March 2014 - Wedding Photographers Cardiff

Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City

Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City

Da Nang is Vietnams third largest city with a population of about 900000. Located on the banks of the Han river, the modrrn developing city is part of a peninsula surrounded by beaches and mountains. The riverfront is a great place to explore with plenty of bars and restaurants with great views of the brightly lit modern bridges. It was a major base for the Americans during the Vietnam war. We only stopped overnight at the new and swanky Northern Hotel in downtown before flying on to Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon is Vietnams largest city with a population of about 8 million people. With French Colonial architecture, such as Notre Dame Cathedral and the General Post Office and wide boulavards full of an endless procession of motorbikes and scooters. We visit the War Remnants Museum which shows the Vietnam War through their eyes, with an amazing but harrowing unbiased collection of Journalists photographs on the top floor. A great place to watch the sun go down over the Opera House and city skyline is the iconic Saigon Saigon bar in the Caravelle Hotel. We also have a great view of the city, including the Bitexco Tower and river from our room in the Sunland Hotel. Another great hotel we can recommend between the city and the airport is the Alcove Library which we had an overnight stay on our first visit! Worth a visit is the Ben Thanh Market and the nearby Backpackers district (Pham Ngu Lao and De Tham St) – a mayhem of crowds, bars, eateries and clubs, a bit of a freak show really but fascinating all the same!!! We surprisingly really like Ho Chi Minh City, the key to this is to embrace the dizzying crowds, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

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Cua Dai Beach Vietnam

After taking bicycles from Hoi An to Cua Dai Beach (literally means big sea mouth), we decide it would be a great place to spend a night on the way back to Da Nang. Cua Dai Beach is a 2 mile stretch of palm fringed fine white sand and gently rolling breakers with the Cham Islands lying just offshore. Running parallel, about half a mile back from the beach is a gently winding estuary, a hangout for the local fishermen. It’s a great place for photography, with sunsets on the estuary and sunrise at the beach! It was still dark when I got down the beach pre sunrise and I was amazed to find so many people already there doing there morning exercise and Tai Chi! The locals were so friendly, many coming up for a chat, particularly interested whether I liked their country. I met an old man with a toothless grin who told me (by mime) that he shot down Americans during the war! It was great to watch the local fisherman negotiating the surf with their early morning catch on their Coracles, slightly different to their Carmarthen cousins, they are made using interwoven bamboo and waterproofed using resin and coconut oil!

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Vietnamese Life

The best time to experience Vietnamese life was to get up early and have a stroll around the local markets. There is a real buzz in the hustle and bustle of the narrow streets and pavement vendors. These local markets are a daily occurrence and the fresh produce gets recycled regularly. When walking around you feel like you’re in a time warp, amongst century old traditions, such an amazing place to people watch. After a few days of exploring you get to recognise some of the characters, especially some of the ladies who ferry people on the river – a hard life, but it appears to be a happy one!

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Newborn Twins Photography

Newborn Twins Photography Cardiff

We had a great time last week photographing these adorable twin sisters Evie & Avie. It was great to catch up with Kellieann after photographing her and Ian’s wedding last year. We much prefer to shoot newborns in the comfort of their own home as we find this much less stressful for both babies and parents. All these images were taken using natural light. With newborn photography it is very important to capture them within the first two weeks, preferably within the first week. Patience is definitely the key with newborns as you really have to ‘work around them’! However we had no problem photographing Evie and Avie, they were the perfect models for their very first photo shoot!

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My Son Vietnam

My Son Vietnam

My Son, situated about an hours drive inland fro Hoi An was the ancient capitol of the Champa Dynasty. It is a large complex of religious brick built ancient ruins dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. Unfortunately most of the temples were obliterated by US carpet bombing during the Vietnam War, many of the bomb craters are still visible today. We made the mistake of booking a day tour where all the buses and their respective guides arrive at the same time. Our guide was hilarious, like a Vietnamese drill sergeant – we made the immediate decision to loose him and wonder round ourselves! Top tip if you’re going to visit My Son, organise a driver and come in the afternoon when all the buses are long gone!!

