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Vietnam #3 – Life on the Mekong

The Mekong River Delta located in southern Vietnam is the major water source for many people. The Mekong Delta in Vietnam’s is also their most important fishing area and Vietnam’s rice bowl, which is intensely developed for agricultural production. Above is a fisherman in Hue at sunrise.

Some 20%, or 21.5 million people live in the Mekong Delta in an area that occupies 40.6 square kilometers. It is the home to various floating markets, swamps, manufacturing, temples, fishing ponds, fruit orchards, and colorful villages. The Mekong River is the main means of transportation in this area. When we first visited Vietnam some 12 years ago, we saw how the water level impacted people’s lives. During the wet season, the family sometimes had to move all their furniture to the second floor, as the river rose above the ground level of their home. The weather was more normal this time, so we were able to view the people in a more natural environment.

Can Tho is the fourth largest city in Vietnam and home to various floating markets, and a great place to start exploring the Mekong delta region. A number of canals snake through, so the region is teeming with life. We visited several smaller villages along the Mekong. We enjoyed seeing some of the boats painted with stylized, protective eyes in Da Nang (right center). Legend has it that these eyes protect against evil spirits and monsters lurking in the river.

We were greeted by a number of retail vendors, trying to sell us breakfast foods, such as baos, fresh pineapples and coconuts, Vietnamese coffee, rice. Several people on our boat did buy some snacks, and our bau (a sweet bun with pork in the center) was one of the best we have eaten.

Every day, the markets start up around 5:00 AM, and by noon the market action is finished for the day. We caught the Cani Rang Floating Market at sunrise and for a brief moment, the yellow-orange skies lit up and the river transformed into a caramel color.

As we floated among the early morning market, we also had a chance to see how people live on the river. Above is a small sample of the hundreds of such photos we collected that morning.

We will end this post with one more of our favorite images from the morning fisherman with his massive net that he used to catch a half dozen fingerling size fish that he would later use as bait for catching food more suitable for his home table.

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Vietnam #2 – Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay, named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and 2000, is located in the northeast part of Vietnam. It is known for its towering limestone islands and emerald color waters. We were first here 12 years ago. The islands were not accessible to tourists at that time, so it was a treat to be able to go on a 2-day cruise and see both sunset and sunrise. The above image shows the kissing rocks.

Burt was able to capture Ha Long Bay with his drone from our cruise boat, where we spent the night. We were also treated to a cooking class demonstration where they made spring rolls.

Ha Long Bay was officially recognized as one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world on 11/11/2011. We were lucky to capture the sunrise early in the morning on Ha Long Bay. Emerging from the emerald green water are the towering karst formation limestone rock with jungle at the top. It was quite memorable to experience.

Our cruise boat (top left) is the one with the covered dining area and bar. The tour of the Dark and Bright cave in Ha Long Bay (lower-right) was a delight, and is located where Lan Ha Bay meets Halong Bay. Our lady boat captain was quite an entrepreneur and her photo (lower-right) is one of Evelyn’s favorites. Our boat lady knew when the best moments were for her guests to wear the Vietnamese hats she brought on her boat, and to photograph our group wearing her hats. She was also exuberant and photogenic. Of course, she was well rewarded with tips.

The wrap-up blog post (coming in 3 or 4 days) of this trip ends with a photo she took of all of us in Vietnamese conical hats on her boat.

Here’s a view of our cruise boat on Ha Long Bay(also spelled Halong Bay). While most of Ha Long Bay is quite touristy, this part is less crowded and quite pleasant.

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Vietnam #1 – Rice and Incense

The rice terraces in the Mù Gang Chài district in northern part of Vietnam are stunningly picturesque. While rice is grown on relatively flat plains in the centre and south, in the North, they are grown in spellbinding terraces carving up mountainsides reaching to the sky and are quite spectacular. While you can enjoy the beauty of the terraces year round, September and October are when the stalks are golden and full of rice. Here are few images shot from Burt’s drone.

The rice terraces are located approximately two hours drive from Sapa, where we visited 15 years ago. Sapa was previously only accessible by train, but now there’s a new highway with easy access via bus or car. For some of the rice terraces, we drove to La Pan Tan where we had lunch in a home-stay to photograph the rice terraces. For other rice terraces, we all rode up to the top of the mountain on the back of motor bikes on narrow dirt trails to the top. It was spectacular, yet a somewhat terrifying ride.

Our guide, Sy, modeled for us in the rice terraces with horse shoe shape, where she was leaping down more than 5 feet between terrace layers, and yet managed to keep her white shoes totally clean. Sy was voted by our group as our favorite guide, as she dressed in traditional clothing to pose for photos. Later, she took us hiking to her home village to meet her family, where we crossed a flooded bridge and got our feet soaked.

