At long last, all of our Vietnam photos are uploaded here.  It was a great trip, and we had an especially great time exploring all of the culinary variety of the country.  The Vietnamese are serious about food, and it was an adventure finding all the favorite local spots to eat.  We had great success using online blogs and personal travel pages to target our searches, and we found this strategy to be much more fruitful than using guidebooks, which usually cater to slightly different palates.  The “find the sketchiest-looking place that’s full of Vietnamese people” strategy also worked exceedingly well.  Other highlights included whizzing around on motorbikes in the countryside around Hue, getting lost in the frenetic markets, and experiencing the near-worship of Uncle Ho.

Throughout the trip, I found myself having a hard time capturing the country in pictures.  For one thing, large parts of the country aren’t objectively pretty – lots of urban landscapes, traffic, crowds, pollution.  But I felt it went beyond that; I was taking pictures of some of these not-so-pretty things because they appealed to me on some level.  The photographic result failed to capture that appeal; places seemed bland and lifeless when they were anything but.  Only looking back over the photos after the fact did I realize what the problem was.  You use all your senses to experience Vietnam.  You smell it, you feel it, you hear it, you taste it.  My photos failed because they only had one sense to exploit when all five were necessary.  You have to smell the fish market of Hoi An to really experience it.  You have to feel the quiet misty air and cool water of Ha Long Bay, hear the cacophony of motorbike traffic whizzing around you in Saigon.  And by god you have to taste the tamarind crab – not to be missed.  Perhaps truly great photographers are able to somehow capture more that what the eye sees.  I’m not there yet.  But I’ll keep on trying.  In the meantime, enjoy these pale, washed-out reflections of a vivid, vibrant country.

Obligatory shot with the Lunch Lady of Saigon. This is a badge of honor for Vietnamese foodies.