SGTrekker's 6D5N Hanoi Sapa Valley Photography Tour (19th - 24th May 2011)


#93 Melvin signature kung fu kick.. He jumped 3-4 times .. though he was tired, he is still so obliging ..
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#94 sisters / buddies
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#95 pang kang loh
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#96
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#97 stairs leading to the waterfall
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#98 cross the bridge and you are there
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#99
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#100
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#101
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#102
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#103 melvin lost the cap
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#104 get ready for the stairs .. I lost count of how many.. chuan man!
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#105 after the siong stairs , walked for about 10 mins on this flat road and a bit more stairs and then a not so gentle slope awaiting for yo
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#106 finally we reached the end of the cat cat valley.. whats going on that they were so engrosed in?
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#107 a final jump at the valley by Ken before we took the van out of the valley back to hotel
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We went back to wash up and have lunch.. F & E for the rest of the afternoon. Meet for dinner and night shoot at Sapa Town..

To be continued ..
 

#92 The girls on this group
Lydia, Mun Leng, Ivy Lee, Ivy Lai, Hwee Cheng and Siow Har
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#106 finally we reached the end of the cat cat valley.. whats going on that they were so engrosed in?
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#107 a final jump at the valley by Ken before we took the van out of the valley back to hotel
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Wah... can really see that all of you on this trip were having a whole lot of fun.
I think that is one of the most important thing ~ the company.
Good, good... keep them coming, Lydialee.
 

finally we reached the end of the cat cat valley..

a final jump at the valley by Ken before we took the van out of the valley back to hotel

No aircon van for us leh? I remembered a long and exhaustive uphill walk until we reach a rest house, and going back hotel with each of us piggy back on motorcycle, and esp those with huge tua leng gong doing an incredible balancing act.
 

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very nice pictures Lydia!
 

Wah... can really see that all of you on this trip were having a whole lot of fun.
I think that is one of the most important thing ~ the company.
Good, good... keep them coming, Lydialee.

Yes, Wee How .. definitely the company who made this trip so memorable and fun. We made so much noise everywhere we went :)
 

Day 3 After dinner, we went for a night shoot of Sapa Town near the Old Cathedral

#108 the streets - just step out of the hotel
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#109
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#110 We saw these two girls , so poor thing. they were so sleepy and dead tired
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#111 I realised my flash did not wake her up
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#112 there was a performance that night.. so many people gathered at the square
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#113 the Old Cathedral
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#114 opposite side of the Cathedral, just walk down and you will be in the square
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#115 FE view
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#116 There were many people around the Catherdral, so we walked to the other side to try to take a landscape view of the square.
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#117 soon the lights went off at about 10 pm. Since we mount our tripod, of cos we continued shooting
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#118 saw this big big poster board behind me opposite the road
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#119 We left the square and walked back to the old cathedral.
We made so much noise that small crowd started to form around us to see what we are doing.
Melvin and Ivy stood to block the bright light for us to take picture. (thank you .. you both are so nice)
see their hands gesture ..."Dont shoot me, or you must give me $1".. we ROTFL liao
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#120 we then moved to the middle of the road , despite motorbikes everywhere..
that is the benefit of having a big group :)
we start to mount our tripods ... but what are we shooting??
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#121 since we donno what to shoot... our "models" start to work again , doing the "$1 pose", what else .. many people were surrounding us now,
must be thinking this group of siao people
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#122 We then moved to the old cathedral and start our creative ideas ... playing with lights and kung fu kick :)

so start with Melvin , as usual , he must do his signature kung fu kick as a memorial to this place (for us) ....
poor Melvin, he so tired already, but he still kicked lah .. I think he jumped and kicked few times.. chuan man!
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#123 Darren also want to try ... so we got new "kung fu" master .. but this master no do kung fu kick but more like star jump
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#124 We ended the nite with Melvin playing with the lights for us to shoot :) He really tired out! salute him for displaying his utmost professionalism attitude
Ask and be given ... He did the lights display for at least 5 times! 30 seconds is just not enough for him to write "VIETNAM"... so it becames SAPA...
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we ended the night at about 11 plus and back to hotel ... nite nite .. we all sleep like a log :)
 

Lydia! Thanks for sharing your photos! very well documented! Throughout the entire trip, i can feel that you are seriously taking documentary photo of the trip.

Well done!

also, the jump were ok lah. just jump here and there with little effort. wahahhaa
 

Lydia! Thanks for sharing your photos! very well documented! Throughout the entire trip, i can feel that you are seriously taking documentary photo of the trip.

