Hanoi viewed through Leica M

Rayt said:
No I don’t speak German. It’s a global company with offices worldwide and I was a legal manager for Asia Pacific compliance issues. I am American and we have delicatessen everywhere and head cheese is pretty common maybe not as good as what Germans get. At least Chinese offals are fresh and unprocessed though troublesome if the food look at you while you are eating it! Street photography is fine in Vietnam so don’t worry about it. I have been to places and people chase you down if you did that. Morocco is such a place.
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Only Casablanca, Rick's Place. ;o)
 
boojum said:
Only Casablanca, Rick's Place. ;o)
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As Oscar Wilde once said, you should never eat anything larger than your head.

And someone else (not Oscar) opined that it's bad manners to eat food while it stares at you.

As I'm now 90%+ vegetarian my era of eating parts of things deceased are long past. A little fish now and then, yes. Red meat, never. Today's commercial chicken has too many antibiotics stuffed into it while it slave-labors in the egg laying pens before it gets taken out and given a head twirl and that part of it is then chopped off. Ghastly I know (and not in good taste to be writing about it so I'll cease my Dante's Inferno comments about food now, except to say my diet is now mostly plant-based with tempeh and tofu and some soy protein and occasionally a fish fest which accounts for that last 5% of my food-stuffing. I suffer much less by abstaining from meat than does my SO who is Chinese and from a family of dedicated carnivores dating back to a great many generations. Lunches and dinners when we visit them in Malaysia is a maelstrom of exotic dishes covering large tables, but they are kindly folk and always provide good veggie (usually tofu and tempeh based) gourmet courses for me. Otherwise I'm entirely happy with my choice of food and if you see me you know I'm not wasting away from malnutrition...

How ever did we get on to this aside? Last thing I recall we were on the topic of Hanoi, a place I've yet to visit but intend to with my arsenal of camera while I can still walk and carry a Nikon D700 or D800 and before I pop off to the land of great clouds. The images in this great thread have inspired me to plan a return visit to Vietnam - my first since 1975 when I spent six amazing weeks in Saigon before the place went socialist and everything changed. I recall the many photo retail shops in Cholon where I had my B&W films processes and I bought a Nikkormat FT2 there from a seller desperate to get some foreign cash, about four days before I flew out of Vietnam to Bangkok - and on to an entirely new phase in my eventful life.

Hanoi is a place I most definitely want to visit. Saigon/Ho Chi Minh, I've been there, in the not-so-good old days when it was Saigon. Now five decades later a day or two flight stopover to again walk the streets of the city centre for my old memories, such as they are, to return, would be enjoyable, while I still can.

Some truly great images in this thread, btw. And most enjoyable comments from intelligent travellers. A real treat!
 
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DownUnder said:
I believe it was Oscar Wilde who once said you should never eat anything larger than your head.

And someone else (not Oskar) who opined that it's bad manners to eat food while it stares at you.

As I'm now 95%+ vegetarian my era of eating parts of dead animals are long past. A little fish now and then, yes. But red meat, never. Today's commercial chicken has too many antibiotics stuffed into it while it slave-labors in the egg laying pens before it gets taken out and given a head twirl and that part of it is then chopped off. Ghastly I know (and not in good taste to be writing about it so I'll cease my Dante's Inferno comments about food now, except to say my diet is now mostly plant-based with tempeh and tofu and some soy protein and occasionally a fish fest which accounts for that last 5% of my food-stuffing. I suffer much less by abstaining from meat than does my SO who is Chinese and from a family of dedicated carnivores dating back to a great many generations. Lunches and dinners when we visit them in Malaysia is a maelstrom of exotic dishes covering large tables, but they are kindly folk and always provide good veggie (usually tofu and tempeh based) gourmet courses for me. Otherwise I'm perfectly happy with my choice of food and if you saw me you would realise I'm definitely not wasting away from malnutrition...

How ever did we get on to this aside? Last thing I recall we were on the topic of Hanoi, a place I've yet to visit but intend to with my arsenal of camera while I can still walk and carry a Nikon D700 or D800 and before I pop off to the land of great clouds. The images in this great thread have inspired me to plan a return visit to Vietnam - my first since 1975 when I spent six amazing weeks in Saigon before the place went socialist and everything changed. I recall the many photo retail shops in Cholon where I had my B&W films processes and I bought a Nikkormat FT2 there from a seller desperate to get some foreign cash, about four days before I flew out of Vietnam to Bangkok - and on to an entirely new phase in my eventful life.

Hanoi is a place I most definitely want to visit. Saigon/Ho Chi Minh, well, I've been there, tho' a short stopover to walk the streets of the city centre again for the old memories, such s they were, to return.

Some truly great images in this thread, btw. And most enjoyable comments from intelligent travellers. A real treat!
Click to expand...

I believe the thread has stimulated interest in this lovely country with its lovely people. Travelers' reports bear this out. I look forward to getting off the plane, taking a cab to my rental, getting a meal and starting to see the wonderful things I flew halfway around the world to see.

I am beginning to believe that kiemchacsu either works for the Chamber of Commerce or the Tourist Board. If he doesn't they should hire him! LOL He has curried interest. He has been very helpful to me in ideas and suggestions. My trip is better even before I leave home.
 
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Tim Zhou said:
A red Dzao lady with her son, Sapa
DSC00271-Edit by T Zhou, on Flickr
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I notice that much street cooking is done over wood, or wood coals. Food does taste better grilled over coals, yes. I can only surmise that propane is expensive. Or is it that the tastes of the nation incline toward food prepared over wood and wood coals?