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Hoi An

Hoi An Central Vietnam

About 30 to 40 minutes South of Da Nang is the beautiful town of Hoi An, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Once known as Faifa, Hoi An was the commercial capitol of the Cham kingdom which controlled the Spice trade with Indonesia between the 7th and 10th centuries. The Old Town is a maze of lanes and alleyways, full of Chinese shophouses mainly serving the tourist trade. There is a lovely atmosphere at night just as the sun goes down and the thousands of Chinese lanterns light up. Some people may hate the amount of tourists this beautiful town attracts, the upside of this is an abundance of great hotels and restaurants – oh and propper coffee!!!!!! In reality many busloads head back to nearby Da Nang and the beaches in the evening so it is still easy to get lost in it’s charm. We love it!! it’s our favourite town in Asia so far! We also find our favourite hotel in Vietnam, the Thanh Binh Riverside, we initially book in for 3 nights and end up spending 8!

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Hue Central Vietnam

To get to Hue (pronounced ‘Hway’) we take an overnight sleeper train from Ninh Binh. We have the upper two berths in a 4 berth cabin. Unfortunately, there are two extra small children in ours – JOY!! To be fair the kids were great and we have a relatively good nights sleep – the toilets however are not so great?? About 13 hours later we arrive in Hue first thing in the morning and greeted by rain – not in the plan!! A Unesco World Heritage Site, the picturesque city of Hue lies on the Perfume river and was once the imperial capitol of the Nguyen Emperors. Because of Heu’s central location, very near the border between North & South Vietnam it suffered considerable damage in what the locals describe as the ‘American War’, particularly the Tet Offensive of 1968. Today, the city is very much a blend of old and new, with the crumbling Citadel Walls and modern sleek Hotels, such as the Midtown Hotel which we were lucky enough to find, this had to be our best value hotel in Vietnam, amazing service! We have a lazy day exploring the city and Citadel and even find proper coffee at the 5* Best Western Hotel!! We decide to have a night of luxury and head about an hour South to the Vedana Lagoon Wellness Resort and Spa on the picturesque Tam Giang Lagoon. We are well and truly spoilt in our Water Bungalow, the bed is absolutely huge and we have a private deck with sunbeds, which we take full advantage of as finally the weather improves! Each guest has there own bike, so we take them for a spin to explore the nearby fishing village and paddy fields. We make the most of our stay and have a late checkout. We follow in the footsteps of our forefathers (The Top Gear Boys) and travel further south over the beautiful Hai Van mountain pass into the city of Da Nang And on to Hoi An.

Ninh Binh Vietnam

We book our trip to Ninh Binh on the Red River Delta, this time bus, boat, bus and bus! I think we’ve been had as the last bus is a local and not tourist bus. It waits for an age before leaving and tries to pick up people and packages along the way, we now have an exercise bike on the passenger seat along with a growing pile of luggage! The driver is so slow, he is averaging about 25mph – welcome to Asia!!
Ninh Binh is a non distinct local town mainly set up for day trips from Hanoi to the nearby national parks. The morning is a little brighter but still very cold. We hire a driver to take us to the beautiful Tam Coc (Three Caves) National Park where we are rowed up river through paddy fields, the limestone peaks tower above us. We are steered through a series of caves and spot 3 different types of Kingfisher along the way. The rowers have an amazing technique of sitting down and rowing with their feet!!! We stop at a Chinese Pagoda and witness a ceremony led by a very wise looking bearded monk. A very memorable trip and well worth braving the cold and the bus journey!!!

Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Halong Bay & Cat Ba Island

We have been told by a few fellow travellers that a really great place to see the famous Halong Bay is via the less touristy Cat Ba Island. So 2 busses, a ferry and another bus and we arrive in Cat Ba town about 4 hours later. We stay for 3 nights and opt for the seecond day to do our boat trip to Halong Bay as his looks like it will be the best day weather wise. It turns out to be the brightest out of the three but also the coldest and still very grey – our boat is no luxury liner! We may have been lucky as we have spoken to people since who could hardly see a thing when they went out and some overnight trips had to be cancelled!! When I say it’s cold we are literally wearing most of our clothes – not exactly what we had in mind!!

Hanoi Vietnam

Hanoi Vietnam

After a short flight from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) we arrive in Hanoi with a population of close to 7 million. We head straight for our hotel, The Rising Dragon Palace in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. We love the Old Quarter, think French colonial meets Old China, add in the hustle and bustle of traditional street trading in the narrow streets and alleyways. What a buzz, a great place to explore and people watch while sitting at a pavement cafe sipping coffee. Luckily we can get western style coffee here, lets just say that Vietnamese coffee is an acquired taste and unfortunately one which I’m never likely to acquire in my lifetime!!! The weather’s supposed to be cooler up North, the first 2 days are really warm and then some drizzle comes in and it gets much cooler – is this a sign of things to come? We visit a few museums, the best of which is the Womens Museum which had some fascinating stories of how women coped though the wars.