Without an H

Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Posts from the ‘travel’ category

Yuanyang portraits

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Yuanyang is best known for its landscape; the rice terraces attract legions of (mostly Chinese) tourists and photographers.  It’s all very organized, with ticketed viewing stations for the best, or most popular, sunset and sunrise views.  Some of the villages in the area are similarly contrived, newly built, or newly re-built, ‘heritage sites’ where women in ethnic garb wait to demand money from passing snappers.  Like me, for instance.  I’m not claiming to be above all the artifice, but I am aware of it, and it has an effect on my experience and perceptions.  My landscape pictures aren’t any worse for being taken from a wooden platform, but I’d feel a little more smug about them if I’d taken them knee-deep in mud after a four-hour trek.

Some of my favourite portraits from Yuanyang were taken in the town of Luomadian.  It’s not an especially picturesque place, nor is it particularly off the beaten track, but it seems to have been overlooked by the People’s Heritage Preservation Committee, and there were plenty of friendly people happy to indulge the tall, clumsy foreigner with his big camera, foolish smile and hopeless Chinese.  While the landscape in Yuanyang is very similar to places I’ve visited in nearby northern Vietnam, the people I encountered in the town seemed to me to be very much Chinese, or at least Yunnanese, in style and character, and they lacked the resignation apparent in some of the people in the heritage villages.

I’m not on a quest for authenticity.  I’ve little time for people who say, “I’m not a tourist, I’m a traveller.”  But as a European in Asia, there are some things which make me feel uncomfortable, and I’m trying to acknowledge them here.  Whether the existence of a certain amount of contrivance makes my photographs any better or worse is open to question.  Some of the pictures in this post were taken in unassuming Luomadian, some were taken in a heritage village.  Can you tell the difference?  Does it matter?

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The curves of Yuanyang

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I’m not a natural landscape photographer.  I don’t have the patience, or the penchant for early mornings.  Or a tripod.  But Yuanyang, near the Vietnamese border in the far south of China, has some wonderful landscapes which it would be rude not to take pictures of.  I even got up at dawn to take the one above. 

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Even when I’m trying to take landscape pictures, I can’t resist including people.

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Tracks

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Last weekend, while visiting Hanoi for a few days, I took a short walk along the stretch of railway track that leads from Hanoi station, over Long Bien bridge and out to the north.  I followed the tracks across the busy city streets near the station, then through a quiet neighbourhood, and above a local market.  Space is tight; houses open directly onto the tracks.  Trains are fairly infrequent so, as in any other Hanoi neighbourhood, people go about their everyday business in the streets outside their homes.

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As the railway heads gently up and towards the bridge, there is little room for the market stalls underneath.  Here, dog meat is being sold as a train passes overhead.

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Wayne and Frank were out looking for trouble.

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Other forms of transport are available.

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I stopped for a cup of tea…

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… which this nice man insisted on paying for.

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Unfortunately, I was too late for lunch; the com binh dan was already closed.

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Surrounded

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Perhaps it’s just me, but when I see a street food seller from this angle, surrounded by baskets and bowls of food, I think of a 70s rock drummer, Neil Peart perhaps, surrounded by an elaborate collection of drums and cymbals.  Anyone else see it?  Oh, just me then.

Men at work

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I’ve heard it said that women do all the hard work in Vietnam.  There may be some truth in that; it certainly seems, sometimes, that men take a more – shall we say – relaxed approach.  Here we have a cigarette seller, a repairman and a tailor, all seen hard at work over the last week.

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Rest

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Vietnamese markets are hot, noisy, crowded, exhausting places.  No wonder these three had escaped to the shade of an alleyway for a sit-down and a chat.

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Back in the HCMC

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On Sunday, I made it back to Vietnam after four months back in the UK. I’m still adjusting to not being cold all the time. I’m used to life in Vietnam and I knew what to expect coming back, but I still felt a little odd and disconnected when I first got back. Things were familiar, yet strange.  Was this just jet-lag, or was it a case of reverse reverse culture shock?

Anyway, yesterday, after a couple of days of sleeping at peculiar times and wondering at the strange feeling of warmth in the air, I went for a wander with my camera. I was a little apprehensive, having hardly taken any pictures at all while back at home, but after a slow start, I found myself getting back into my stride.  I was a little slow to react at times, and more tentative than I would like, but I enjoyed myself and I came back with a few pictures that I like, one of which I’ve posted here.

I felt like I was racing against the rain all afternoon. There was that feeling that a downpour was imminent – all looming black clouds, swirling wind and fragile sunshine – but the rain, when it came, was late in the day and little more than a shower. The rainy season isn’t ready to arrive just yet.

Down by the water

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Back in May last year, I spent a week in Hue, in central Vietnam.  A lot of people tend to pass through Hue pretty quickly, or overlook it altogether in favour of Hoi An, which is a shame. Hue doesn’t seem to mind though; the city has a relaxed, pleasingly low-key feel. These pictures are from the countryside around the town and an early morning visit to a fishing village on the Perfume River.

After three and a half months in the UK, I will be heading back to Vietnam later this month, considerably later than planned.  This blog – like the rest of my life – has lost some momentum over that time (I blame the unrelentingly awful weather) but I’m looking forward to getting both back on track and to posting some new pictures here soon. Some sunshine will be nice too.

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