Vietnam 2014

jonneymendoza

jonneymendoza

jonneymendoza

Caporegime
Joined
7 Apr 2008
Posts
25,083
Location
Lorville - Hurston
Hi all.

A couple of weeks ago i spent nearly a month in vietnam traveling solo for the first time and really enjoyed.

I took with me my canon 5d3, 16-35L f2.8, 70-200L f2.8, Gizto 2 series tripod and some spare memory cards and batteries.


Untitled by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

All the above gear was stored inside my fstop loka 37L bag plus i bought a smaller bag for extra things:


Untitled by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

This along with 4 days worth of clothes was all i took with me as i wanted to travel as light as possible.

Before i reached vietnam i did a stop over and stayed in singapore for a whole afternoon/night as my flight got delayed and i missed the flight from singapore to hanoi:

So as a result i went up to the marina bay and took some pics :)


Singapore stoppover-293.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr


Singapore stoppover-30.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

full set here: Singapore Stop over - a set on Flickr

After finally arriving in Hanoi i went to my hotel. unloaded everything but my camera gear from my backpack and began exploring this wonderful place.

As i took this particular shot:

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Hanoi-78.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

This local Vietnamese student approached me:

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Hanoi-45.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

He and asked if he can hang out and talk to me to practise his English. i agreed and we sat at a bar overlooking the lake and had a few drinks whilst communicating in English.

He is a Liverpool supporter who Loves Steven Gerrard!

After we chatted, We then grabbed Dinner in a street food place 5mins from the lake. It was my first Street food i tasted in Vietnam and i fell right in love with it!
 
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I took a few other pics that afternoon/evening below:

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Hanoi-30.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-103-Edit.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-88.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

Later on that same night i went to a local store to see if Beer really cost as low as 50p and bought a couple and was just walking around hanoi with my camera in hand drinking beer and soaking up the atmosphere and the sheer joy and excitment of being here.

I came across a group of vietnamese guys sitting outside a massage place who invited me to drink some Tea with them. I hanged out with them and instantly got along with them and never felt threatened or scared.

One of the guys even became my personal Tour guide throughout my stay in Hanoi

On my first full day i did not waste a second, i got up, had breakfest early in the morning and met up with my personal tour guide and we explored the city with his motobike

Here are some shots from the temples i visited

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Hanoi-200.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-200.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-473.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
 
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By that same lake i took a shot on number 4, history says that there is a sword buried beneath the water that has not been found.

Apparently these very large turtle creatures use to live in this very same lake protecting the sword:

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Hanoi-206.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
Below are more temple shots:

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Hanoi-424.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-409-Edit.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-433.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-436.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-440.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-471.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
 
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After visiting a few temples my local tour guide and friend took me to a place where they make potteries and plates just outside of hanoi. The advanatages of having a one on one tour guide is that they tend to take you to places that are less touristy and this was one of them as i was clearly the only tourist in this small village:

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Hanoi-325.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-266.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

i even made one my own but unfortunatly i broke it when i moved from Hanoi to hoi an :(
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Hanoi-292.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

Some of teh tools used to craft it
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Hanoi-259.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr


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Hanoi-307.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-309.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

They put it through this large oven to help seal and dry it
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Hanoi-318-Edit.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
 
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As you can see, i did a lot in just over 24hours of staying in vietnam so you can imagine how much and how amazing this holiday was for me!

Expect this thread to contain easily over 100 pics and thats me culling and being as strict on my choosing too! i took close to 4000 shots! I hope you enjoy and i will update this thread with new pics and stories as i go along. I am still editing them!

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Hanoi-358.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-141-Edit.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-355.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-329.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr


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Hanoi-128.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-4.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr

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Hanoi-327.jpg by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
 
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Grab the bull by the horns.
A: I wouldn't have the guts to go alone
B:If I did have the balls. I would have said No to the student
C: I would have had a carp time because I couldn't embrace the culture

I must miss so many opportunities because I'm a typical up tight brit.
Looks like you had fantastic time
 
Some lovely photos :)

jonneymendoza said:
Hi all.

A couple of weeks ago i spent nearly a month in vietnam traveling solo for the first time and really enjoyed.

I took with me my canon 5d3, 16-35L f2.8, 70-200L f2.8, Gizto 2 series tripod and some spare memory cards and batteries.