Another nice shot of the Dzao woman and this time with child.
 
just found a piece of writing and photos (taken more than 30 years ago) by David Alan Harvey about Vietnam, would love to share here for a different view.
Vietnam. Just that one word conjurs up horror stories and nightmares and riots and assasinations and live bullets going into college protestors.

Yes, life in USA was worse then than now.

A horrible useless loss of life on both sides and please try to find out from anyone a concise clear explanation of “why?”. What was the Vietnam War about exactly? hmmm. The Nike’s you are wearing are likely made in Vietnam, now a desired and popular tourist zone.

So even though I am not a news photographer nor a war journalist, when I was granted special permission by North Vietnam (our war enemy) to photograph, I grabbed the opportunity.

They could see from past work, I was a people photographer without agenda. Still I always had a government person as my “guide”. They knew my every move.

I first traveled to Vietnam in 1988 for National Geographic, @natgeo more than a decade after the war had ended. Yet prior to a diplomatic relationship.

The assignment—“Vietnam: Hard Road to Peace”—wasn’t about the fighting. It was about the aftermath. I wanted to understand what healing looked like in a country still carrying the scars of a long and brutal conflict.

What I found was resilience. I walked the same streets that had once been torn apart by war, now filled with laughter, commerce, and cautious hope. I photographed farmers in rice paddies, children in schoolyards, veterans on both sides rebuilding their lives. The pain was there, but so was a quiet determination to move forward.

For me, Vietnam will always be more than a war story. It’s a human story—layered, complex, and deeply moving.
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kiemchacsu said:
just found a piece of writing and photos (taken more than 30 years ago) by David Alan Harvey about Vietnam, would love to share here for a different view.


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I will try to follow this. Vietnam is a hodgepodge of emotions out here for those who went through it. The questions of right and wrong are more complex for the losers. Doubt, anger, shame, frustration, guilt, pride, the spectrum of human emotion to no good end. Trung, you folks on the other hand fought, bled and suffered for decades but came out victors with your goals achieved. I am not assigning blame or trying to explain but only to appreciate the events and facts as just that, good, bad and otherwise.

The good news is that it is over and has been for fifty years.
 
Hi Trung,

Long time no see! How did you feel about the loss of 'Shark Jaw' when the news came out? It would be interesting to see the new plan for the area.

Hope you have been enjoying the use of 20mm. It is a focal length I would try again one day.
 
Tim Zhou said:
Hi Trung,

Long time no see! How did you feel about the loss of 'Shark Jaw' when the news came out? It would be interesting to see the new plan for the area.

Hope you have been enjoying the use of 20mm. It is a focal length I would try again one day.
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I personally quite like the new idea from the Gov to enlarge the space around the lake.
Not only the Shark Jaw but also many other buildings surrounded will be cleared for new public spaces.
check it out for your information

e.vnexpress.net

Hanoi considers relocating houses, businesses to expand public space around Hoan Kiem Lake - VnExpress International

Hanoi is considering to relocate certain houses and business headquarters in the east side of Hoan Kiem Lake to expand public space in the capital's central area.
e.vnexpress.net e.vnexpress.net
 
Last night I finished developing 2 rolls of quick test shots of the #OlympusXA camera, so I'll post photos of the kids who just took the 10th grade entrance exam. Personal impressions:
- compact, light, one-handed operation is ok.
- convenient for taking snap-shots, no need to look around much
- doesn't attract the other person's attention, convenient for "secret" shooting
- good photos, sharp enough, with quite high contrast.
In short: very reasonable for use for the purpose of taking quick notes, without being obvious. With a price of ~$100, there is really nothing to complain about. Minus points: the camera is quite old, manufactured from 1979-1985, so the electronics may not be as accurate as when it left the factory, the light meter and shutter should be checked carefully before buying the camera. #buyfIlmshootfilm #fomapan100


Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr
 
@kiemchacsu Love these images, they have a sense of vibrant activity. If I could, I'd send my teenage self an XA and XA2 and a few dozen bricks of Tri-X and Kodak Gold 200, with instructions to document every single trip and time out with family and friends until digital comes around. The XA cameras are some of the best daily documenters for all the reasons you mentioned above. Silent, pocketable, instant.
 
kiemchacsu said:
Last night I finished developing 2 rolls of quick test shots of the #OlympusXA camera, so I'll post photos of the kids who just took the 10th grade entrance exam. Personal impressions:
- compact, light, one-handed operation is ok.
- convenient for taking snap-shots, no need to look around much
- doesn't attract the other person's attention, convenient for "secret" shooting
- good photos, sharp enough, with quite high contrast.
In short: very reasonable for use for the purpose of taking quick notes, without being obvious. With a price of ~$100, there is really nothing to complain about. Minus points: the camera is quite old, manufactured from 1979-1985, so the electronics may not be as accurate as when it left the factory, the light meter and shutter should be checked carefully before buying the camera. #buyfIlmshootfilm #fomapan100


Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr

Hanoi High-school entrance exam 2025 by Trung Nguyen, on Flickr
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Yes! The XA series is a great one. The camera is a brilliant design as a visual notepad and at the same time captures good images, as we see. It is addictive and it makes the Thorsten Overgaard dictum of "Always wear a camera" easier. The only downside is that the flash has run down. I do not know if it can be fixed. But it is great for street shots and is designed to be put in the pocket when not in use. I wish they made one as digital. It is so unobtrusive that subjects never perceive the user as a threat or as intrusive. Good choice, good camera, good images. ;o)

We can see how well it works from you captures which are nice. Thanks.
 
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