This morning I headed over to the Pagodas and the Buddha on the hill. I got the usual team of people pretending to be all kinds of things from guides to English students, all apparently wanting to show me around for a "small fee" which is equivalent to a 3 course meal for two in any restaurant around here. The Buddha was pretty interesting and I did the whole jostick thing. The heat was amazing, trust me to pick the hottest part of the day to go sightseeing. After that I decided to go and take a look at a gallery which was recommended in Lonely Planet. Me being me, I was determined not to give any of the taxi bikes any business so found it on foot; by the time I got to the gallery, my t-shirt was soaked. Walking into the gallery, the owner, Mr Long Than saw my condition and whipped round the back to get me a cold face towel and a bottle of ice cold water and he did it all out of kindness, he didn't even consider charging me for the water. The gallery was amazing, all of his frames were in black and white and apparently he does all of his processing "the old fashioned way" in a darkroom round the back. The pictures he takes are of everyday life in Vietnam; it looks like he has been to the places I wanted to find, I found it a bit weird that in my quest to find Vietnam, I had to find it in a photo gallery. But, I guess I didn't exactly go off the beaten track and I couldn't stuck to the tourist trail any closer than I did.
Take a look at the galleries:
http://www.longthanhart.com/
http://www.elephantguide.com/longthanh/biography.htm
