Meandering in Saigon 🇻🇳 Portraits and Street Scenes

Finally, I set out for a photo walk on July 29, 2024. I had had strange covid, weak but long-lasting. I was sluggish, with a sore throat and partly runny nose for two weeks. Finally, the inflammation in my throat became a sharp pain, and the fever began, but the symptoms decreased to minimum in three days. Fortunately, the cough never showed up - maybe because I spent most of my time lying in the comfy bed. How do I know that was covid? Because everyone was sick. They sneezed and coughed on me - it was simply impossible to avoid. But, okay, the trouble has ended - an eternal fatigue with green snot has gone.

Starting the walk from amazing Aloha Saigon Hostel:

Visited a food street to have a meal first, rice with a chicken leg and seaweed soup for 45.000 dongs ($1.8) and, then, realized that 24mm was too wide. Returned to the hostel to change the lens to my usual 50mm.

Vinh Nghiem Buddhist Temple was where I headed then:

A cute view. But a bit standard and not many artifacts there.

Lovely lotuses growing in bowls there, and colorful flags; they even have a couple of cats chilling out there, love it.

But the best part was inside: a group of monks were hypnotically chanting a prayer which reminded me of psychedelic trance music.

I didn't see a serious reason to interrupt the thing with photo activity so I was enjoying the vibes standing aside + a couple of images.

When I got bored with the temple, I took a bus and soon found myself in the city center, and switched to street photography.

Practicing deep-ish depth of field (f/5.0 on 50mm):

Motorbike taxis working for apps.

Saigon 2024 is a place where not you stop a motorbike taxi but they stop you shouting "You! Motorbike?!" Happily, not everyone does it. Not that awful.

Love the fact that both the male and female cops use the same lipstick. (I believe she borrowed it from him).

Gerls:

In popular places, local people are often annoyed with photographic activity. You can see "no photo" signs here and there. I've realized that the main stress has been created not by tourists, but by lovers of photo sessions for Instagram, mostly young women who sometimes occupy a staircase or another place for an hour or so to pose in a posh garment.

I looked into colonial Saigon Central Post Office but didn't find inspiration there and set off to another Saigon's landmark, Ben Thanh market. Meanwhile, on the way:

A rodeo with a red metal bull.

"You! Motorbike?"

Benh Thanh market at last, heaven for lovers of T-shirts and other types of souvenirs:

Including civet coffee (often produced by caged animals, not an ethic product, thus):

I saw the scene below on a minibus window: Indian tourists, all young men in glasses:

and then I thought "I can photograph them directly!" I turned to the people but saw nothing interesting there - just a chaotic crowd. That was just an instance.

There have been many travelers from India here recently. Fortunately for local street vendors, Indians love buying cheap shite like hand fans, mini massagers, beads. The downside of Indians is that you can't overcharge them as easily as the pale-skinned.

I was glad that I returned to the normal mode, and had energy and inspiration after the sickness. I thought about continuing the photo walk in the dark time but no, better to have rest, I decided, and went to a bus stop.

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 24mm (the first image) and Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on July 29, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.