On the Opium Trail

Flights arrive at various times of day. We’ll pick you up from the airport and transfer directly to our hotel, the historic Metropole. Opened in 1901, and designed in the classic French colonial style, the hotel has been welcoming the great and good for over a century, with former guests including Charlie Chaplin, Graham Greene, Jane Fonda, and more recently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. As well as a swimming pool and stylish cocktail bar, there is even a war-era bomb shelter on the premises. After settling in, we’ll meet up that evening for welcome drinks and dinner, and a look at the adventure ahead.

We’ll make a reasonably early start the next morning to explore the French Quarter and other vestiges of the colonial past in modern-day Hanoi. Our wander will include the Opera House, Hoa Lo prison, which served as a detention centre for both Viet Minh revolutionaries during the colonial period and American POWs such as John McCain during the Vietnam War, and St. Joseph’s Cathedral. We’ll also sample some of the culinary remnants of Indochine, like Hanoi-style filter coffee, freshly-baked banh my sandwiches and bo sot vang, beef in red wine sauce. Along the way, we’ll capture pictures of the city’s bustling street-life and develop a photo story about today’s Hanoi. We’ll have a delicious lunch at a restaurant set in a restored colonial mansion, then head out to the Museum of Ethnology for an introduction to the history and tribal cultures of northern Vietnam. This will give us a strong foundation for our understanding of the adventure to come, the people we’ll encounter and the place of the opium trade in the history of this part of the world. After a late afternoon rest back at the hotel, we’ll enjoy dinner together before climbing aboard the luxury Victoria Express sleeper train to Sapa. The train passes through a residential area, with many houses right next to the tracks, before crossing Long Bien Bridge, built by the French in 1902, and known at the time as Paul Doumer Bridge, after the governor-general of French Indochine. Indeed the railway line north, travelling all the way to Kunming in China, was originally laid as a way of connecting these colonial outposts and maximizing trade as well as arms shipments to the Kuonmintang. Today the line remains a single-guage one, meaning a slow but comfortable journey through the night and into the Lien Hoang Son mountain range.

We arrive in Lao Cai at dawn, and our private car takes us up the short and winding route to Sapa, with mist rising from the rice terraces alongside, and H’mong and Dzao traders appearing from trails out of the forest. We’ll stop to capture shots at carefully-chosen locations, with a look at how to shoot landscapes with a human persepctive. We arrive at the Victoria Hotel for check-in and breakfast at around 8am. This boutique hotel draws design inspiration from both Indochine and the tribal cultures of the area, and will serve as a luxurious HQ for our time in Sapa. After a brief wander around Sapa town to visit the tribal market we’ll strike out for a photographic trek into the spectacular rice terraces around town. Along the way we encounter people from the area’s diverse tribal communities, including Red Dzao, Black H’mong and Tay. We’ll visit minority villages and photograph people living their daily lives, both at work and play. The H’mong in particular once had a close relationship with the government of Indochine, and they are still the most extroverted and entrepreneurial of the tribes in this region, with many speaking foreign languages such as English and French more fluently even than they speak Vietnamese. Towards late afternoon we head up to the O Quy Pass, to capture one of the region’s most stunning sunsets, with unforgettable views across the northwest mountains. Overnight at Victoria Hotel Sapa.

Today we begin our journey east, travelling to Bac Ha town in time for the big ethnic minority market. H’mong, Hoa and Tay people descend on the town to trade, barter and catch up with old friends, making for a carnival of colour and festivity. We’ll be working on a photo story about the market, including context shots, portraits, and a focus on details. It’s also a great time to pick up some souvenirs, such as textiles and antiques (look out for the opium pipes) but make sure to put your haggling hat on! We’ll have lunch in Bac Ha, and then visit ‘Nha Vuong Meo’, the H’mong King’s Palace. This well-preserved, palatial house served as the home of France’s chosen local chief, who helped to manage the opium trade in this area. We’ll explore the interior of the palace, and also look at how to take different kinds of architectural shot, particularly using original framing techniques. Later, we head down to the River Chay, where we’ll enjoy a longboat trip up the beautiful gorge to Tien Cave. Landscape photography opportunities here are fantastic, especially as the sun begins to dwindle in late afternoon. Overnight at our boutique hotel in Bac Ha.

We head into stunning, remote Hoang Su Phi province, the road taking us alongside many steep rice terraces. This mountainous area is home to a rich tapestry of ethnic minorities, most living as they did a century ago, except for the occasional mobile phone and the omnipresent motorbike. We’ll take our time to work on landscapes at several stunning spots, and also photograph local people along the way. We reach beautiful Pan Hou Eco-Lodge in time for lunch. In the late afternoon, we’ll take a short trek to explore the local area, and have an introduction to the minority people of the area, visiting their villages and photographing their daily life. Pan Hou Eco-Lodge offers spa and traditional massage, which will be a welcome relief for weary photographers. We’ll enjoy dinner and drinks in the lodge’s stylish restaurant.

