Chau Doc Vietnam

Chau Doc on the edge of the Mekong Delta is the stepping stone to Vietnam for travellers arriving from Cambodia. We arrived on the back of motorbikes that had collected us at the Cambodia/Vietnam border near the town of Tinh Bien which is 30km from Chau Doc (see Vietnam-Cambodia border crossings).
They dropped us at the very nice Trung Nguyen Hotel which overlooks the main market in the town centre. Nice, clean rooms with very helpful receptionist at just $10 a night. Another good budget option is the Thuan Loi Hotel which is right on the river where the ferry from Phnom Penh docks. The Song Sao Hotel is a good mid-range option located almost next to a small bookshop called 'the English Bookstore'. The charming owner loves to practice his English and will take you on private tours of the river.
Chau Doc Market  Chau Doc as seen from the river 
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The town is a busy, lively place with few tourists so not much hassle other than cyclos wanting to take you to Sam Mountain. It was good to be back in Vietnam again and a spicy lunch at Bay Bong restaurant was a nice change for the many coconut based dishes on the Cambodian menu.

Chau Doc Boat Trips

As you walk along the Bassac River towards the grandiose Victoria hotel you'll find no end of people trying to get you to hire their little boat to go out and see the fish farms which are common here. At around $2 an hour this isn't a bad way to experience river life but go early in the morning so that you can catch the river market.
Chau Doc Floating Market  Chau Doc river scene with woman rowing 
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Instead we chose to take a tour with the owner of the 'English Bookstore'. We met at his shop at 7am and walked down to the river where his friend's boat was waiting for us. First of all we headed south east along the river beyond the Victoria Hotel and met up with the approaching floating market. Our boat got right into the action and we were able to step onto one of the trader's boats as they sold all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables.
From here we crossed the river and went to see the floating fish farm houses which have fish cages under the living area. We then visited a Cham village and its mosque before returning to Chau Doc. This 2.5 hour private tour cost us just $7 for the two of us.

Sam Mountain

The other main tourist attraction of Chau Doc is Sam Mountain which is 6km from town so you'll need some transport. On our first night we were 'stalked' by one of the cyclo riders who seemed to pop up no matter which street we were on. He wanted $5 to take us to the mountain so we agreed to meet him the next afternoon and head there for sunset.
Chau Doc Floating Market  Chau Doc Taxi Cyclist 
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The cyclo rider picked us up at 3.30pm arriving with his wife and Downs syndrome daughter. The poor bloke works 24 hours a day to support his family as as his wife has to stay at home to look after their child. They could put her in a government school but then they'd never see her again. The cyclo man just puts his situation down to Lord Buddha and just gets on with it with a big smile on his face. A lesson to us all!
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A couple of moped riders gave us a push on the way to the base of Sam Mountain then our man showed us around Tay An Pagoda, the Temple of Lady Xu and the Tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau. The moped drivers then took us to the top of Sam Mountain (for a small fee) then waited for us so that we could watch the sunset over the endless padi fields with Cambodia in the distance.
It was a hard cycle back in the dark without the help of the mopeds, even more so when we got a puncture. When we paid the rider more than he'd asked for and paid for his puncture to be repaired ($7.50 in total) he seemed quite concerned and informed us that we'd given him more than we'd agreed and wanted to be sure that we were aware of it!

Can Tho Vietnam

Can Tho bus station is only 1km outside the town centre yet we arrived from Chau Doc (3 hours for $5 via Long Xuyen) on a bus with no other passengers that went to another bus station some 6km from the centre. From here we took a Xe Loi (motorbike with trailor) back to the town centre.

