On a quiet, gray day Eric and I walked along the banks of the Nhat Le River. This river bisects the city of Dong Hoi, a provincial capital in central Vietnam.
Pretty soon we came upon the steeple of a ruined church (shown below) in a fenced enclosure in a small riverside park. It has been preserved in its ruined state, according to the plaque at the site, as evidence of the war crimes of the American aggressor when the church was bombed into ruins in 1965.
Tam Toa Church Steeple © Harold Davis
This photo shows a construction fence in Halang City, Vietnam. The fence is hiding some of the mammoth construction that is going on here. Not only does the fence hide the construction work site, it also hides the waters of Halang Bay, replacing them with paintings of an insipid beach scene. Behind the fence, the viewer can see the incredible karst formations of Halang Bay and Cat Ba Island. The dramatic and distant landscape on the other side of the bay is still wild, but from this vantage point it is hard to know it as such, between the fence paintings and the orderly row of tame plants in the foreground.
Construction Fence, Halang City © Harold Davis
Amid the vast floating towns of Halang Bay, everyone seems to be casting nets. In some cases these are part of the floating homes themselves. At night, the lights go on, the nets go down via a winch, and the fish wander into the nets and are caught. Fishing boats, like the one shown in the photo, are tied off to the homes and operate in a bit more open water in much the same way.
Nets in Halang Bay © Harold Davis
Earlier today, Eric and I hired a small boat to take us around the floating villages. This was fascinating. The boatman even took us into his own floating home. There will be many more images to follow!
The day started slowly. The drive from Hanoi to Halang City seemed interminable. We passed endless rows of the gritty Vietnamese version of strip malls, factories, and Soviet-era coal-fired power plants, all in an overcast haze compounded by the emissions of millions of motorcycles and diesel trucks. There didn’t seem to be a single green park, or anything untouched by development-in-a-hurry on the whole four hour drive.
Cat Ba Island Sunset © Harold Davis
Once in Halang City, the pace picked up and things got beautiful in a hurry. We loaded our bags over the drop on a jetty to a small speedboat, and crowded in. We were off across Halang Bay, and through the maze of karst rock formations to Cat Ba Island. Once settled into our hotel on Cat Ba, we took another boat (there’s an iPhone shot of Eric and myself on this boat at the bottom of this story), followed by a sort of ship-to-shore water taxi to Monkey Island. In my mind, the most striking thing I saw on this leg of the trip were the floating communities we encountered on the way back—cities of ocean dwellers in their own boats, tied together for a while then ready to go off on their own.
Commercial Fishing Pier at Night, Cat Ba Island, Vietnam © Harold Davis
After dinner, when it was dark, Eric and I photographed the commercial fishing pier area on Cat Ba, looking for an impressionistic effect. All in all, a very fun day!
Harold and Eric at Sea © Harold Davis
Driving the long route back towards Hanoi from Meo Vac there was a vibrant market going on in a dusty hinterland Vietnamese mountain town. Eric and I asked our guide and driver to stop our car, and wandered the market with our cameras. Evidently, this was not a place on the beaten track. We were as much curiosities as curious, photographic subjects as photographers. Several market goers wanted to take selfies with me, and Eric gathered a small crowd as his tattoos were much observed and admired.
Lady in a Local Market © Harold Davis
As is well known, the camera is an instrument of flirtation, and I flirted shamelessly with a bank of women “of a certain age” standing along one wall dressed in their tribal colors. This mischievous lady enjoyed what I was doing a great deal, finally getting a little bashful with me, then asking to see the photos of her—and enjoying them very vociferously with gestures, since we spoke no language other than photography in common.
The mountains near Meo Vac are in an area untraveled until recently that abuts the Chinese-Vietnam border. These mountains are unusual and spectacular, with high and narrow roads. A permit is still required to visit the area, and there is no public transportation.
Mountains near Meo Vac © Harold Davis
I have many impressions of this dream-like landscape, and will be posting more images as I can. Right now, our driver and our guide have been plying me with a clear, home-made corn liquor that is very potent, and a spicey dish made from goat, so one image is all I can manage before I head to bed and get ready for more adventures tomorrow!
We drove along the mountains roads in the northern tribal country of Vietnam. Whenever there was a particularly nice vista of distant mountains and terraced rice farming, we’d stop for a photo (of these photos, more later!).