It’s worth getting up early this morning for a sunrise shoot in the mountains above the eco-lodge. As well as the splendid light, people are on their way to work in the fields, and children on their way to school, making for fantastic candid pictures of the life of the montagnards. After breakfast, we’ll head out for a trek to several nearby minority villages, giving us a close-up encounter with the fascinating and hospitable people of this area. We return to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, we’ll have a group review of photographs taken so far, and a look at selecting the best images from our collection. Dinner and overnight at Pan Hou.

We hit the road again today, this time heading north into legendary Ha Giang province. The route takes us first out of the mountains into Ha Giang city, but we’re soon heading up again towards the Dong Van Rocky Plateau. A winding road takes us up steep cliffs and then through small local towns. Our first glimpse of the Plateau before us is at ‘Heaven’s Gate’ above Quan Ba town. We’ll stop here for panoramic landscapes, before heading down to our eco-lodge near Quan Ba town. Our eco-lodge is based in a traditional Red Dzao village, and we’ll have a unique opportunity to meet and talk to the villagers. They’re very happy to pose for portraits, and also for us to photograph them at work and play, as we have a strong friendship with the people here, going back many years. The surrounding countryside is also something to behold, and we’ll have a short trek in the valley below towards sunset, with a chance to capture some incredible landscapes. Our eco-lodge is designed according to the style of traditional Dzao homes, but equipped with very comfortable beds and running hot water. We’ll settle down for a delicious home-cooked meal with our Dzao hosts before bed-time.

It’s an early start this morning, with some spectacular sights to come. We first travel through an immense gorge, overlooked by towering, jagged peaks, and here we find ruined battlements erected by the French colonial army. The battlements are situated just above the road, giving guards a sniper’s eye view of anyone travelling the road south. This is a great spot to capture shots of the gorge and river rushing through. We follow the road up into the fertile and forested hills around Yen Minh, where we break for lunch. In the afternoon, we climb up steep ascents to the rocky plateau, an unearthly landscape of volcanic rock and boulders. We’ll take our time to admire and capture pictures of the scene, and also images of the colourfully-clothed minority people eking out a life in this barren land. At Sa Phin, we stop at the H’mong King’s Palace, a simpler, but no less striking counterpart of the one in Bac Ha. The Palace houses photographs and artefacts, such as opium pipes, dating back a century. It’s then a short drive to our resting point for that night, Dong Van, and we check into our very comfortable hotel.

After breakfast, we’ll trek up to the ruins of a French fortress overlooking Dong Van, a spot offering a hawk’s eye view of the whole valley. Then our minibus takes us up to the Ma Pi Leng valley, the deepest gorge in South-East Asia. The views here are astounding, even compared to what’s come before, the road winding along the side of the gorge, the river Nho Que a sliver of blue far below. We encounter more of the volcanic humps we saw yesterday, but these ones are four or five times the size, and many contain enormous caverns. Tiny H’mong villages spill across the mountainsides, bringing the true vastness of this landscape into perspective. We’ll take our time to enjoy and photograph this unforgettable place before heading down to our eco-lodge in Meo Vac.

Explore Meo Vac on foot. Our eco-lodge is a H’mong fort restored as a boutique accommodation, and we’ll enjoy a morning relaxing at the lodge, sharing pictures and discovering the locale. After lunch, we venture into the lower part of Ma Pi Leng, and we’ll take a short trek to discover traditional H’mong villages. We encounter minority people living much as they must have more than a century before, reliant on the thin produce of the land, especially corn. We return to the eco-lodge after sunset at Ma Pi Leng, and enjoy a delicious meal by a roaring fire.

Meo Vac ethnic minority market starts early, with tribal people descending from all over the surrounding area. Many come to town on foot, travelling from their villages since before dawn. As well as a busy trading event, for livestock, textiles and agricultural produce, this is a social event. The food shacks within the market fill up with market-goers for a breakfast often involving bottles of corn wine and much laughter and gossip. Naturally, this is a fantastic photographic experience, so it’s best not to get too distracted by the offers of a morning bottle of corn wine. We’ll work on a 3 picture story exploring the people and activity at the market. After a last lunch at our lodge, we hit the road back to Ha Giang, travelling a different route through the rocky plateau. There are still some fantastical landscapes along the way, and we’ll venture into picturesque adobe villages near the road to photograph daily life up-close. We arrive in Ha Giang in late afternoon, and check into our comfortable hotel.

Today, we hit the road back to Hanoi, following the Ha Giang river south, and return to the capital in early evening. We check back into the Metropole before dinner together.

We meet after breakfast for coffee and a picture selection session and review. It’s been a spectacular adventure, with many pictures to choose from, but we will edit our selection down to a final story. After a final lunch together, we are free to explore Hanoi or set off for further adventures. Flights or other transport depart at various times, with complimentary transfer.