Ha Long Bay

it felt surreal that after all these years of listening to my mom romanticize and dream about going to Ha Long Bay, I finally got the chance to experience it for my own. as i sat on the top deck of the wooden junkboat sailing around the majestic limestone formations that my ancestors had once glorified in their love letters and poems, i felt a strange sense of both familiarity and invincibility, ineffably intertwined in my temporary state of spiritual transcendence. at night, my friends and i lay sprawled across the benches on the boat's rooftop, enjoying the warm embrace of the bay's slight breeze and dreamily watching the clear sky dotted with thousands of stars. we were grateful for having each other's company in these moments, but at the same time in our hearts we each reminisced about our friends and families back home, yearning that they too could behold this breathtaking beauty alongside us. i hope that one day my parents will be able to come back to vietnam and finally see and to fall in love ha long bay. hopefully by that time, the waters won't be too polluted [:

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my select shots from ha long bay.






<3

random pictures

in accordance to the first listed goal from my previous post, here are some random pictures i took throughout the day today. enjoy [:


woman taking a break from selling fruit.


rose vendors. i noticed that a lot of people buy these tiny roses to use as altar offerings? (please correct me if i'm wrong!)


not focused very well, but that's a BIG ASS BONG! the men here use these to smoke tobacco in very potent amounts (apparently, one hit is equivalent to smoking 1 pack of cigarettes at a time!)


duck









I was about to get a betta fish for my room, but then I found out that I would have had to feed it live blood worms. It never crossed my mind how convenient it was back at home to even just have packaged fish food! But anyway, I passed on the pet fish.

Little girl riding shotgun on a motorbike. [:

obituary assignment: helen levitt

class assignment #2: reflecting on a chosen obituary from the economist.

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As a semi-aspiring photographer myself, I was attracted to Helen Levitt’s obituary mainly because of her profession as a photographer. After reading through her biography I was entranced by her way with art, and simultaneously disappointed that I had not had the chance to appreciate her work while she was still alive. Isn’t it ironic, how so many artists earn recognition only in death? I remember reading somewhere not too long ago about how F.Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous work of the present, The Great Gatsby, had been highly criticized and ignored up until long after his death. Decades later, scholars are still analyzing The Great Gatsby and high school students throughout the country are still required to read this American classic. I suppose comparing Levitt to Fitzgerald is a bit of a stretch, because it is only I, and not a whole generation of people, who was not aware of Levitt’s photography. In any case, what I loved most about Levitt’s obituary was her portrayal as a self-reliant yet reserved woman who roamed around with her Leica, capturing the city she knew most and simply letting her photos speak for themselves. Her humility, in light of her amazing photography, is truly inspiring. It is my wish to capture Hanoi’s essence in a fraction of the same manner that Levitt had when she photographed New York City.




r.i.p helen levitt