Vietnam

On the way over to our year abroad in New Zealand, my partner Milly and I stopped over in Vietnam. This was partly to spread the long flight to Auckland into two manageable legs, but it was a good excuse for a holiday too.

Hanoi was one of the most intense cities I’ve ever stepped foot in - having visited Bangkok earlier in the year, I didn’t think another place could top the list, but it did! Opening the hotel doors was like stepping from one world to another. There is a big question of ‘style’ for photographers - where I’d usually edit and add haze, keep contrast fairly low and present a fairly flat image, that would have been wrong when portraying the reality of walking the streets of Hanoi. All your senses are dialled up to max: the heat, noise, colours, smells, and of course - taste (the food was second to none). As such, these are far more textured, contrasted images than I’d ever usually publish - but the more I travel, the more I want to accurately represent the places I go – and Hanoi deserves to stand out!

In the final few days of our trip, we took the bus south to Ninh Bihn - an unbelievably flat, cycleable little town, nestled among the most incredible green vistas and sheer cliffs. Miles of lush green trees. As for the food, there were more gorgeous family-run eateries than I could count.