I arrived in Hanoi on a Friday and saw the famous red bridge at Hoan Kiem Lake illuminated that night as I never saw it before, so I took the shot that leads off this gallery. The next morning, my friend Keith Eisele and I headed to SaPa, a town approximately 4,800 feet above sea level, in the northwest mountains of Vietnam, sandwiched between Laos and China; SaPa even gets snow occasionally. It was cool with morning drizzle (and one night, as well) but overall decent weather. Previously, I was told that there was a street market on Sundays but found out the hard way that it was only on a Saturday night and not at all on Sundays. Oh, well. We were, however, fortunate to get fine shots of Hmong children, so this "SaPa goal" was achieved.

Cao Dai is a new-ish monotheistic religion in Vietnam, founded in 1926. and purports to include parts of Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity although some Vietnamese scorn it as just a cult. Their "Vatican" is in Tay Ninh, about three hours from Saigon, and we were able to photograph their noontime service, something I have wanted to do for decades.

Finally, we took a quick day trip in the mangroves of the Mekong delta, visiting some cottage industry entrepreneurs.