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.