It’s no big deal really, just Asia’s largest waterfall! Ban Gioc waterfall that straddles the border of Vietnam and China is a sight to behold. It had been on my list for some time now, so once Cao Bang was firmly on the itinerary of the trip, I knew the waterfall had to be too. It’s about a 2 hour drive outside of Cao Bang city, but with many home stays within just a few minutes of the waterfall, it’s easy enough to post up for the night out there. We arrived early afternoon and luckily went to visit it directly, as the rains came in hot and heavy that evening and didn’t let up for days.
This first frame was shot through my sunglasses, as I tried to fashion a makeshift ND filter to get a bit more shutter drag out from the water. It gave me a funky color balance, but I kinda like it…
Can you find the fisherman in the second photo? I’m not sure how you catch fish when they’re blowing past you at 50km an hour, but I guess that guy has it figured out?
And once I was bored with the waterfall, I turned my lens on the miniature horses for rent and youngsters running around in cosplay garbs, because why not!
This place was pretty stunning, a real life version of Tolkien’s Middle Earth it felt like. It’s called Nui Thung, or Angel Eye mountain, and it’s only a mountain with a big hole in it that sits amid a sprawl of grasslands more resembling Mongolia than Vietnam! We drove down a somewhat sketchy gravel road, and onto the grass, completely unsure if our scooters would make it, but it was dry enough so they did, and it was glorious! It was only us and a handful of cows and horses out there. While we wish we could have visited in better than noon light, it was amazingly peaceful just to sit there taking it in for a bit. I’ve got this one pinned for a camping trip there sometime in the future!
This is the way most mornings started, with a steaming bowl of noodles of some kind from the local market. There were some modified and interesting versions of typical dishes, i.e. this pork chop Phở, but it sure did hit the spot! That guy knows what I’m talking about!
We passed through the same market again in the evening, and it had a whole other feel to it, so I had to snap a few frames as well, and of course when I saw a guy in a motorbike mirror, it was gonna happen!
And finally, a few other images that didn’t quite fit into any of the other categories but I wanted to share anyway.
Thanks for coming on this journey with me, and here’s to hoping we can make it happen again next fall!
