A MAGIC MOMENT

A delightful (French-speaking) character I met and spoke with on a street in Hoi An. He asked lots of questions, and told me he moved into town after his village was destroyed during the war. What a great and unexpected experience to have met him, and to have understood most of what he said. Thankfully he spoke slowly !

What wonderful subjects

It is not often as a photographer that we are faced with such a great array of interesting subjects at every corner - Vietnam is almost a photographer's paradise with loads of great landscape opportunities [weather permitting] as well.

Here I am again. Far too much time on my hands. I guess if you have photos you might as well share them. Let's have some more Vicki and all.

I'm getting to like this site. I have a couple of shots taken in the mountains.Loved those hill people.
Love those city streets also. Lots of interesting subjects.

Hi Guys
Yes...it's my very first blog also. Marilyn and me are slow little bloggers.I like all your photos and comments. Wow...what a trip. I have just completed an article and sent it to Qantas Airways as they advised me to do before the trip.Keeping fingers crossed that they accept it.
I have included a couple of my photos. Catch up soon
Graeme

At last my first blog! Sorry it's taken a while to get into this.
This is a photo of baskets that I took with my video camera, I didn't thing they were too bad for a less than 2 megapixel video still. Not terribly exciting shots though. Can you upload video to a blog as well?(Marilyn)

McCAINS' CRINKLE-CUT CHIPS

After the long trek, those garlic chips at our homestay went down well. ......marvellous what can be achieved (including warming the cat) with a large wok and a few sticks of bamboo, making our kitchen look rather over-furnished.

The Photos say it all.

ELECTRICAL NIGHTMARE

I showed this to an electician and he just about collapsed on the spot. However, we didn't seem to come across any power failures along the way..........though I can't help thinking what might happen in a typhoon !

Fun out on the town for a young
family on a warm night in Ho Chi
Minh City.......check out the dad's
T-shirt !

.

OODLES AND OODLES OF NOODLES.......There were definitely no rednecks in this group......in fact, everyone's manners were absolutely impeccable......well, sort of !!!

I guess everyone managed to take this shot of preparing the rice fields for another crop while still harvesting the last.....like looking at a page from a primary school history book for those of 'a certain age' !

buyfromebuyfromebuyfromebuyfromebuyfrome

Turning Vietnamese.....

Obviously the H'mong ladies take great pride in their traditional dress - First there's the hairstyles, then the ear jewellery, followed by the indigo dress and last of all the footwear.....

Despite the facial expression, the hat and Judith's discerning supervision - Boyd [aka Happy Buddha] did not quite get the look right!

SERIOUS shoppers

There is always at least one in every group.

shoppers

Those amazing terraces

I love the patterns created by these rice terraces we walked through on the longer track to the homestay. Unfortunately although the rice was ready for harvesting, the fields were deserted due to the rainy weather.

..my finger went right through..

Happy Buddha needs one of these waterproof toilet roll holders....or perhaps not to share with someone who had a problem with the showerhead on the junk.

Ask Boyd about the details, some of the words can't be repeated here.

Lady of the House

What a lovely gentle face - love the ever present gold tooth

Would the building inspector pass this!

Don't you just love the workmanship that put this roof together..............

Painstaking work - would you do it?

In Sapa there was a field of roses being grown it was someones job to go through all the blooming buds and cover them with - it looked like newspaper and this was to protect the bloom until picked and sent to the markets. You'll notice the string at the bottom ever so neatly tide.

Nothing goes to waste

On our bike ride around Hoi An we came across this bridge , Mark courageously put his hand up (or was it that push that got him on it.....) and said he would cross the bridge so we could get a photo. When you look closer what seems to be holding parts of the bridge together are old car tyres - nothing goes to waste. By the way - well done Mark.

Not Bad For A Newcomer

Cao Dai Temple (taken without a flash...)

Blooming Lotus

Found this Lotus on our push bike trip in Hoi An.

How to post a Blog

It seems some peole are experiencing problems trying to post a Blog on this site, so here are a few basic tips; it will be good to see contributions flowing after you read these basic instructions- the site is getting lots of hits, so we know you are all out there somewhere.....
There are 2 parts to a blogsite; the page you see here and the "Dashboard" where you post your blog from.
To get to the Dashboard, click on the little Blogger icon you see in the top left hand corner of this page and wait for the Dashboard page to open. Then you need to sign in; on the top right hand side is a box asking for a sign in name and a password. This is the one you used when you accepted the invitation email and got your name on the site as a member. If you cannot remember what that was, you will nedd to create a new account [ do not click on "create a blog" - well not until you are ready to make one of your own]

Best to tick "remember me" if you are prone to forget these minor details.

When you have successfully logged on, you will see the blog Vietnam Encompassed in the middle of the screen. Click in the green thingy that says "New post" and lo and behold the text screen will open!

Add your text as usual and click on the little picture on the toolbar to add a photo and another window will open. Although it indicates that you can load up to 5 photos at a time, I find this does not work very well these days - well not with a dial up internet connection anyway.

So browse and find your photo [jpg format] on your hard drive then click on "Load photo" near the bottom of the screen and wait while your pic uploads - this will be quite awhile if you use a high resolution camera. As the web does not need high res photos it is best to duplicate/copy and then resize the pic first in photoshop or similar software [in the resize menu make the longest side of the pic say 6oo pixels with the restrain proportions box ticked and save to a convenient folder for web posting.] DO NOT RESIZE YOUR ORIGINAL PRIZE WINNING PIC !! When the DONE window pops up you can finish your post and now just click on "Publish post" and you are done

If this does not help, perhaps I can "walk" you through it on the phone sometime.

Same child, different day and town..

Until this week, I did not realise this was one and the same little girl. The photo with the pink hat was taken at the roadside stop [where the locals were selling the walking poles] on our trek to the homestay and the second was taken the following day in Sapa while we were trying to enjoy a coffee by the window at the Hill Sation Cafe. Obviously these children cover many miles on foot with their mothers each day. [It was the same dress not the sad, dirty little face that I recognised]