Well done!

also, the jump were ok lah. just jump here and there with little effort. wahahhaa

Melvin, our Lydialee has now been officially welcomed as the Permanent Secretary of SARP, to you, the Chairman.
Of course people document like there is no tomorrow lah!
But I must say, well done, Lydialee!
 

Day 3: Cat Cat Valley Trek (Half Day)

Some Background about Cat Cat Village in Sapa
Cat Cat Village is about 1 km from Sapa town. It's located at the bottom of the Muong Hoa Valley and near the stunning Cat Cat Waterfall. This is an age-old village of H'Mong ethnic group remaining unique customs and practices that are lots in other villages.

We have to walk through Sapa Market down the valley. Once we cleared the crowd from the market, the beautiful scenery with high mountains of over 3000 m and the green rice terraces dropping nearly 1000m below revealed before us.

Making of the traditional costumes
Visitors to Cat Cat have an opportunity to admire a lively and colorful picture. That is the image of young women sitting by looms with colorful pieces of brocade decorated with designs of flowers and birds. When these pieces of brocade are finished, they are dyed and embroidered with beautiful designs. A noteworthy is that H'Mong women use plants and leaves to dye these brocade fabrics. And then they roll a round and smooth section of wood covered with wax on fabrics to polish them, making their colors durable.

Traditional houses of H'Mong people in Cat Cat have three rooms with three doors and covered with po mu wood roof. In the house there are three columns that stand in round or square stones. The walls are made from sawn timber. The main door is always closed and only opens when people in the house organize important events. Altar, inlaid floor containing food, places for sleeping, kitchen and receiving guests are indispensable parts of the houses.​

Trekking Commence as soon as we finish our breakfast. Our body and feet are still heavy as a result of extensive use of muscle group (which were seldomly used during our urban lifestyle). The team's morale has been low when we stepped out of the hotel. This is the first thing that greeted us during the trek

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As with Singapore Trekker's motto, we will Embrace The Adventure and proceed with the trek.

The misty weather has taught us well to be creative in the kind of photography that i can do in different situation. With a keen eye, everyone of us keep a lookout for unique angle in the mist. I have followed one of our group member to photograph this bamboo which i would have thought not possible in normal situation.

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The road down proves to be a little bit more challenging with what lies ahead.
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As we embrace the nature and trek further. The mist clears a bit. Shyly revealing the partial beauty of the entire landscape. It seems like nature is teasing us a little by a little. We were certainly elated to having such visibility and i am sure that everyone must have stopped to capture the fleeting moments of the scenery!

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A fleeting moment indeed, soon after, nature has decided that it is enough and we must moved on with our trek. Mist wraps around the valley once again. Our spirits were lifted and soon we are crazy and started increasing our camera shutter count by photographing the local hmong people. I remember we were like a firing squat behind this "trench" like covers and photographing locals walking up and down the valley. *they must have thought that we were nuts" hahaha

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As many of us walked past a U-Turn structure, one of our team mate, Chong, has spotted this spot as a hairpin curve and started to photograph this turn with people walking up and down. Once again, i followed him and tried a few failed attempts with my 24mm focal range.. Disappointed and i proceed to use my fish eye and managed to pull off this shot with two lovely ladies of our group!

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The fish eye really warps the way we look at things and i started having fun with this new found toy! Nature must have noticed the slow progress of the team and started to life the mist once again, as if trying to remind us that there were more beautiful things below. I took my last shot using my FE and started to move everyone down the valley and call out: "Comon Everyone!, Last shot and lets get going!"

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Moving on and we saw a construction of a new house going on. It occurs to me that it must be some works of the unique custom as mentioned in the previous post. (hmmm....)
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One of the men working had a very charming pose, much like an adverts of Malboro Cigarettes.

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** Side track a bit. when i was young, my friends will always come up with weird long names for famous brands. For this case, M.A.R.L.B.O.R.O reminds me of the usual "Men Always Respect Ladies Because Of Romance Only" **
 

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Yes. Daniel, do share more of your stunning photos!

Thank You Daniel. Waiting to see your pictures here too. Am sure you have many good / superb pics to share...

Woah... limwhow, you are still our chariman of SARP leh... dont be modest. you are the best candidate!

Melvin, our Lydialee has now been officially welcomed as the Permanent Secretary of SARP, to you, the Chairman.
Of course people document like there is no tomorrow lah!
But I must say, well done, Lydialee!
 

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