The Art and Soul of Northern Vietnam with David Julian
Join Dave and his expert guiding partners for a unique photography journey into the art and soul of Northern Vietnam.
Our focus will be to capture the beauty of the land and the spirit of its people in an exciting range of locations. With our patient guidance, photographers will learn new skills in seeing, active composition and connecting with locals. We’ll tour Vietnam’s wildly-colorful street markets, expansive valleys, terraced fields, island-rimmed bays, ancient fishing villages, plus spontaneous discoveries along the way. Our bilingual guides will help us access and create storytelling photographs of street vendors, artisans, performers, fishermen and remote ethnic tribal villagers.
This tour is for adventurous travelers seeking authentic cultural experiences that expand the mind while opening the heart. Bring any digital camera you are familiar with, or just join us using the simplicity of your smartphone. Non-photographers are welcome to join us— they just have to endure our daily obsession with light!
2023 Tour Images
Itinerary
Day 0: Tuesday, September 30th – Early Arrivals
We recommend that participants arrive 1-2 days beforehand to acclimate, rest up and wander the neighborhood shops. (We can arrange your hotel.) We will hold our Orientation meeting and Welcome Dinner this evening if all guests have arrived.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 1: Wednesday, October 1st – Hanoi
Today is a full day of photography, shooting from dawn till dark with a mid-day break. The adventure includes Reunification Park, the Thieves Market, craft villages producing incense, steel knives, and conical hats, and exhilarating Long Bien night market. You’ll experience and document authentic daily life in Vietnam’s capital, its places, people, sights and sounds, creating a rich visual narrative.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 2: Thursday, October 2nd – Hanoi
We’ll set out early this morning, taking the road north to Ba Be via Thai Nguyen. We head through rolling tea plantations and increasingly scenic valleys before reaching beautiful Ba Be National Park for lunch. Ba Be Lake is one of the deepest in Vietnam, surrounded by limestone cliffs and ancient forest. We’ll check in and enjoy a traditional ethnic Tay lunch spread overlooking the water before heading out for the afternoon. We’ll walk along the banks of the lake, passing by the bamboo stilt houses of Pac Ngoi village. Then it’s time to climb aboard a longboat to explore different parts of the lake, including a thunderous waterfall and deep river cave. As the sun drops, we’ll have opportunities for landscape photography and drone flights from the banks of the lake, and we’ll also have a close-up encounter with Tay fishermen as they bring in their catch for the day. We’ll have a delicious dinner at our accommodation, with plenty of locally brewed rice wine to polish off the day.
Accommodation: Ba Be Jungle Houses
Day 3 – Friday Oct. 3rd – Ba Be National Park
Sunrise is a great time for photography in Vietnam, not least in a place like Ba Be. We’ll be up early to capture life along one of the streams leading down to the lake, including locals leading their buffalo to pasture, kids heading to school by boat and bicycle, and fishermen laying out their nets. We’ll also be able to visit some local houses where Tay villagers practice traditional weaving methods. After an early lunch at our accommodation we’ll head out for a trek to local Hmong villages in the surrounding hills. This offers plenty of opportunities for portraiture and images of daily village life in remote areas. We finish up with kayaking down a river back down to Ba Be Lake, with more visions of waterside life as the sun sets on another beautiful day.
Accommodation: Ba Be Jungle Houses
Day 4 – October 4th – Ba Be National Park to Cao Bang
Time to bid farewell to Ba Be. We climb aboard our minivan and travel north through deep valleys and over mountain passes. We’ll explore the remote and culturally-rich areas along the way, home to a tapestry of tribal groups, many practicing handicrafts such as blacksmithing, beeswax printing and silver carving, using time-honored, pre-industrial methods. After lunch in Cao Bang, we’ll check into our accommodation at a scenic spot outside the city.
