some months ago we were approached by our friends at kichn to create a small line of goods of their retail corner. we decided that this would be an excellent opportunity to share what we had experienced during our trip in vietnam! one more reason drop by kichn today. another reason: their honey ice blend. (send me an email if you’d like more information.)

sunday — spent an afternoon in chinatown and found these old school pins, including one from my secondary school…

edit / turns out this blog has gone past the one year mark… exactly one month ago. hooray!

after breakfast (tofu and fishcake with vermicelli, dipped in fish sauce) served by this sweet old lady, we headed for the ho chi minh mausoleum…

and then the ho chi minh museum, which had extremely odd exhibits. it was like a surrealist’s take on ho chi minh’s life story.

after running around in circles we sit down to sample some grade 1 weasel poo coffee. we bought some coffee back, but i’ve yet to replicate it perfectly.

couldn’t have asked for better weather or travel companions during these seven days, incessant snoring aside…

we had lunch somewhere else. good lunch!

we then took the bus back to lao cai, where we had some street food (which, i need to add, was the first time we ate on the street, on day 6) and then the overnight train back to hanoi. of course we ended up in the worst cabin with a child who cried whenever the train stopped…

the mountains captured badly on my 50mm lens.

since it’s winter, all the terraced fields were brown…

we reach catcat village. as you can see, the sun is out. it definitely was not cold. all that walking and that heat-tech was making me sweat!

child with pants. (none of the little boys we saw in sa pa wore pants. it wasn’t that cold, but it definitely was too cold to be outside without any pants on.)

natural indigo-dyed fabric.

mountain cat butt.

sigh, the woes and paradoxes of travelling – to be honest, the visit to catcat village was a little upsetting. in my opinion, much of sapa and her attractions seem to be (altered, and) catered to the tourist. it has sadly become another one of those places that reek of false authenticity. to be able to see how tourist-funded commercialism can affect a gorgeous, middle-of-nowhere village really dampens the moods a little. not to mention there was that hideous climb back uphill…

sátántangó

the letdowns:

coco avant chanel / public enemies (although both were memorable, sartorial-wise)

the good ones:

inglourious basterds / not without you (no puedo vivir sin ti)《 不能没有你》 /
the message《风声》
another good one would be up.

not worth mentioning: bruno.

these are of course just the ones i’ve seen in the theatres. funnily enough i’ve been obsessively hoarding all sorts of paper ephemera for the past year, with the exception of movie ticket stubs. i don’t know why. next year shall be different…

the taxi driver who sent us to dong hoi had a curiously strong american accent – very much like that chinese cop in mad about english.

hills of sand from afar.

made a pit-stop for some iced coffee with milk (cà phê sữa đá). in these adorable cups again.

we reached the airport with over 4 hours to spare – a 2-hour flight delay meant a mad rush to buy tickets (if they weren’t already sold out) for the 8pm train to sa pa… the 2 hours spent in hanoi were the worst, no thanks to the touts and the overcharged taxi fare. in the end, we managed to get return tickets (sleepers please, no more seats, thanks), and an unexpected bonus too – we made friends with two singaporeans on the same journey.

the longest one-hour flight ever.

a train ticket – which had to be returned at the destination. someone in the background.

zzz.

spotty cups.

spotty cups again. they’re adorable. i don’t know why.

old war artefacts and porcelain bowls laid out along the streets. we were slightly skeptical of their authenticity, but the seller was nice enough to explain certain words on the pins for us. he also said he dug these up with his father at the dmz using a metal detector.

i have to apologise for the quality of my photos. they’re not the best, not least due to the fungus in my lens, but simply put, i’m quite tired of putting a camera in my face and clicking away. (i’m quite bothered by the current growth in accessibility of image-making devices… i sometimes don’t see the point in me, among the many millions out there, needing to further add to the internet’s backlog of photos, digitally- or film-derived.)

we’re almost there.

almost!