The beauty of old Vietnam in precious color photos - December 2012 The color photos in this blog (No. 1 to No. 16) were published on Dân Trí website on 3 December 2012. They were taken during 1910 - 1930 by the photographers who were sponsored by Albert Kahn to travel to Vietnam for taking photos of the country and people. Albert Kahn (1860 – 1940) was a famous French bank owner of Jewish origin. He was well known at the time as a kind businessman who had a special passion for cultural and educational issues. In 1909, he traveled to Japan with a friend who was also a photographer. They took many great photos during the trip. This had inspired Albert Kahn to make a photo collection project from all over the world. Afterwards, he ... read more

16 November to 19 November 2012 – The photographer and I got a bus from Hải Phòng city to Nho Quan town, then we hired a taxi to Cúc Phương national park (182km in total). The taxi driver was a military doctor who owned a private car. As he knew I was worried about leeches, he gave me medicine.and cotton which can help me stop bleeding in case of leech bite. Actually, these leeches only appear during the wet season and now it’s very rare to see them, but it rained the night before we went to the jungle, so I had to be careful. Cúc Phương national park is located 120km southwest of Hanoi. I went to this park 16 years ago, but the road inside the jungle was under construction at the time, so ... read more

21 October to 3 November 2012 – I joined a photographer on a 14-day trip to the North West of Vietnam and we shared the costs. This was my third visit to the mountain region over the past 3 months. On this trip, I visited two provinces which are Lào Cai and Lai Châu. This blog is about the first destination of my trip which is Lào Cai province. Except for Sapa which is a popular tourist site, the other towns which we visited such as Simacai, Mường Khương and Bát Xát are located in the border area and they are very close to China. We got a bus from Lào Cai city to Simacai town. Next day we walked 5km to Bản Thẩn village of the H’mong ethnic minority people. We saw an elementary school ... read more

4 October to 8 October 2012 – This was my third trip to Hà Giang province. On my last trip to this province 6 months ago, I traveled on a tour. I also wanted to visit Hoàng Su Phì and Xín Mần, but I didn’t bring enough cash for the trip, as these places were not included on the tour. I decided I would go back during the rice harvest. The travel companion and I took a 5:30am bus from Hà Giang city to Xín Mần. We arrived at Xín Mần town 5 hours later, although the distance is only 145km (mountain road). It was foggy, so we couldn’t view the terraced rice fields on the way. We spent our first day relaxing, visiting market and drinking tea with the locals in the town. Next morning, ... read more

19 Sep to 26 Sep 2012 – I was back to Lai Châu province. I just visited this province a couple of months ago and it was my first ever visit to the 60thprovince of Vietnam in my list. When I was in Lai Châu last July, it rained all the time, so I couldn’t go to Mường Tè, although I already saw the bus going on the route. I decided I would go back on my next trip to the North West. Mường Tè was my priority destination on this trip. Whenever the Vietnamese say “Mường Tè”, it always means a place far away in the mountain which is very poor and remote, although it’s located only 620km northwest of Hanoi. The travel companion and I went to the bus station at 5:30am, but the ... read more