Miracles of the Mekong

Flights arrive at various times of day. You’ll be greeted at the airport by your photographer guide and driver and taken to your hotel. We’ll have our first get-together this evening with a welcome dinner and tour orientation.

We’ll have a photographic exploration of two areas of Saigon in the morning, with our Down in Chinatown tour and District 7 walk The River’s Edge. In the afternoon, we leave for Long Xuyen, in the Mekong Delta. Overnight near Long Xuyen.

We wake at dawn for our first market of the tour – and this one is on water. Long Xuyen floating market is one of the most colorful and authentic markets of its kind in the Mekong Delta. We’ll be working on a photographic story about the market, including a variety of images to capture the color and chaos of the event. After breakfast, we head over to Tri Ton, where preparations are afoot for the Ox racing festival. We’ll spend the day photographing the arriving participants and set-up for the event.

We have a full day photographing the opening selection round of the Ox racing festival, known as ‘Hu’. The competitors warm up and show their skills to the audience, steering the oxen round the raceground. This also gives us an opportunity to get our composition, angles, locations and settings right for the following day’s finals. There’s plenty to shoot throughout the day, including portraits of the competitors with their trusty oxen.

We’ll rise early to beat the crowds and capture the drama at the raceground. The final round is called ‘Tha’, and we’ll be focusing on images of all the spills and thrills, plus the spectators at this traditional event. In the afternoon we’ll explore some Khmer villages specializing in traditional weaving, before heading over to the fascinating multi-cultural border town of Chau Doc. Overnight near Chau Doc.

Chau Doc has a fascinating floating market of its own, and we’ll get up early for a sunrise shoot among the boats and traders. After breakfast, we head out for Tra Su Cajuput forest, via road 943, and several classical Mekong villages and a canal where we’ll stop for shots of local life. At Tra Su, we’ll enjoy a beautiful, extremely photogenic boat ride through flooded mangroves. We’ll capture sunrise from spectacularly-set Nui Sam mountain.

Today we head over to Sa Dec, a sleepy French colonial town, famous for its setting in a novel by Marguerite Duras. The town retains much of its old charm, with plenty of crumbling colonial architecture, a market, and of course classic riverside life. We’ll explore the town on foot, in particular photographing the farmers at work in the town’s famed flower gardens. In the afternoon, we travel to Mang Thit, an epic complex of traditional brick factories which make for stunning images of working life in the Mekong, against a truly awe-inspiring backdrop. We overnight at nearby Vinh Long.

We depart early for Long An. We’ll visit the atmospheric Tan Lap floating village, where we can photograph lotus ponds deep within the forest. The afternoon will include a longboat trip and visit to local beekeepers, an opportunity to document aspects of working local life. We overnight at a stilt house ecolodge within the forest.

We travel by road to Can Gio, where we’ll visit mangroves and a bird sanctuary to capture images of birds in flight. In the afternoon, we take a boat to a nearby island, where we’ll explore traditional fishing villages. This is a great location for portraits of the fishing community, at work with their nets, returning from the sea, or simply spending time with family and friends. Overnight in Can Gio.

We return to Saigon in the morning, enjoying a final lunch before flights depart in the evening.