Outside of Hanoi is the Huang Phi Tau Incense Village, where we explored colorful incense stick making. Incense is widely used in religious practices when practicing meditation. Burning the incense releases the fragrances, which relate to the color of the coating. Burning incense can be effective in stimulating various sensory receptors.

We also saw the workers in action, making incense coating using traditional craft techniques and watched them set in bundles to dry. We saw the bamboo being chopped, dipping the sticks in dye, creating the incense paste, then bundling the incense. One maker had a machine that extruded the base, added the incense dye, and ejected the finished product (center), for the worker to collect and gather into a bundle (top-left and lower-right).

We photographed a model from a high vantage point in a sea of bright red and other color incenses. The incense sticks come in many colors, each with its own fragrance, and the displays are an instagram favorite for selfies. We were able to capture some photos of a model from the mezzanine above and a ladder (top-right and middle-right).

Later in the morning after enjoying the sunrise at the floating market, we photographed the noodle making at the Can Rang floating market in Can Tho, Vietnam. This market is located near Ho Chi Min City, which was formerly known as Saigon. We sampled the dried noodles, which was a treat for us.

Here’s a “little planet” of the rice fields shot with Burt’s drone, made from 32 photos in a 360 degree circle, then combined in Photoshop.

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Laos #3 – Luang Prabang and Surrounding Area 2

Luang Prabang was an ancient capital located in northern Laos, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Center in 1995. It is a well developed town, fusing traditional Lao urban architecture with the French colonial architecture. Laos is the only landlocked country in the area and has been isolated from the rest of the world, called “Asia’s forgotten country”. It was designated the Least Developed Country and one of the poorest countries.

We cruised down the Mekong River to see the Pak Ou Caves (lower center) and explored the night market with Wat Luang Prabang in the background.

Shown above are terraced rice fields, which account for 50% of the national agricultural output.

Primary school classroom at Xiengmen Village, along Mekong River. The kids were quite animated. See the video at the end to see how the rooms sound during classes.

We also visited a school for monks with some 300 students. Like in many schools, you have enthusiastic students as well as bored ones. There was even one young monk playing video games in class (lower-center).

We visited a couple of local weaving villages on our cruise down the Mekong River. Although the villages were relatively poor, the people seemed genuinely happy to see visitors.

Shots from local villages, Phousi Market, and photo of actors at Vat Xiang Thong Temple where a documentary was being filmed about the temple (center-right).

More scenes of people from the local villages. Kids are accustomed to getting their pictures taken due to the proliferation of mobile phones.

We will close our Laos report with a short video of Laos monks and kids learning to read.

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Laos #2 – Luang Prabang and Surrounding Area 1

Tucked in the jungle is Kuangsi Waterfalls, a 3-tiered waterfall located 18 miles south of Luang Prabang. It is known for its milky turquoise color and its tranquil setting.

We got up by 5:00 AM to watch the monks collecting alms early in the morning around the Wat Xieng Thong Temple.

Along the Mekong River, we stopped at a sea weed village where they make a local snack called Kaipen (fried Seaweed). It is made with a freshwater algae harvested from the Mekong River, rinsed, then pressed into a paper-thin sheet and seasoned with garlic, sesame seed, and sometimes prosciutto.

There are some 33 Buddhist temples in Laos. One special place is a sculpture park with over two hundred statues of Buddha in different postures called Buddha Park. It is also referred to as Wat Xieng Khuan, and is located 25 km southeast from Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The garden not only has Buddha but also Hindu gods, and worth a visit.

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Laos #1 – Fire Boat Festival in Luang Prabang

The Laos Fire Boat Festival  / Festival of Lights is one of the most spectacular festivals of Laos. It’s more correctly called the Festival of the Boats of Light, or Boun Lai Heua Fai in Laos.   It is essentially the celebration of two things – the beginning of the dry season and the end of Buddhist lent. The date of the event changes each year as it is tied to the lunar calendar, and this year, festival finished on October 30, 2023, which is the day that we visited it.

Lent in Buddhism is a 3-month period in which Buddhist monks retire to the temple to devote more time to meditation and to gain a greater understanding of the Dhamma, which is the truth taught by Buddha. In seeing the Boun Lai Heua Fai you’ll be seeing both the celebration of the end of the retreat of the monks and also the end of the wet season in Laos.

Each of the 21 handmade floats is made from bamboo, banana trunks and colored paper. They are built for the festival by each family and each float was at least 25′ in length. In the evenings, various groups march down the parade route with their boats lit with live candles, live bands and dancers, singers and chanters. The floats were carried in front of judges who vote for the most beautiful float, then carried down to the Mekong River. Often times, the candles would have to be relit if blown out by the wind along the procession route. As night falls, these floats are launched onto the river, some set aflame as sacred offerings to the water spirits.