Accommodation in Can Tho

We made our way to the Hoa Binh Hotel which was very run down with unfriendly staff and heavily overpriced at $30 a night. Our Xe Loi driver then took us to Hotel Restaurant 31 where the really friendy owner gave us a huge room on the top floor for just $10. This also proved to be a popular spot for locals in the evening with the restaurant always full and plenty beer drinking going on late into the night. Unusual specialities on the menu include snake and frog which you can select from the glass cabinet next to the reception.
The Ninh Kieu Hotel is right on the river and is a great deal at $25 a night. The Golf Hotel also looks very attractive as does the upmarket Victoria Can Tho Hotel across the river which has a regular shuttle boat service back and to across the river. A great choice if you're not on a budget is to stay at this hotel and their other one in Chau Doc and they'll provide a boat transfer between them.
Can Thoa Floating Market  Can Thoa Floating Market 
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There's no shortage of accommodation in this very pleasant and seemingly wealthy town. Strangely nobody hassles you to buy anything as you wander along the waterfront which adds to its appeal.

Eating & Drinking in Can Tho

I'd certainly recommend the Hotel Restaurant 31 for good local dishes in the company of plenty locals. Down on the main stretch overlooking the river there's a good selection of bars and restaurants. The Mekong Bar was a good spot from which to watch the world go by with a beer and some Vietnamese spring rolls.
The Nam Bo Restaurant is a superb place for an evening meal. Get a table on the terrace of this converted French villa and choose from a great selection of local and French dishes as well as plenty other western options. Had a great steak and chips for $3.50.

Boat Trip to the Floating Markets

Can Tho is the best place to see real floating markets and get amongst them. By staying here you can be on the river before first light and visit these markets before the tour groups from HCMC arrive destroying the authenticity of the moment. It's a really fabulous experience and one of our highlights of Vietnam.
Boat Excursion from Can Tho  Can Tho Boat Skipper's Family 
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We met our boat driver at 5.30am at the hotel then walked in the dark down to his longtail boat at the riverside. The town was already busy as we set off and the sun was rising as we headed for the first of the floating markets at Cai Rang. A handful of other tourists were also there meandering in and out of the merchants' boats as they did their business.
Further down the river we arrived at the Phong Dien floating market which was even more fascinating as most of the crafts are rowing boats with only a few having motors. We were the only foreigners here and were able to float around the heart of the market amongst the traders.
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We now headed off around various canals which was interesting for a while but soon became rather repetitive ("same, same, but different" as the locals say). The trip could easily be four or five hours long instead of the eight that it took. The longer the better was the idea. Lunch was certainly novel when the driver took us to his riverside house where his wife had prepared lovely food for us and we had a game of billiards with a glass of rice wine on his terrace. That was unexpected.
Can Tho was my favourite place in the Mekong Delta thanks to its laid back ambience, its friendly people, the absence of any sort of hassle from street sellers, the good bars and restauarnts and this day excursion to see the floating markets really was the icing on the cake. If you're only staying in two places between HCMC and Cambodia I'd suggest Can Tho and Chau Doc.

Sarah Leen: NGM: POYi

Image © Jonas Bendiksen-All Rights Reserved

The 65th Annual Pictures of the Year International ("POYi") competition which is currently being judged has announced Sarah Leen/National Geographic as the first prize winner in the Magazine Picture Editing Portfolio section, with Jonas Bendiksen's photo essay on Dharavi, a slum called Mumbai's shadow city.

In my view, this is a deserved recognition for the photographer and the magazine. There are two images that I think really stand out in the photo essay...the one above, and the 8th one in the series, which is of a man hunched under an umbrella while a woman in the alley is drenched in the pouring rain, and a priest and a child are arranging a small altar. A moment frozen in time...very well captured by Jonas.

(Note: I erroneously had this photo essay as being by Sarah Leen. However, sharp-eyed Kendrick Kwok, a fellow photographer and Lightstalkers member, kindly pointed out that it was Bendiksen's. A quick search of the National Geographic website confirmed that this was indeed the case. Thank you, Kendrick.)

