and procedures are long and the arrest minimal. So in 1992 she decided to open her café and use it as a base for her operations. Knowing that poverty and lack of education are roots to this problem, Mrs Le decided to use the backyard adjacent to her restaurant to give a basic education to the children of Nha Trang.

Six days a week and completely free of charge, Kim takes in children and young teenager and teaches them Vietnamese, English, and computer science for half a day. The kids are also given a free hot meal after each class. The operation is volunteer operated – tourists can donate time and thus participate to the kids education – and partly founded by the bar and merchandising profits. Her ‘Hands off kids’ t-shirt are indeed quiet popular!

From only a few in the beginning, Crazy Kim’s school now welcomes close to fifty kids each day. In addition of this basic education, the kids are also taken on a monthly half-day field trip in the region. As Kim Le says herself: ‘These kids families are so poor that they can’t afford a proper education, let alone some fun time outside this town. I have the means to help them takes to the profit coming in from the bar so it’s only natural that I offer them these chance of just having fun. They are, after all, a bit like my own children.’


How can anyone resist? H.
Crazy Kim Bar
19 Biet Thu st, Nha Trang, phone : 816 072

Talking pictures (2)

This is part two of a little interview I did with Nha Trang's photographer Long Thanh. Enjoye it and have a sunday evening! H.

***

H : In Canada, we’re constantly bombarded with images of all sort and this rises our tolerance to harsher images. To the point where nothing seems sacred or ‘tabou’ anymore. Are there any subjects or things that you wouldn’t allow yourself to shoot?

L.T In theory you can shoot everything. In reality, things are a bit different… That being said though, I never think about that when I go out to shoot. Am just open to what I see.

H. Which bring me to your favourites subjects. You have a marked preference for the countryside and the rural way of life. Do you define yourself as a witness of Vietnam traditional ways?

L.T It’s all very intuitive for me. I just basically shoot when I see something that I like. I don’t think my pictures are proof of anything or should be label as ‘expressions’ of specific ideas. Some like to shoot rock star of models, I like to shoot a woman walking in a field. This is more beautiful, more natural to me. Genuine. Vietnam’s reality is still very rural. And besides you, it’s in the simplest things that you truly understand the essence of a culture.

H. But there is a lot of sadness in you pictures. They very often talk about aging, expectation…

L.T. I simply adore talking about life. And life is complicated. You sometimes have to go through very difficult moment. And all of this to return to dust in the end! (Laugh) I like to shoot elderly people because they have seen so much and just experienced so many things. And you can see this in there bodies, the way they old themselves, the look in there eyes. For me, an elderly woman is a much more accurate incarnation of life then a baby. I know some people are touched by my pictures but sadden? I don’t really know but… if you think about it they wouldn’t buy my pictures and they were making them sad!

Talking pictures (1)

Hello everyone! So it looks like am finally going to travel to Las Vegas in about a month. The big question now is should we go to Death Valley or the Grand Canyon? Very difficult choice...

Anyhow... Here is the first part of an interview with photographer Long Thanh from Nha Trang, vietnam. The conversation lasted over an hour but I trimmed a lot to get to the essential.

***

Hereshe goes : You started your career very young, at age 13. What push you toward photography?

Long Thanh : I started to work in my uncle photo store to help out my family. We came from China and were very poor so I had to work for him. I've always like photography and was hoping to buy a camera but could not dream of finding the money. Luckily, my cousins would lend me their cameras so I could slowly learn how to play with them. I never imagine making a living with a camera; all I wanted was to take pictures.

H: You are extremely attached to b&w photography and still refuse to do anything else regardless of all the new development. What pushes you to resist to colour and digital photography?


LT: All photographers learn their skills with black and white photography. It is the essence of photography : light and shadow. B&W manual processing allows a direct, almost organic contact with photography. It's very physical to measure the acid, bath the pictures in them, be present throughout all the steps... It's a bit like being present throughout a pregnancy... This is a much more sensual way of working. Digital is handy for journalists. But the problem with digital photography is that most people how uses the technology don't take the time to really look and understand light... they just click and fix it after if necessary.


And of course it's very sentimental for me. Am very attached to this traditional way of working. Am not against colour but it would never be my first choice. Unfortunately now, paper is more and more expensive. So god only knows how long i'll be able to continue...

***

Next : Long Thanh favorite subject and themes. H.

Seeing the light in Nha Trang

While in Nha Trang, I had the opportunity to meet with Long Thanh, one of town most renown photographer. His work has won many prizes and is a perfect illustration of the genuin nature of photography.

In my next post you'll have the opportunity to read the interview I was lucky enough to do with Mr. Thanh. In the mean time, here's a little tease... Hope you like them! H.

Sea and Cham in Nha Trang

All right, back to Vietnam after another photographic intermission. I have to think about setting up a timetable for this blog update. Could be a neat thing to have.

Anyhow.

After the visit to the north counter we started to make our way south. Our first stop was in Nha Trang where I had to go to meet a photographer I wanted to interview for another project. An interview that will be posted most probably this week.

Nha Trang is the capital city of Khan Hoa Province. Located right in the middle of the country, the city is well know for its beautiful beach leading to the China sea. Of course we had a storm and the sea was too agitated for us to even try to make a dipp but I if you're there on a sunny day, the public beaches are great spot to loung around.

Nha Trang is an interesting mix between a pastel hotel/party bar beachfront city and your average middle class Vietnamese town. Party lover will enjoy the endless bars and restaurants and walk in the city. There are also a few nice temples in the area, one of the most popular being the Cham towers of Po Nagar.

In Vietnam, Cham architecture doesn’t have building of impressive scale like you are bound to find in Cambodia or Lao. Rather, Vietnamese Cham temples generally consist of a sanctuary towers surrounded with a few smaller building, like the one in Po Nagar. The lack of grandeur makes way for details and more intimate visit.

Another highly recommended stunt is to rent scooters and drive around the city. The fisher villages are a must if you like to get close to the people. You’ll have to get up early though to catch the man getting ready to set sail! The Bo Ho falls and the fairy spring will please nature lovers as they both offer nice short hikes. The 20 or so km ride up there is also pretty neat!

H.