Vahn was our guide for this portion of our tour. His family was visiting the festival too, and he introduced us to them (left). This is a time when families typically gather together to pray at one of the temples, give offerings, and share a meal together. The image on the right is one of 33 wats (temples) in Luang Prabang lit by candles that were shaped like lotus flowers.

Some form of the festival of candle lights is a tradition found in many cultures. In Laos, this festival is linked to the agricultural season.

In Luang Pradang, the event is small enough where you can still walk around and experience the intimate moments.

.Many of the candles surrounding the temples were lit by the monks and by young monks-in-training. Many floating votives were available for sale for people to launch their own offerings down the river to bring good luck.

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Turkey #8 – Travelers

We are the Travelers….We often enjoy joining small group photo tours with less than 10 people, such as Mehmet’s. We hate seeing so many tourists wherever we travel, so we label ourselves “Travelers”. First, all the travelers in our group have common interests – a passion for photography combined with travel to exotic destinations and love of good cuisine. During these tours, many of us become life long friends, and often we meet up with the same friends on subsequent tours somewhere in the world. Often, there are a lot of shared stories, laughter, and even whining about the time to get up for sunrise shots. There are often very long days, packed with activities. Often, there’s no free time to sightsee and souvenir shop.

Sub (upper left) is a retired petroleum engineer, who has lived in India, California, Washington, Africa, and Europe, (and is a worst gadget freak than Burt!). He has also been on numerous exotic photo tours, including one to India just a few weeks after our tour ended.

Gabrielle and Michel (center-right), is a retired couple who live in Portugal. They traveled with us to Iran on an earlier trip with Mehmet. They have been on many wildlife photo tours that we secretly covet, and are phenomenal photographers. They have been everywhere from Antartica, Galapagos, Brazil, to Africa and more…Here is their website link.

Shelly (lower left), the oldest young person we know, and has more energy than we do. She has a real knack for making friends with strangers to get photos. She also hooked us on the game Wordle. You can check out her photographs on Blog.shellyrosenberg.com.

Terry is a retired research scientist from Vancouver. She is also well traveled and a very talented wildlife photographer. Here is the link to her website.

Sue and Rich (lower right), are friends we met on our first trip to Turkey 7 years ago, and also traveled with us on the Stans tour. Both of them have a great eye for composition. Enroute home to Minnesota they will stop in the Netherlands to see their grandchild. Sue’s photos can be found on her facebook under Sue Jacobson.

Burt and Evelyn (us) are documenting their travels in the form of a travel blog. It’s getting harder and harder for us to make these trips. Stairs are harder to climb, hills are trickier to navigate, and our energy level is lower. It has taken a month longer to finish processing the images for this blog. Check our blog and photo galleries.

Mehmet, our tour leader, has precisely mapped out every hour of our time from pre-sunrise to after the blue hour in the evenings. Yes, our days are filled and often we fall asleep right away, then we whine the next day about the long hours. Here’s the link to Mehmet’s website.

Trying to organize a bunch of photographers is like herding cats. Every photographer is quite independent in their pursuit of a great photo, and less interested in the history and facts of a monument or landmark that tour guides try to present. The quality of the light is more important to us.

Here is a short video to help give a better feel of what it is like to wander among the bazaar. We concentrate here on some of the various craftsmen at work, producing the wares they will then sell in their stalls.

And finally, here is a photo of the two of us. This photo was shot by Gabrielle while we were on the boat from Akdamar Island. We are already on our next adventure (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand), so stay tuned for more travelogue from the two of us. We hope to see these fellow travelers again on another adventure in the future!

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Turkey #7 – Gaziantep

We are enroute to Gaziantep, the sixth most populous city in Turkey. It is a diverse community populated mostly by ethnic Turks, plus Kurd and Syrian refugees. When we drove through town, we saw substantial damage from the Turkey-Syria 7.8 earthquake, which was followed by a 7.7 after shock, on February 8, 2023. We learned that the safest place to stay during an earthquake is next to a washing machine or refrigerator, rather than under a door way, which might collapse.

The next morning, we stopped to see the beehive domed houses of Harran, a village inhabited since 6,000 BC by the Skellig monks. These homes mimic a beehive architecture, with no windows, and are clustered together like a termite colony. The structure is shaped with a stone cone, to create a roof without timber. I has now become quite commercialized, but you can still the appreciate simple adobe homes. The houses are rectangular on the inside and round on the outside, and carefully built to prevent rain from penetrating the home.

Passing through the city of Gaziantep, we enjoyed seeing traditional musical instrument stores with craftsman who are still making the traditional instruments. One was a kamancheh (center), a bowed instrument like a Persian or iranian violin without a rosette, and played like a violin with 4 strings.

There were many colorful and souvenir shops in the old city of Gaziantep.

We visited an artistic neighborhood of Gaziantep and photographed the narrow streets with the historical houses, lined with metal sculptures.

