"We were soldiers once, and young."

I met Mr Doan this morning, a super cool and interesting 70 year old man with a fascinating story to tell.

Doan grew up in Hanoi, but in 1954 during the French adventures in North Vietnam he was sent by his family to Saigon. He was educated in a Catholic school where he learnt to speak English and French. 

When the Americans came Doan, now a young man, got a job as an interpreter with the US Army. He worked for the US for the duration of the American War. 

Unable to leave with his employers when Saigon fell, Doan was rounded up by the victors. He cleverly told his interrogators that he worked as a driver, knowing that if he told them that he was an interpreter he would have automatically been assumed to be CIA and at best would have been packed off to a re education camp for ten years. Instead he was released.

Since the end of the war Doan worked variously as a driver, a motor bike taxi driver and once again as an interpreter. He is now retired and watches the world go by at the church on Sunday mornings, while at the same time educating curious photographers. with stories of a time long ago.

When we finished talking we shook hands and I walked off. After a dozen steps I stopped to look back. Doan had vanished.

Of smoke and prayer.

I visited my favorite Saigon pagoda at the weekend and was fortunate to witness a little ceremony. Hung from the ceiling of this Chinese pagoda are large incense cones that unravel to several feet in length. As you enter the pagoda the air is heavy with heat, and smoke and the smell of incense. 

Mr Thanh is 85 years old and has worked at the pagoda for 15 years. He takes his cone hanging role very seriously. Each cone is numbered and is given a name, written in Chinese characters on a red paper ribbon attached to it's top. The cone will burn continuously for 30 days once lit and hung. Worshippers solemnly light each cone and then Mr Thanh does the hanging.

Mr Thanh is as deaf as a post and he was not too keen on a photographer documenting his work. More than once he cussed loudly at me in Vietnamese. Apparently this is allowable in a pagoda :)

The whole scene was a fascinating slice of life to observe. 

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Against the odds.

Meet Wes, a super cool and inspirational guy who I was fortunate to meet and spend some time with a few days ago. Wes is a South African who became a New York investment banker. Through illness he ended up in a wheel chair 10 years ago. 

Wes has just spent 5 months traveling through Asia, alone and unassisted. Having recently spent two months on crutches I can vaguely imagine the obstacles that he had to overcome traveling through Australia, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, on his own, in a wheelchair.

Spending time with Wes was truly an inspiration and a timely lesson in how people can find the courage to transcend adversity. Wes was returning to South Africa that night where he is planning to develop a website to advise others on how to travel with a disability. He hopes to return either to Vietnam or Japan to live.

Wes, take my hat off to you.

"Life in the fast lane, surely makes you lose your mind" The Eagles.

So this morning I was on my way to shoot a small assignment for Oi Vietnam magazine. As usual I got lost. I stopped and asked a xe om (motorbike taxi) guy to take me to the address. I followed the guy for some miles and at one point he looked around to see if I was still behind him, and in doing so he ran up the ass of a car stopped in traffic. It was just a bump but he left a mark on the back of the car. The car driver got out and things quickly got pretty heated with the ex om guy. As the yelling and gesticulating increased I was about to get my camera out to capture the about to unfold fight when apparently a detente was reached. The guy got in the car and drove off. 

The xe om driver turned around on his bike and took off in the opposite direction, apparently considering me an "unlucky" customer and figuring my 50,000VND ($2USD) to be not worth further risk, thus deserting me to my fate!!!! 
 

You've got to LOVE Vietnam!

Time to fly

Don't try this at home part 3

Photography is often as much about luck as anything else and some of the most famous photographs have been made in a nanosecond and with little preparation.

I happened to capture this adventurous young man yesterday as he was making an unplanned dismount with half pike from his bike. Thankfully the only thing that he hurt was his ego.

Doing time in Saigon.

I am constantly amazed at how many people I meet in Saigon who have been doing the same thing, often in the same place for a very long time. A few recent examples are below.

Street barber. 23 years. 

Artist. Mr Cuong. Painting for 40 years, mostly from the same arcade in District 1.

Cyclo driver. 25 years from under the same tree, and if you had been peddling a cyclo for 25 years you would take a nap too!