Accommodation: La Maison Boutique
Day 5 – October 5th – Cao Bang
This morning we venture to a little-known tribal village specializing in several crafts. First of these is the hand-manufacture of incense. All ingredients, including bamboo for the sticks and wild herbs for the powder, are locally-sourced. The villagers also produce handmade paper, a tradition stretching back many generations. The paper is used for votives pasted within local homes, warding off evil spirits.
Finally, we visit a village with a historic line in metal forging, going back to the Dong Son period, but anecdotally perhaps also producing metal casing for armaments during the Viet Minh’s war against the French occupation. We return to Cao Bang for lunch and a rest before heading out to a beautiful riverside plateau, overlooked by Angel’s Eye Mountain. We’ll spend the afternoon relaxing, exploring on foot, and of course capturing incredible landscapes and images of rural life as the sun drops.
Accommodation: La Maison Boutique
Day 6 – October 6th – Cao Bang to Meo Vac
We’ll take the road along the Chinese border this morning, traveling west towards Ha Giang province. There’s plenty of time for scenic stops and random encounters with local minority groups, such as Black LoLo and Hmong, especially as the rice harvest is ongoing in many parts. We arrive in the frontier town of Meo Vac in mid-afternoon. After checking into our accommodation, we head out on to the spectacular Ma Pi Leng Pass. As the sun drops, we’ll take time to shoot incredible landscapes over Southeast Asia’s deepest gorge.
Accommodation: Ma Pi Leng EcoLodge
Day 7 – October 7th – Meo Vac
We’ll spend the morning shooting at various stunning vantage points over the Ma Pi Leng gorge, before driving down to the Nho Que River far below for a jaw-dropping trip by longboat. After lunch in Meo Vac, it’s time for a trek to visit remote villages high up in the craggy mountains. We’ll have rare opportunities to encounter minority life above the clouds, often far from roads passable by car. The walk is fair to moderately challenging, and we’ll have plenty of chance to rest and interact with the locals along the way.
Accommodation: Ma Pi Leng EcoLodge
Day 8 – October 8th – Meo Vac to Trang Kim
An early start, and the road now takes us into the incredible Dong Van Rocky Plateau. Turn after turn, we’ll encounter the awe-inspiring, volcanic landscapes for which Ha Giang is famous. We’ll also drop by the Hmong King’s Palace at Sa Phin, from where, a century ago, the local chieftan presided over France’s local opium trade. The rustic palace houses a museum displaying photographs and artefacts from those long-ago days. After lunch in Yen Minh, the scenery becomes greener, with volcanic rock giving way to rice terraces and pine forest. The road hairpins down through gorgeous valleys before we arrive at our scenically-set accommodation.
Accommodation: Hmong Village Resort
Day 9 – October 9th – Trang Kim
This morning, the nearby village of Trang Kim hosts a colorful and authentic tribal market. Get lost with your camera amidst the hustle and bustle, capturing portraits and images of the action. It’s also a great chance to try out some local produce, such as locally grown fruits and wines. Afterwards, we explore Lung Tam traditional weaving village, where the locals have a unique, time-honored method of producing their textiles by hand and foot. In the afternoon, we’ll be looking in more detail at landscape photography, with some lovely spots in the gorges nearby. There are plenty of options for drone photography throughout this area.
Accommodation: Hmong Village Resort
Day 10 – October 10th – Trang Kim to Ha Giang
Our final journey out of the mountains this morning gives us plenty of time for stops at scenic views and bustling tribal hamlets. We’ll drop by for lunch with our friends in the Red Dzao community of Nam Dam. This is a great place to wander, capturing images of the locals at work and play. By late afternoon, we’ll be in the provincial capital of Ha Giang, a chance to enjoy some modern, even western, comforts after mountain life. After checking into our hotel, we’ll enjoy Ha Giang’s eclectic dining scene.