Flower Hmong Girl © Harold Davis
Often, Eric and I would set up our tripods for the landscape images. We met many local people while doing this, mostly Hmong (the Flower Hmongs are one the three tribes of Hmong peoples). Most Hmong, like this handsome young woman, were very friendly with smiles, and mostly glad to have their photos taken and interested to see the results on the LCD. Maybe we were a welcome break from the harsh realities of life as a farmer in a steeply terraced environment.
Rice Paddies with Reflected Tree, Vietnam © Harold Davis
Sapa is a hill town in the mountainous north of Vietnam fairly near the Chinese border. It’s been known as a resort since the French founded a military sanitarium here around 1900 as a relief from the tropical heat of most of the Vietnamese country. The rugged area around Sapa is home to a number of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, including the Hmong peoples.
Hmong Street Vendor © Harold Davis
While I expected Sapa to be somewhat touristic, I didn’t expect the crazy cultural dissonance we’ve found. There’s more construction going on here than anywhere I’ve seen recently, up to and including the west side of Manhattan. There’s a street party going on right now that could be Times Square. From one side the noise of the partying on the streets meets loud Karaoke coming from the other.
Meanwhile, the tribal Hmong people are reduced to a kind of side show of street vendors (like the beautiful “black” Hmong shown in the photo) and persistent hawking of ersatz crafts by Hmong young and old.
It’s hard to see the construction boom here as anything other than a bubble fueled by easy money, and it is hard to see all this as ending well for the Hmong and other ethnic Vietnamese minorities.
More photos to follow!
Thap Rua—Turtle Tower—is a structure in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake, an island of peace in the bustle of downtown Hanoi. The Turtle Tower is linked to an ancient legend of a magical sword, a powerful Dragon who helped defeat Chinese invaders, and the protective Golden Turtle God.
Thap Rua (Turtle Tower) © Harold Davis
Hanoi is a fascinating city—vibrant, prosperous, and ramshackle all at once. Stepping outside means risking imminent death by motorcycle. The only way to cross a street is to head across at a steady pace, hoping that the vehicular calculations of relative velocity versus future positioning in time and space match your own. There is no stopping, and this is no game of (or for) chickens. Crossing the street in Hanoi is a fun sport in a way, at least once the death-by-motorcycle defying parameters are internalized and accepted.
Outer Crossing © Harold Davis
Above: The Long Bien Bridge “walk way”; Below: View from the back of our hotel in the Old Quarter.
Rear Window © Harold Davis
The Long Bien Bridge stretches across the Red River from Hanoi, Vietnam. It is a cantilevered iron structure designed in the studio of Gustav Eiffel. Strategically important because it connects the port of Haiphong with Hanoi, it was extensively bombed during the US-Vietnamese war.
Long Bien Bridge © Harold Davis
Exploring Hanoi with my friend Eric, we decided to try to walk across the Long Bien Bridge, which today is used as a train bridge, with two side walkways that are the domain of the ever-present motor cycles. Crossing the bridge didn’t seem very safe for a mere pedestrian, but it was fun photographing the “distant light” through the train portion of the bridge.
This is the magnolia branch I brought home and used for macro photography practice in an image I showed earlier.
The Whole Magnolia Branch © Harold Davis
Composition of the entire branch was a bit of a challenge, and I’m glad I got this done and archived, because I won’t see my production machine for about a month—and by then my attention undoubtedly will be taken up by other subjects.
Wandering the paths and stairways of the Berkeley hills, I came upon a gardener shaping a venerable flowering magnolia tree. A largish branch lay on the ground. I asked if I could take it, and carried it home.
Magnolia Blossom © Harold Davis
Generally, these flowers are hard to capture at the macro level outdoors because they tend to be high up, and are in motion in the slightest breeze. But indoors was a different story! I also enjoyed capturing the entire pattern of the branch on a black velvet background. The broader image will help provide a context, and I plan to process a sequence later today if I have time after packing before I leave for Vietnam.
This is a photo of my wonderful father Martin Davis that I recently scanned and retouched to restore some damage. Martin thinks it was taken when he was sixteen and had just graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.
That was then, and this is now: although you can see that Martin’s spirit remains strong and shines through. Recently we had my parents over to celebrate Martin’s 89th birthday. In the iPhone capture below, he has just opened a gag birthday gift that my son Nicholas picked out (Nicky has a wicked sense of humor!).
