Over the next several weeks, I’ll be blogging about my recent trip to northern Vietnam. I will bring you day by day reports and illustrate them with a few photographs. Unlike most of my previous blogs, I won’t be doing this one in german and english, I’ll be sticking to english for the sake of ease…

I’ve blogged about the trip in previous posts, such as here, here, here and here, so if you want to get an intro to my photography gear, our trip route and other things, have a look at those posts.

We (my father and I) travelled to Vietnam from Zurich. We flew SWISS from Zurich to Bangkok, and onward with Thai Airways to Hanoi, arriving in Hanoi on the 16th of April in the evening. There, we were greeted by Hoang, our tour guide, and Manh, our driver. They took us into Hanoi and dropped us off at our hotel, the Viet Hotel, located just on the edge of the old part of town. The day-by-day trip report starting with our first full day in Hanoi I’ll start in my next blog entry.

At this point though, let me give a shout out to a few people. First, I’d like to extend my thanks to Tra, our travel consultant at Footprint Vietnam Travel. Tra and Footprint did an excellant job in organizing our trip, helping define the route and making really great suggestions and giving us tips. Besides that, Tra was extremely quick and efficient in responding to our mails filled with questions, and patient in answering all our inquiries. We had the privelage of meeting Tra in person and met someone bustling with enthusiasm for her job and her country, and a person who loved the tourism trade. Footprint deserves our highest recommendations.

The next person is Manh, our driver. He piloted our Ford Transit over the windiest, bumpiest, most washed-out roads I have ever seen – safe and sound. He stayed cool and calm through the craziest of Hanoi traffic, even after being on the road and away from his family for two weeks. And, he kept that good ol’ Transit clean’n'tidy and in good condition. We never had a hairy moment in all of the 2’000km we put behind us.

A huge applause and a recommendation for anyone going to Indochina must go to Hoang. Hoang was our tour guide and companion for two weeks. He was also a wealth of information and a source of inspiration when it comes to responsible and sustainable tourism. Hoang has many years of experience as a tour guide, and a great way to communicate with his clients and with the local people. From ensuring the food we got was cooked in clean kitchens to explaining which leaves are used for traditional medicine, the differences in clothing, colours and cultures of the different ethnic groups in Vietnam all the way to the recent and not so recent history of Vietnam, Hoang knew it all. Open minded and friendly, showing great patience when we wanted to stop for another photo-stop, we owe a great deal of what we learned about northern Vietnam to Hoang. Hoang has his own travel business, and if you are interested in this corner of the world, I suggest you look here for more information.

The final and biggest words of thanks go to our families for supporting our idea and encouraging us to go on this trip, even when the circumstances got a bit difficult. It was a great father-son experience that we will surely never forget. We owe that to the ones that missed us dearly for 15 days, and took the burdon of caring for the kids, gardens, dogs and all else alone for that time.

So, more will follow soon so stick around.

Thx

Nikon D700 / Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8G EX
Focal length: 200mm
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 200
Exp. Compensation: none
GPS: N21°46.30′ // E104°16.14′