Accommodation: Phoenix Hotel Ha Giang
Day 11 – October 11th – Ha Giang to Lam Thuong
We’ll have a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, before reviewing photos from the trip so far over coffee. Ha Giang has an interesting central market, plus several monuments from the war worth visiting. It’s also a nice little place to simply wander and soak up the mountain town vibe. After lunch, we hit the road south for Yen Bai province, arriving at beautiful Xoi Farmstay in late afternoon. In the evening we can learn how to prepare traditional Tay minority dishes alongside our host family, before enjoying them for dinner.
Accommodation: Xoi Farmstay
Day 12 – October 12th – Lam Thuong
Today, we get up early for our final tribal market in Lam Thuong, just a short distance away from the farm stay. We’ll mix with the local Tay minority as they trade, barter and catch up with old friends, bringing great opportunities for visual storytelling. The area is blessed with beautiful rice paddies, and after the market we’ll spend time exploring the area on foot and by bicycle, enjoying and photographing classical. Vietnamese rural life. The afternoon will include a photo shoot at a small mountainside bamboo factory, plus a trip to-and dip in-a stunning forest waterfall.
Accommodation: Xoi Farmstay
Day 13 – October 13th – Lam Thuong to Hanoi
We set off back to Hanoi this morning. If time and weather allow, we can stop by Tho Ha rice paper village on the banks of the Red River. In charming backstreets, we’ll explore busy workshops, and photograph bamboo frames stacked with drying rice paper. Along the way, we’ll produce a stunning pictorial narrative of this unforgettable and authentically Vietnamese village. We arrive back in the capital in late afternoon. This evening, we’ll have our final dinner together.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Day 14 – October 14th – Hanoi
It’s our last morning in Hanoi, and the perfect opportunity to enjoy a bowl of traditional ‘pho’, a photographic wander in the Old Quarter and a delicious lunch together overlooking the Red River. We’ll have a review of photos with coffee and an editing workshop in the afternoon. Depending on arrangements, guests may fly out this evening, or relax before their extensions begin the following morning.
Accommodation: Golden Silk Boutique Hotel
Testimonials
“An adventure of discovery every day. Dave’s style of leadership, attention to detail and patient instruction allows travelers to experience the culture on a macro level (pun intended), while improving photographic skills.
I appreciate how Dave organizes destination workshops because of his keen interest in understanding people and his sensitivity to cultures. He offers insights through background information while emphasizing the importance of exploring and discovering on our own.
Dave works very hard to assure everyone has a great experience, culturally as well as photographically. He is insightful, patient, generous with his expertise and with the small group size, travel is easy and comfortable and there is time to share ideas snd critiques.
Dave is an incredibly gifted photographer and a very patient teacher. Traveling with him was not only an amazing photographic experience but also a chance to know his generosity of spirit and the way he handles challenges that came up. I’ll travel with him again for sure.” Junko, USA
“This is THE tour to take if you want to know and photograph the culture, the people, and the vibe of Vietnam. Along with Dave, our experiences were organized and hosted by some very knowledgeable and personable guides, although I would prefer to call them friends now, after our journey.” John, USA
What's included
- Airport immigration assistance, transfers or facilitation when arriving beyond our hours
- Accommodations during our workshop tour dates in hotels or home stays.
- All group meals (and their gratuities) are included.
- All destination transportation by deluxe van, and small boats when visiting waterways.
- Pre-trip group meeting via Zoom in early September (date/time TBA via Email).
- Orientation: required meeting at the hotel or offices. Get inspired and learn what’s next
- Daily location and photographic guidance as indicated in the Itinerary
Snacks, local fruits and bottled water are available throughout the workshop - Continuous assistance with your photography by Dave and his Vietnamese guide.
- Professional Lightroom developing workflow and tips when time allows.
- Post-trip photo sharing Zoom and optional image critique
its
What's not included
- Airfare to and from Hanoi
- Extra hotel accommodations
- Personal snacks and extra drinks
- Credit Card payment surcharges
- Travel Insurance (required)
- Personal shopping
- Extra travel, lodging and taxi services
- Extension : Coastal Traditions
- Additional guidance beyond tour dates
