Without an H

Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Posts tagged ‘ho chi minh city’

Second Impressions of Saigon

I’ve been in Saigon for two months now, and it feels like time to take stock.  I was going to write about the differences between Saigon (as Ho Chi Minh City is still commonly called) and Hanoi, but it feels too early to do that just yet.  I need to feel more settled here before I can make a proper comparison.

I lived in Hanoi for two and a half years and felt very comfortable there, but I always thought that I took my best pictures when I left the city.  My favourite shots from that time were taken in Sapa, Bac Ha, Hoi An, Cambodia, even the outskirts of Hanoi, rather than the centre.  Perhaps there’s something about familiarity with a place which makes it harder for me to take good pictures there.

These pictures of Saigon were all taken in the last couple of months.  I can’t really call them first impressions, as I spent a fair amount of time here before coming here to live.  So these are second impressions – some of the scenes, people and details that have caught my eye.  How will my pictures of Saigon change as I become more familiar with the city?  Time will tell.

Round and round (POTW #8)

 

Does it count as a portrait if you can’t see her face?  I don’t know, and I don’t suppose it really matters.   I don’t normally like to loom over people when I take their picture, but I liked the pattern created by the hat and the tray, and the shapes made by her hand sweeping through the rice.

This was taken this weekend in Cholon, which is fast becoming my favourite area of the city to take pictures in.  The area is known as Saigon’s Chinatown and has markets, pagodas and streetlife aplenty.

 

Saigon alleyway (POTW #7)

This narrow alleyway in central Saigon is flanked on both sides by tall apartment buildings, creating a kind of urban canyon.  I took a few shots from crazy angles, with the walls slicing diagonally through the frame, but in the end I prefer this much more straightforward shot.

Four friends (POTW #6)

I spent much of last Sunday wandering the backstreets of District 1, between Tran Hung Dao and the river.  The backpacker area around Pham Ngu Lao was only a couple of blocks away, but could have been in a different city altogether.  The tall, clumsy Westerner with the camera got surprisingly little attention.

These two ladies were sitting together outside a kindergarten, checking each other’s hair for lice, a common sight in Vietnam, where people live much of their lives out of doors.  Everyday intimacies like this are a feature of life on the streets here.

Cao Dai Portraits (POTW #4)

This ‘Picture of the Week’ post actually features two pictures, but it’s my blog, and I make the rules, so I’ll do what I want.

These pictures were taken in the Cao Dai temple on Tran Hung Dao, District 5, Saigon.  The Cao Dai Holy See in Tay Ninh, a couple of hours drive from the city, is a popular tourist destination, but this temple, despite being situated on a busy main road in central Saigon, seems to be less well known; I certainly wasn’t aware of it until I went past on a bus on the way to Cholon.  It’s built on a smaller scale than the Tay Ninh temple, sandwiched between apartment blocks and shops, and with far fewer worshippers (and far fewer photographers) attending the services, but the atmosphere is very calm and welcoming.

The smiley gentleman above is Ong Tam Thoi, the temple’s senior priest and owner of a fine pair of eyebrows, pictured before and after officiating at a twelve noon service.