Vietnam hasn’t been the most memorable place for me. My previous visit to Ho Chi Minh city back in 2012 was marred by an unpleasant experience of a fortunately foiled snatch theft on wheels. A city that once took the brunt of Chinese domination from the north since before the first millenium; Hanoi is culturally rich and known for its evidences of pre-historic discoveries of ancient human civilisation in Southeast Asia.

Almost 4 years on and wiser, I am now more careful photographing on the streets without a dangling camera strap! Being the second time in Vietnam, this time much further up north, I was actually expecting colder weather. However, the entire 4-days trip was unusually blazing hot!

We spent most of the time walking in town, visiting museums and just went people watching around us.

The tight squeeze.

Opposing views

Immersive touch and go tourism

Living where the line leads.

Railways and roadways

Good morning bananas

Crossing the finishing line.

The morning run

Putting the “H” in Hanoi

In sync with green

Resetting for a new tomorrow

The empty intersection

Midnight conversations

Digital courtship

Lighting up

Me and the traffic

Everyone’s saying something

Flowers for the day

Street comfort

Little Hanoi in a window

Organic collision detection

One way madness

Star dusk

Reporting to duty

Fallen, in time

Lady in red watching

We even rented a motorcycle for two days for greater coverage of places to save time. This has enabled us to visit Bat Trang, the famous pottery village located about 30 minutes out of town.

Community engagement

A mental game

Disrupted reflection

Symbolic iconography

The morning market