Untitled by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Although....I see 3 lenses ? and why is No. 18 completely out of focus ?
 
mattyg said:
Grab the bull by the horns.
A: I wouldn't have the guts to go alone
B:If I did have the balls. I would have said No to the student
C: I would have had a carp time because I couldn't embrace the culture

I must miss so many opportunities because I'm a typical up tight brit.
Looks like you had fantastic time
Click to expand...

Snap! It's a shame but I'm not a very talkative person, which is why I end up with loads of landscapes. Would love to come back with people ones though...

Raymond Lin said:
Some lovely photos :)



Although....I see 3 lenses ? and why is No. 18 completely out of focus ?
Click to expand...

I thought the same.

Out of interest do you take the Loka on as hand luggage? I've been humming and arring over the bag for ages, just not sure it's too heavy and big for what I want...
 
mattyg said:
Grab the bull by the horns.
A: I wouldn't have the guts to go alone
B:If I did have the balls. I would have said No to the student
C: I would have had a carp time because I couldn't embrace the culture

I must miss so many opportunities because I'm a typical up tight brit.
Looks like you had fantastic time
Click to expand...

i understand. at face value i too am the least person in this world to go as i shy away in things like doing a standup or presentation infont of a croud, talking to girls i do not know etc but when it comes to traveling along, people who do the things i dont like doing, dont have the balls to have done what i did lol so am weird. petty things like chatting to girls i am shy but things liek traveling on your own i am not lol

Raymond Lin said:
Some lovely photos :)



Although....I see 3 lenses ? and why is No. 18 completely out of focus ?
Click to expand...
yes 3 lenses. 16-35 24-70 and 70-200. did i miss mentioning one?

Anyways teh reason why its out of focus is because my personal tour guide and friend took the shot.

O and before you go "OMG how could you let a stranger handle your camera" i trust him and if he tried to run, i would have easily catched him lol. Plus my gear is insured so **** it.

On my trip i wasnt overprotective with all that gear. sometimes i would leave my bag beside a bloke i just met an hour ago in a bar whilst taking a leak lol. Foolish i know but witha bit of common sense and confidentce, you should be fine with your gear out there.

Usually when you are overprotective with gear, thats when someone steals it :rolleyes:

Amp34 said:
Snap! It's a shame but I'm not a very talkative person, which is why I end up with loads of landscapes. Would love to come back with people ones though...



I thought the same.

Out of interest do you take the Loka on as hand luggage? I've been humming and arring over the bag for ages, just not sure it's too heavy and big for what I want...
Click to expand...
Yes i took it has hand luggage as it is the ABSOLUTE max size you can get away with but on the way home i put it in the luggage hold and bought a small daypack midwway through my trip as it was a tiny bit tedius lugging around that bag even when it was half empty in busy streets and places like bars/clubs.

i put it in the holding because when i was traveling domestic flights they make em put my tripod on the hold :( . i also had my hair gel confiscated because it was over 100ml when i was on my way to singapore/hanoi. I couldnt find a suitable identical hair gel so made do with some crappy ones. Still i wasnt there to pick up girls(although i still managed to a bit and made good friends with some) my purpose of this trip was ot just explore this wonderful country through my fashion for photography and just interacting and doing acitivities there.

There are times i would just put my camera down and enjoy what i was doing or seeing. It was just an amazing experience. So great i am going to plan my next solo trip soon.

I may do whole of SE asia ie cambodia, Lao, thailand and a bit of vietnam just to visit friends over there or i may do the whole of India.

How i planned this trip? i diddnt. i winged most of it. That is the best way to do it. more flexibile instead of pre booking everything. i wished i did not pre book my return flight as i wanted to stay longer...

What i would do next time is bring that same bag along with my fstop guru daypack. perfect combo as i would not recommend you bring just one medium/large backpack. You really should bring some sort of day bag with you for carrying just your camera.
 
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Wow !...some very very nice images , did you visit any of the military museums too whilst there ?....if so I'd love to see em.

Regards Simon
 
Cheers thanks. i will begin to cull and edit the next batch of pics from two places i went to that is around Hanoi :)

I am also constructing a full blog with more details into my story around vietnam. That will be on my own personal blog site not in here though.

Thank you all for taking your free time to visit my thread and see my pictures and of course read some of my back story.

Really appreciate it and i plan to do another solo trip later on this year :)

Thanks again
 
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