Vietnam Cultural Photo Tour

NOTE: ITINERARY MAY BE CHANGED FOR THE BETTER EXPERIENCE IF ANY

DAY 1 - 2 DEC 2024: HO CHI MINH CITY ARRIVAL

Welcome to the Vietnam Cultural Photo Tour organized by An Bui.

I will pick you up at the Ho Chi Minh City Airport, transfer to a hotel and relax after a long flight to Vietnam.

You can arrive in Ho Chi Minh City on any flight schedule time on this day, or you can arrive a few days before the trip to explore the city, then join with us on this day. Ho Chi Minh is the biggest and modern city in Vietnam, you can find good travel service here. Moreover, there are many international ATM or money exchanges as well as card accepting in most of the restaurants or shops in the city center. Relax to prepare for our trip soon to begin the next day.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

DAY 2 - 3 DEC 2024: HO CHI MINH / MOC HOA

Breakfast at the hotel.

Morning visits the temple and enjoy photography with the lady in Ao Dai in the temple (Model setup for photography). Ao Dai is the traditional costume in Vietnam, and the people normally wear ao dai in the most important festivals in Vietnam such as Tet Holidays or their wedding day. Photography with a lady in ao dai is suitable in the location of a temple, pagoda or a place with ancient architecture due to it is a native culture of Vietnamese people. We will photograph the model wearing the ao dai in Ho Chi Minh City, with the support of our local photographer for her posing.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Moc Hoa with 3 hours of driving. Moc Hoa is a rural place in the Mekong Delta with basic travel service. We will stay overnight and have a meal at the local hotel there. The room is clean with basic facility, toilet with hot water. There are not many choices for hotels in this place, and this hotel is near our shooting place.

Dinner at a local restaurant in Moc Hoa.

Overnight at a hotel in Moc Hoa (Basic accommodations).

DAY 3 - 4 DEC 2024: MOC HOA / CAN THO

Enjoy sunrise photography with the water lily flowers (Model setup for photography). The main blossom season of water lilies is from Sep to Dec, so with this period we have a chance to shoot the activities of people transporting flowers on the rowing boats. Our local photographer will arrange a boat full of water lily flowers, then we can shoot from a good view in the morning. And of course this shooting setup is most ideal for drone photography, but shooting by camera is also good too.

Back to the hotel for breakfast.

Morning transfer to Can Tho with 3 hours of driving.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to enjoy photography with the monks in the afternoon with the very big buddha statue. (Model setup for photography). 

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Can Tho.

DAY 4 - 5 DEC 2024: CAN THO / CHAU DOC

Enjoy sunrise photography with the floating market in Can Tho. The floating market in Vietnam now is not the major place to buy goods in Vietnam than before due to the development of infrastructure and modern technology. People will have more benefit to change traditional markets in the river to modern markets in land. However, Can Tho still has a floating market suitable for tourists and photographers to come and enjoy.

Back to the hotel for breakfast.

Morning transfer to Chau Doc with 4 hours of driving.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon enjoy photography with the fishermen throwing the fishing net (Model setup for photography). We will enjoy photographing the fishermen throwing fishing nets to the river with the support of posing from our local photographer. The shooting place is very convenient. We stand on the bridge and shoot the fishermen right below us, it looks like using a drone for this setup.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Chau Doc.

DAY 5 - 6 DEC 2024: CHAU DOC / RACH GIA

Enjoy sunrise photography with the palm trees in the rice paddy fields.

Back to the hotel for breakfast.

Enjoy morning photography with cow racing in Mekong Delta (Model setup for photography). Cow Racing is one of the attractive activities of the Khmer minority people living in Chau Doc, yearly before the new crops, people often celebrate the cow racing festival, then raise for the new successful crop. This time we set up a private cow race for our shooting. One cow driver will control 2 cows to run in the path with water. Each time 2 drivers will challenge to run, and we are mainly shooting in the arrival point with the most active of 2 drivers and cows.

Enjoy portrait photography with the monk in the Khmer Pagoda (Model setup for photography). The photograph in the Khmer pagoda, depending on the actual situation, we can shoot the monk or Khmer children around the pagoda as portrait photography.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Rach Gia with 4 hours of driving.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Rach Gia.

DAY 6 - 7 DEC 2024: RACH GIA / TRA VINH

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning enjoys photography with drying fish in Rach Gia (Setup for photography). A long time ago, Rach Gia was very famous for making dried fish, now there are some factories of drying fish. With the sun and shadow the photo of drying fish is really nice.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Tra Vinh with 5 hours of driving.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Tra Vinh. 

