south east asia | Without an H

Night market morning

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Long Bien night market is where Hanoi’s market traders come to buy their fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Every night, trucks come in from the countryside, piled high with fresh produce. It’s a frenetic, chaotic place, full of energy and life, despite the hour (very early or very late, depending on your point of view). Purposeful merchants push carts and carry baskets laden with food; motorbikes and trucks plough through the narrow, muddy channels between makeshift stalls. In the midst of the frenzy, other traders take time out to play cards or nap in hammocks. Above it all, Long Bien bridge, built at the start of the last century and showing its age, but now one of the symbols of the city.

When I arrived, at around five this morning, the only light was from the bare bulbs hanging under coloured awnings or in the open back doors of the vendors’ lorries. By the time I left, this harsh artificial light had been replaced by hazy dawn sunshine.

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Dusk

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West Lake, Hanoi

Winter sun II

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In my last post, I wrote about the winter sun in Hanoi. That sun has promptly been replaced with grey sky and drizzle. Hanoi does this to you; just when you’re feeling comfortable and at ease with the place, it does something to remind you who’s boss. Just to prove to myself that it wasn’t all a dream, I’m posting some more pictures taken in the December and January sunshine.

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Winter sun

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We love to moan about the weather in Hanoi. The English national obsession with the climate is perfectly at home here in northern Vietnam. Most of all, we love to moan about the Hanoi winter. Grizzled expats spend the summer months regaling newcomers with tales of the horrors that await them: the cold, the drizzle, the damp, the fog, the greyness, the mould. Oh God, the mould. My Vietnamese students, meanwhile, bring out their hats, coats and scarves as soon as the temperature drops below 25. “But this is like summer in England,” I tell them. Amidst all this bellyaching, we tend to forget the dry, bright, crisp winter days of December and (fingers crossed) January.

I like the changing of the seasons. Changes in the weather mark the passage of time, punctuating the year. In 2012, I lived in Ho Chi Minh City, where it’s always hot, and I missed the passing of the seasons. In my memory, that year in the south feels like one long indistinct stretch of time, with little to distinguish one month from another. Here in Hanoi, for a few months of the year, I get to swap my shorts and t-shirts for jeans and jacket, escape from air-conditioning, and feel that time is moving on.

These winter days are perfect for taking street portraits in the weak sunshine or under the high white cloud. These pictures, taken over the last two or three weeks, are my tribute to the Hanoi winter.

(Disclaimer: the author reserves the right to whine and carp, at length, about the weather when the damp and the mould kick in.)

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Chef in the shadows

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I’m always on the look-out for people in the shadows of the alleys and doorways of the city. I really like the natural contrast that occurs as the natural light fades away in the background.

Duck and rice

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Three gentlemen

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These three old boys were hanging out at a little tea stall outside an almost abandoned pagoda near Truc Bach lake this afternoon.

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Paint the town yellow

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If a place can have a signature colour, then Hanoi’s would be this shade of yellow, which can be seen on walls throughout the city.

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Saturday

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Autumn is my favourite time of year in Hanoi. The temperature is mild, the humidity bearable and the light soft and even.

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New photobook: Downriver

Five countries, four months, one river.

In the summer of 2013, I spent four months following the Mekong river through south-east Asia. From the Xishuangbanna region in China’s Yunnan province, I travelled into northern Laos (making my apologies to Burma), crossed the river for a brief visit to Thailand, then continued down through the southern tail of Laos and into eastern Cambodia, before finishing my journey in the Mekong delta region in southern Vietnam. This book is a collection of my photographs and thoughts from the trip.

The 136 page book is available as an 8×10 in softcover book or as a PDF download. Click here to order or to see a limited preview.

Without an H

Photography from south-east Asia by Jon Sanwell

Posts tagged ‘south east asia’