(Note 2: Another sharp-eyed friend and photographer, Asim Rafiqui, corrected my error in that POYi awarded the Dharavi photo for picture editing, not for the pictures of the essay. The recipient of the award is Sarah Leen, and not Jonas Bendikson, as the category 'Magazine Picture Editing' is reserved for the editors who create the best photo layouts and best use of pictures to tell a story. Many thanks, Asim!)

The photo essay Dharavi, Mumbai's Shadow City

Kloie Picot: Hidden In Plain Sight Benefit


HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian Refugees is put together by Kloie Picot, and is a worthwhile benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, one that she hopes will raise awareness of their plight. All proceeds will go to CROSSING LINES, a non-profit Ms. Picot is establishing to provide language, job training and other skills to refugees.

The important worthwhile event opens March 15 at the River Bar and Restaurant in Chung Li, Taiwan and will feature an exhibition and silent auction of photographs donated by several well-known photographers.

For further information: War Shooter (Hidden In Plain Sight)

Bravo Kloie!

TTP Recap of the Week

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 3-9, 2008) most read posts on TTP:

Celebrity Photographers' Tours. This topic is consistently popular!
NGM: Annie Griffiths Belt
La Guelaguetza

Magnum Photos: China


Magnum Photos' In Motion just featured a Flipbook on China which takes a look at 60 years of transformation in this enormous country from Magnum's archives. The photographs are from legendary names such as Henri Cartier Bresson, Eve Arnold, Bruno Barbey and Paolo Pellegrin to name but a few.

Magnum Photos' Flipbook: China

NYT: In the Land of Black Coats

Image © Gianni Cipriano for NY Times-All Rights Reserved

Central Brooklyn in New York City is the land of the Black Coats...specifically 55th Street in the center of Borough Park which is home to a quarter million Orthodox Jews, the largest concentration of Jews outside Israel.

The slideshow is of atmospheric black & white photographs by Gianni Cipriano, and accompanies a short article in The City section of the New York Times. Why travel when one has this cornucopia of photogenic traditions literally next door?

I just read that the recent introduction of new slideshow templates and tech-savvy multimedia on the pages of the NY Times' website caused a substantial increase in the number of its readers/viewers.

NY Times' In The Land of Black Coats

Celebrity Photographers' Tours

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I found another example of what I deem to be an over-the-top photo tour led by a celebrity photographer to a developed country in South-East Asia, so I thought I'd share my 'back of the envelope' ruminations about the economics (or lack thereof) of joining such a photo tour. Let me say this at the outset: the photo tour is no workshop...just a tour led by a well-known photographer.

The land cost for the 9 days tour (in essence 8 full days) is advertised at $4600 and the single supplement is quoted as $1000. Assuming that most single travelers don't want to share (I certainly wouldn't) a room with a complete stranger with annoying nocturnal habits, the total for the photo tour is $5600.

Tacking on a round trip airfare from New York of about $1500, and day to day expenses of at least $600 for the duration of the tour, we total $7700.

Now let's do some math: let's imagine that the 10 or 12 participants each return with 50 photographs that are exactly...but exactly what stock agencies, travel companies and others are desperately looking for, each photographer would have to sell every photo for at least $150 to break even. Naturally, there are many numerical variations to this assumption...one photograph may be sold 50 times and so on, or two photographs 25 times. Let's not also lose sight that the returning photographers will have much of their photo inventory either identical or similar to one another...and could well compete with each other.

In the current state of the industry, with the advent of photo-sharing websites populated by photographers willing to sell their work (often excellent) for next to nothing, the probability that any of these photographers will sell that many of photographs is virtually non-existent. Realistically, I'd say that a participant in such a photo tour has a slim chance to sell 2-4 photographs for $200-250 each....better than nothing, but a rather dismal return on the $7700 investment.

