Any flowers today?

My last full day in Vietnam. I’m sad to leave but my visa runs out tomorrow. Even after spending a month here now, two weeks in December and living here for almost a year, there’s still so much I haven’t seen.

I spent the morning exploring parts of the Old Quarter that I hadn’t been to. I went to a couple of temples and to a house that’s been restored to its original layout – narrow and long with courtyards to provide light an air. Most of the others have had numerous extra stories added and the courtyards filled in. I then walked up to the start of the world’s longest mosaic. It runs for over 6km alongside a busy road near the Old Quarter.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a link to this photography project of Vietnam. I hadn’t seen any bridges near the city centre but there was one near the mosaic. When I got to the bridge, there was a flower seller conducting a transaction under the bridge and I thought I might be able to attempt a similar shot as she moved off after making the sale. But after waiting for a while, I realised that her pitch was in the shade under the bridge. She had a small plastic stool to sit on like the fruit sellers in the extra. The only time she moved was when a bus was about to run her over. I did get a shot from directly above the flower seller as she walked her bike back under the bridge after the bus had gone, but I preferred this shot of her making a sale, despite the cables in the way. What the bridge did though, was allow me a different viewpoint for my slight (ok more than slight) obsession with photos of Vietnam’s crazy traffic and all the different things that they transport by motorbike.


In the afternoon I got a motorbike taxi to another lake in the city. I went to a temple there and then walked along the side of the lake before going for a beer in a rooftop bar with a great view of the city. The first time I came to Hanoi in 1998, I didn’t like it much. It was December and cold and I only stayed a couple of days. Now that I’ve spent more time here, I really like it. And it seems like it would be a nicer city to live in than Saigon. (Sorry Saigon!)