Fin (or actually a brief interlude)

November 5, 2013 by brendan

It’s the 5th November (fireworks night here in the UK), and a year ago to the day we got on a plane and flew to Bangkok, then onto Laos and Vietnam.  There’s a certain satisfaction in finishing blogging about our trip on this date, but also quite a bit of sadness. After crashing the scooter, we hobbled around Duong Dong for a few days and then flew back to Saigon.  We had booked a room in the Continental on the […]

Categories: Personal, Travel • Tags: Bangkok, Blurb, Books, Fuji, Hanoi, Laos, Photography, Thailand, Tourism, Travel, USA, Vientiane, Vietnam

end of the road

November 3, 2013 by brendan

After a few days lounging around and trying to fit in with the beautiful people (BP’s or TC’s for William Boyd fans), we got bored and wanted to explore the island some more.  There are huge developments on Phu Quoc and the island feels like it will be something different in the next 5 years.  To help us get around we hired a scooter from one of the shops selling almost everything just up the road.  For about $15 we […]

Categories: Digital, Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Crash, Documentary, Domke, First Aid, Fuji, Health care, Leica, Phu Quoc, Scooters, Vietnam

beached

November 2, 2013 by brendan

We had wanted to visit Phu Quoc since the start of our trip.  It would be our last chance of some sea before heading home, and we wanted to have a “holiday inside a holiday” before coming home and the January winds.  It’s also an interesting place to visit as it is changing so quickly under the influence of tourism.  The new International airport had only just opened when we landed and it had the feel of somewhere where concrete […]

Categories: Digital, Film, Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Beach, Duong Dong, Film, Football, Fuji, Holiday, Leica, Phu Quoc, Tri X, Vietnam

Cricket

October 28, 2013 by brendan

Huy farms crickets for a living.  They’re pretty tasty when deep-fried and dipped in chilli sauce.  I can see a business opportunity here selling deep fried crickets as bar snacks: add some different flavours like chilli, cajun, pork or ready salted and package them up as healthy alternatives to crisps.  They’re good for you, high in protein, low in saturated fat and they are an environmentally friendly product to farm.  They don’t use much water (compared to potatoes), they have […]

Categories: Digital, Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: crickets, Dalat, food, Fuji, insects, Portraits, Vietnam

Easy riding with the (non- franchised) easy riders

October 22, 2013 by brendan

After a day or so taking in the sites around Dalat we thought it was time to get out of our comfort zone a little.  Dalat is nice, New Year was good fun, the lake and the views are impressive (certainly when seen from the double seat in leaking fiberglass swan, as you realise you’ve got a long way to pedal back to the slightly weird restaurant where asking for an omelette at 11:01 drew a mass- sucking of teeth […]

Categories: Digital, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Dalat, easy rider, Fuji, Motorbikes, Travel, Vietnam

maritime mojo

October 9, 2013 by brendan

Well the lease is signed for the next 12 months; we’ve got the keys and started to move in (we’ve moved about 20 times in as many years so it’s getting smoother, but there are always surprises).  This was taken looking down from the balcony at high tide, handheld as I didn’t bring a tripod down, that’ll have to come down later with the big camera.  Still, it’s drawing my eye already.  I can see a series starting.  I’ll see […]

Categories: Personal, Photography, Saltwater • Tags: Fuji, Personal, Photography, Projects, Saltwater, sea

saigon, saigon (and many, many more)

September 12, 2013 by brendan

Christmas in Ho Chi Minh was turning out to be a very good time, we spent the days walking around the city, visiting places, wishing people happy Christmas  and eating.  Lunchtime became a regular visit to the Banh Mi shop round the corner from our hotel near to the Ben Thanh market.  The Banh Mi were French bread rolls filled with crispy pork belly, pickled vegetables and chillies.  These went down a treat, washed down by freshly squeezed orange juice […]

Categories: Digital, Film, General, Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Apocalypse Now, Banh Mi, Bitexo Tower, Caravelle Hotel, Chill Bar, Christmas, Cocktails, Continental Hotel, Fuji, HCMC, Ho Chi Minh City, Leica, Night, Saigon, Saigon- Saigon, Toursim, Travel, Tri X, Vietnam

Mui Ne

August 22, 2013 by brendan

After the visual carnage of Nha Trang we needed some down time so headed south to Mui Ne.  Mui Ne is a tourist destination but offered some pre- Christmas beach relaxation, a tan and a chance to catch up with people back at home.  Transport was an early morning coach trip with a quick refreshment stop half way after 3 hours.  Mui Ne is very popular with Russians: pretty much every sign was in Russian with Vietnamese underneath, lots of […]

Categories: Digital, General, Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Beach, colour, Fuji, Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Tourism, Travel, Vietnam

Fear and loathing, Nha Trang style

August 11, 2013 by brendan

Marine Biologists: they’re like buses, you wait ages to meet one and then you meet a whole group of them. We ventured out into the Nha Trang bar scene after having our fill of madness in Vinapearl Land.  Nha Trang is party central by the look of things, bar after bar, drunk after drunk.  We ended up in a backpackers bar (not somewhere we would normally frequent, but fuelled on cheap booze and blurry eyed from scarred retinas from the […]

Categories: Photography, Tourism, Travel • Tags: Film, Fuji, Isle of Man, Leica, Marine Biology, Nha Trang, Port Erin, Portraits, Pushed Film, Russia, Strictly Come Dancing, Tourism, Tri X, Vietnam

way down below the ocean

August 10, 2013 by brendan

Vinpearl Land sits on an island in Nha Trang Bay.  You can’t miss it: there’s a cable car connecting it to the mainland that stretches across the horizon. Arriving by cable car you feel like you’re entering Jurassic Park (although without dinosaurs or Dickey Attenborough).  Apart from that it’s a pretty good description.  It’s a massive theme cum water park and when we visited it was full of sunburnt Russians (there is a direct flight from Russia to Nha Trang, […]

Categories: Tourism, Travel • Tags: Aquariums, Fuji, Jurassic Park, Madness, Nha Trang, Russia, Tourism, Vietnam, water parks