YOUR VIETNAM: “Stories” by Peter Grevstad | [Phởn] box

 I lived in Viet Nam (1999-2004)

1.

Monsoon Noon, Bien Dong, Viet Nam.

Mui Ne, Ninh Thuan, Viet Nam, 2003.

A walk on the beach in July, in the afternoon. The monsoon in this part of Viet Nam is from, approximately, May to October. Most of the fisherfolk had come in from the sea. This lone woman walking makes the picture memorable for me. Notice the tide line! This coast is being eroded in dangerous ways, now, because of global warming. A magical place, and a memorable moment.

 

2.

 

Bien Xuan Thanh, Ha Tinh.

This is one of the faces of child labour.
This fellow…
Sold Bánh Tráng (crisp rice crackers with sesame), on the beach, shone shoes, if you wanted,  stayed close by and observed foreigners (for all I know he’s an anthropologist now), swam around in a man’s shirt, and matched the Casuarina.
And all this because he’d been sent out afternoons to make money. Heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Xuan Thanh, Ha Tinh, Viet Nam, 2000.
This beach has a significance for me. Kind of the heart of my Viet Nam experience, for a reason completely unrelated to this photograph. 8 June.

3.

 

Channeling warmer weather

I’ve probably posted this before.
This is from Mui Ne, Viet Nam. I lived here.
Rock Beach
The green, East Sea, through the casuarina.
I can almost smell the salt air.

4.

My Tho, Viet Nam

Get ready for some scan archive.

I’ve got holiday now, for two months, and one task is to finish the scans of all the film photography I took in the last ten years.

So.

This is a temple in My Tho. My Tho is a small city (near Can Tho, anyone?)
in the Mekong, but more inland, on a river system. A bit NW of Saigon, in Viet Nam.
About four hours by motorbike, going to the west coast.
A boat journey from the sea. Which is about 20km south and 200km west of here.

I went here with Miss Wasabi, in, probably, 2003. And it wasn’t rainy season, so perhaps we went in December or January. I don’t remember correctly…

photo & text by Peter Grevstad

 

Tags: Peter Grevstad, Viet Nam