December Theme Day - Time

Good times sipping cocktails on the Saigon river

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November Monthly Theme Day - Public Transport

Bus No 3 - Saigon to Thanh Loc

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October Theme Day - Graffiti

A left field shot for this theme day. Some seedy art in a seedy toilet of a rather upmarket establishment.

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September Theme Day - Open Air Market

Up in the hills north of Saigon I saw this lady walking through a small open market with goods that I assume she was intending to sell

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Monthly Theme Day - Bright Colours

The ubiquitous food court is making a strong push in Saigon to attract an ever increasing crowd of cashed up locals with a taste for fast food and neon glitz. Here people are getting their Korean burgers at 9:30 in the morning. In a country with fantastic cuisine at cheap prices, it always amazes what the attraction is

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Monthly Theme Day - Reflections

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June Theme Day - Funny Signs

Translation from top down is as follows:

New appetizing specialty to compliment any meal

HORSE MEAT

Very delicious and highly nutritious

New Horse Meat Here!

You will know the true value…….

WE HAVE IT HERE!

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May Theme Day - Statues

There are two Hindu temples in town that I know of, and both are adorned with statues of the many deities from the religions mythology

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April Theme Day - Red

Communism and socialism identify with the colour red. However with the push of globalisation into socialist politics all is not as clearly defined as it once was.


Bill Hayton, BBC correspondent in Vietnam in 2006-7 had released a book that charts the changes in Vietnam with a mix of reportage and behind the scenes analysis. It tackles big topics - democracy vs one party rule, development vs environment and much more.

"Examining nearly every aspect of Vietnamese politics and society, from the economy and family life, to religion and the plight of indigenous minorities, Hayton gives a balanced, intelligent account of a country whose history so differs from our own." Justin Wintle, Financial Times

"This is a cleverly pitched book, one that will appeal equally to a businessman or investor seeking a briefing on Vietnam, an old Asia hand, or an inquisitive backpacker." Petroc Trelawny, Irish Times

Get on it 

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March Theme Day - Passageway to Cambodia

The highway to Cambodia is one of the more organized roads in the country, separating the cars and motorbikes for all round driving ease

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February Theme Day - Wood

The town of Luang Prabang in Laos has magnificently restored and maintained colonial architecture. The wooden shutters pictured here at Satri House are a standard adornment of most windows


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January Theme Day - Changes

75% of votes were for some form of "best photo", yet the poll was overturned in favour of "changes". You cannot get more of a change than that

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December Theme Day - Waiting

The "heads" of two lions taking a break between performances.

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November Monthly Theme Day - Doorways

A day late as we did not have any access to the internet over the weekend. This is a photo of a gate to a rather large house around the corner from us.
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September Theme Day - Big

I fly out of HCMC a lot at dawn, and occasionally we swing by the delta where the Saigon and Dong Nai rivers meet. The delta is quite large and is famous for its mangrove forests near the oceans edge, while inland the network of canals is used to navigate around the rice paddies. From the sky all you can really see is water everywhere. I always find it an impressive sight

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August Theme Day - Night

It is a pretty standard sight around HCMC, but may be unusual to those outside of Vietnam. Motorcycle taxis, known as xe ôm, gather around night spots looking for fares. While waiting, it is common to see them stretch out and fall asleep on their bikes. You can get this type of picture 24 hours a day, and it reinforces the notion that Vietnamese are able to fall asleep just about anywhere at anytime

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July Theme Day - Empty

I found this theme day quite difficult. I wanted to shy away from empty buildings or restaurants, an empty park or grandstand, empty bottles or beaches. So I thought a image of the back of a camera with no pictures in it would be most appropriate.

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Where is the Tehran24 blogger?

Today the City Daily Photo bloggers have arranged a "sub theme day" to support the owner of a daily photo blog from Tehran called Tehran24, who has been reported missing since June 17, 2009. The images captured on Tehran24 highlight symbols of protest, made famous by the shocking images of Neda Agha-Soltan's death.

This reminded me of a famous symbol of protest from my own city. Back in 1963 a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down crosslegged in the middle of a busy street in Saigon, his robes soaked in fuel, and set fire to himself; his body was quickly engulfed in flames. The haunting and horrifying protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese regime got results: as more monks began to emulate Thich Quang Duc's example, President Ngo Dinh Diem fell from favor. In November 1963 he was removed from power by a coup d'etat and executed.

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June Theme Day - Feet

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Vietnamese women have a fascination with style and fashion. Probably the one that I find more interesting than most is the market for manicures and pedicures. Seeing women go to outrageous lengths with nail polish designs and diamantes is quite peculiar in my eyes, yet it is classical all the same

May Theme Day - Shadows

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This photo was taken from a plane as we were about to descend into the clouds. I was tracking the shadow as it appeared on the clouds but it seemed destined to remain too small right up until we entered the clouds. With a lot of crud on the window it is not the cleanest photo, but the sun's reflection makes it a little more interesting