DAY 7 - 8 DEC 2024: TRA VINH / HO CHI MINH CITY

Early morning enjoy sunrise photography in Tra Vinh.

Back to the hotel for breakfast.

Morning enjoys photography in the handicraft village of mending the fishing net (Model setup for photography). Mending the fishing net in Tra Vinh was the major handicraft job in the past. Now there are not as many factories that have mended the fishing net as before but still have them available. We will visit one factory of fishing net mending like this and enjoy photography here with the support of our local professional photographer to arrange the background and concept to create art photos with the model as local workers.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Ho Chi Minh City with 3 hours of driving.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

DAY 8 - 9 DEC 2024: HO CHI MINH CITY / PHAN RANG

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning transfer to Phan Rang with 6 hours of driving.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon enjoy photography at the sand dunes with the Cham minority people (Model setup for photography). One of the best places for art photography I think is the sand dunes in Phan Rang. This place has nice lightning year-round, less rain and the shape of the dunes is nice both the view on sunrise and sunset. With the best support of our local photographer, we will enjoy photography in the sand dunes with minority models walking in the sand. Before this was the place of minority people and they often walked through the dunes to the town and turned back home.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Phan Rang.

DAY 9 - 10 DEC 2024: PHAN RANG / HANOl

Enjoy sunrise photography with the seascape in Phan Rang. Phan Rang is also a nice place for seascape photography in Vietnam. This morning, we will enjoy photography at the Nui Chua National Park with the view of the seascape Hang Rai. There is a big flat ancient coral at the seaside, and it is also a very nice place for photography with the big waves covering it. When the water comes out from the coral, it makes a nice moment to capture a photo. After that, we can walk around the site with many nice stones along the beach.

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning enjoys portrait photography in Phan Rang with the elderly (Model setup for photography). The scars on an elderly face are very clear and beautiful for photography. If luckily, we can visit the 100-year-old man, he will pose for us for photography with the support of our local photographer.

Lunch at local restaurant

Afternoon transfer to the airport of Nha Trang for local flight to Hanoi.

Arrival in Hanoi in the late afternoon.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Hanoi.

DAY 10 - 11 DEC 2024: HANOI / CAO BANG

Early breakfast at the hotel.

Morning enjoys photography with the handicraft village of making fishing traps (Model setup for photography). The local house of making fishing traps is located inside a small village, we need to walk around 500 meters to get there going through a small alley. Mostly only the elderly work this handicraft job during their free time, not many young people continue with this handicraft anymore. Similar to other handicraft villages in Vietnam, due to modern life, lots of handicraft villages will soon ruin and disappear.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Cao Bang with 6 hours of driving.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Cao Bang.

DAY 11 - 12 DEC 2024: CAO BANG / BAN GIOC

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning transfer to visit the minority village of Cao Bang (Model setup for photography).

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Ban Gioc with 2 hours of driving.

Enjoy photography of the greatest Ban Gioc Waterfall. 

Enjoy photography with the minority people in the traditional dress in Ban Gioc (Model setup for photography)

Then enjoy sunset photography at Ban Gioc Waterfall.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Ban Gioc.

DAY 12 - 13 DEC 2024: BAN GIOC

Early in the morning we will go to Phong Nam village to enjoy the view of the sunrise. If luckily, we will have mist or clouds surrounding the mountains, it should be a great moment for photography in Cao Bang. The village is surrounded by the very beautiful color of Quay Son River. Phong Nam is a very rural village of the minority people. People here mainly do agriculture, especially rice.

Enjoy morning photography with the fishermen in the river (Model setup for photography)

Breakfast at a local restaurant.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon visit minority village and enjoy afternoon shooting with the minority in Cao Bang (Model setup for photography).

Enjoy sunset photography with the nice view of the Cao Bang landscape.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Ban Gioc.

DAY 13 - 14 DEC 2024: BAN GIOC / LANG SON

Enjoy sunrise photography with the landscape in Cao Bang. Depending on actual situation of the weather, I will suggest an ideal destination for sunrise on this day.

Breakfast and relax.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Lang Son with 5 hours of driving.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Lang Son.

DAY 14 - 15 DEC 2024: LANG SON / HANOI

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning transfer to Hanoi with 3 hours of driving.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon enjoy photography at the handicraft village of making incense (Model setup for photography). Nowadays, the handicraft villages mainly remain in the north of Vietnam, especially surrounding Hanoi. With the support of my local professional photography, we will set up background as well as posing the local workers for our photography.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at a hotel in Hanoi.

DAY 15 - 16 DEC 2024: HANOI DEPARTURE

Breakfast at a hotel.

Morning transfer to the airport for your next destination. End of service.