We then toured Zeugma Mosaic Museum, which houses the biggest mosaic museum in the world. This is considered among the top archaelogical treasures in Turkey.  Stunning ancient greek and roman mosaics are displayed, mostly intact. This was the first museum we saw that had Selfie stations.

The “Gypsy Girl” is displayed in a special place, like the Mona Lisa (center).

We had a chance to photograph the birds Bald Ibis, in the birds sanctuary of Birecik, which is a reproduction center to increase the Bald Ibis population. The little museum was well done.

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Turkey #6 – Adiyaman and Mount Nemrut

We left our hotel in Aidiyaman by 2:00 AM to climb Mount Nemrut to see the sunrise. Mount Nemrut is 7000 feet high and was designated a World Cultural Heritage site in 1987. The site is covered with statues of the gods, and some consider this site as the 8th Wonder of the World. When the sun rose, the light was breath taking and only lasted for less than an hour.

Crowning one of the highest peaks of the Eastern Taurus mountain range in south-east Turkey, Nemrut Dağ is the Hierotheseion temple-tomb and house of the gods, built by the late Hellenistic King Antiochos I of Commagene (69-34 B.C.). He built this as a monument to himself, placing his statue along with the other gods.

The path up to the top is now paved, with the exception of a very steep part near the top, so we walked up along with hundreds of other tourists. 100,000 people climb Mount Nemrut each year.  SE Turkey is one of the best places to learn the history of human civilization, and Mount Nemrut, built in the 1st Century BC, is considered one of the world’s most important historical and cultural heritage sites. It is still a mystery how the carved stones were carried up to the top. Several members in our photo group are shown above sunrise.

After sunrise, the hundreds of tourists leave, and we can enjoy the giant statues photographing the statues of the temple tomb by ourselves. The statues are part of an open air temple with statues on the East and West Terraces located on either side of a tumulus, supposedly the burial mound for King Antiochus. Mount Nemrut is located on the highest peak of the Mesopotamia and is known to contain the tombs of the King Antiochus I of Commagene.

The pattern of damage done to the heads, notably the noses, suggest the destruction was intentional by iconoclasts. However, these are theories only.

The archaeological and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site on Mount Nemrut, towering at a height of 2,150 meters (about 7,050 feet), survived the earthquakes undamaged. Footage captured by Anadolu showed the massive heads, each of weighs tons, on the eastern face of the mountain in Adiyaman province.

On the way back to Aidiyaman, the administrative capital of this region, we explored Karakus, a funery monument, (a Royal Mausoleum) which is believed to be a burial mound for Queen Isias and Princess Antiochis and Aka 1 of Commagene, wife and sister of King Antiochus. Karakas means black bird, which is the eagle on the column (right bottom). The tumulus is decorated with pillars with eagles, bulls and hand shake scene representing King Antiouchus, and well as the mother of fertility.

Our next stop was to Gobeklitepe, considered one of the most important archaeological findings of all time, until Karanhantepe was discovered(prior blog). Gobelklitepe is now considered the sister city to the oldest archaeological site in the world, built some 11,000 years ago, both built by the same mysterious civilization. Karanhantepe is older by 1,000 years.

Gobeklitepe has circular temples with T shape pillars decorated with carvings representing foxes, boars, vultures, cranes, snakes, ducks etc build around 10.000 BC. This is the oldest known significant site created by humans. Its purpose is still undetermined, but Stone Age masons created 20 circles of tall rock pillars weighing up to 20 tons.

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Turkey #5 – Sanliurfa

In Sanliurfa we photographed the biblical Abraham’s Pond and also Abraham’s Cave and Mosque in the afternoon.

We visited Karahantepe, an archaeological site in Sanluirfa, where we saw the oldest structures that have been discovered, and were built some 12,000 years ago. This was the first temple built by a mysterious civilization and considered the cradle of our civilization. Some 250 obelisks with animal carvings have been uncovered on this large site. This is very close to another well known archaeological site Göbekli Tepe, which is just 46 kilometers away, and built by the same mysterious civilization. This site is more than 1000 years older than the pyramids that were discovered in Egypt.

We stopped at Sanliurfa bazaar, which is considered to be one of the most authentic in Turkey (unlike the touristy Istanbul). The bazaar had many twisty alleys with lots of color and even antique guns.

Lots of unique souvenirs… and weapons… for sale in this marketplace. When I took the photo of the guns for sale (top), the vendor came out quickly to tell me “No Photo!” so though they sell these, it is clear they do not really want that fact spread around.

At our Sanliurfa lunch stop in the market, we saw many traditional vendors, including one selling the skin of a large python (center).

Enroute, we stopped to photograph Syrian refugees picking cotton. Turkish cotton is a premium long-fiber cotton grown exclusively in the Aegean Region, and softens over time. There were many fields ready to be picked, yet we saw very few pickers in the field.

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