People who join such expensive photo tours led by celebrity photographers must do so for a reason or reasons...are these tangible or intangible? Are there real merits in just rubbing shoulders with one? Are there bragging rights attached to it? Is it a resume thing...or just for showing off during cocktails? Is it the "if it's expensive it must be good' mentality? Are there intrinsic values in shooting next to one? What are they? Do these famous photographers have the time and motivation to attend to individual needs, for mentoring? How do people quantify the return on investment from such tours? Are "in-the-field" tips from famous photographer worth 10 times those from a non-celebrity photographer? Do the participants draw comfort from the fact that since the celebrity photographer makes superb photos, they will too?

Email me if you know....but note that I draw a distinction between photo tours and bona fide workshops which have course descriptions, schedules and in which participants learn from instructing photographer(s), and nor do I question reasonably priced photo tours operated by hard-working photographers.

Beyond The Frame: Stilt Fishermen

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

It's been a while since I posted an image in a Beyond The Frame context, so here's one of the famed stilt fishermen in Sri Lanka. Stilt fishing is a strange technique of fishing where fishermen wade out to poles embedded in the seabed. The origins of this unusual technique (I don't think it's used anywhere else in the world) are unknown, but it certainly works. While photographing them, I saw the fishermen haul in their catch quite easily.

Near Welligama in the south of the island, these fishermen are a fixture during the early morning and at sunset. Each fisherman has a long pole fashioned like a sort of cross stuck in the seabed about 50 yards from the shore. They wade to the poles at times when the tide and fish are moving in the right direction, they sit on the poles' horizontal bars and start fishing. I was told that each stilt position is handed down from father to son.

I photographed these fishermen for quite a while and can vouch for their success in catching small fish. To this day though, I can't understand why a German tourist -when seeing me- and on his way to another beach kept laughing hysterically. Perhaps the sight of me with seawater almost to my knees caused the hilarity?

Matt Brandon: Sumatra

Image © Matt Brandon-All Rights Reserved

Matt Brandon over at the Digital Trekker just returned from an assignment in Sumatra, and has great portraits to share with us. He traveled to the small community of Sekayu in Sumatra, which is populated by a community of friendly and welcoming Muslim people called the Musi. They live up and down the Musi River that flows through their territory and down through Palembang.

Having converted some of his resulting photographs to B&W, he put up a slideshow with music. My favorite one is of this elderly woman...I chose it because Matt managed to expose her face very nicely, and process the photograph just perfectly....despite the shadows thrown by the hat. Not an easy photograph to make well.

Matt Brandon's Sumatra

Matt Brandon: Sumatra

Image © Matt Brandon-All Rights Reserved

Matt Brandon over at the Digital Trekker just returned from an assignment in Sumatra, and has great portraits to share with us. He traveled to the small community of Sekayu in Sumatra, which is populated by a community of friendly and welcoming Muslim people called the Musi. They live up and down the Musi River that flows through their territory and down through Palembang.

Having converted some of his resulting photographs to B&W, he put up a slideshow with music. My favorite one is of this elderly woman...I chose it because Matt managed to expose her face very nicely, and process the photograph just perfectly....despite the shadows thrown by the hat. Not an easy photograph to make well.

Matt Brandon's Sumatra

La Guelaguetza: Oaxaca's Dance

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

While in Oaxaca, I photographed a couple of lively Guelaguetza performances and uploaded some of the results on to a website. The dances are a form of celebration that dates back to pre-Columbian times and which remain a defining characteristic of Oaxacan culture. Its origins relate to the worship of corn as a mainstay staple of the Oaxacan region, and indeed all over Mexico and beyond.

Eventually, these photographs will be incorporated into a multimedia slideshow.

La Guelaguetza

La Guelaguetza: Oaxaca's Dance

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

While in Oaxaca, I photographed a couple of lively Guelaguetza performances and uploaded some of the results on to a website. The dances are a form of celebration that dates back to pre-Columbian times and which remain a defining characteristic of Oaxacan culture. Its origins relate to the worship of corn as a mainstay staple of the Oaxacan region, and indeed all over Mexico and beyond.

Eventually, these photographs will be incorporated into a multimedia slideshow.

La Guelaguetza

 
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