2 - "Saigon Street Arts." Noticeable too were plenty of art shops some are known to be selling pirated paintings. I have seen a Monalisa in one of those shops but the image I snapped was not good enough to be posted.
3 - "Saigon Rush Hour_1 ." The rain had just stopped when we landed at Ho Chi Minch City (HCM). 'Twas about past five and working hours had just ended, and so the streets were very busy. Despite the overcast sky, the setting sun still managed to cast a bit of light on the motorists on the image below.
4 - "Saigon Hotel View After The Rain." The moment I entered the room, there was a sudden urge to see what's behind the day curtain. It was a colourful rural skyline, in itself tells a lot about HCM City.
5 - "VMW Dinner." The first company event in HCM was a dinner at a floating resto.
6 - "Birthday Peek." Photojournalism was my focus for the HCM trip. My colleagues will definitely be armed with at least a point-and-shoot camera of their own for their poses so for me, to capture what is uniquely Saigon is utterly more important. At the second floor of the ferry where the viewing deck is, I managed to capture a birthday celebration being held. I hesitated switching to a wide lens as I might lose the moment that's why the violinist in the fore was lost it could have been better to frame the unfolding scene.
7 - "Floating Resto." A similar ferry on a distance. It would be impossible for me to capture it nicely focused as our ferry was also moving, so I decided to play with zooming the lens in an out while pressing the shutter button. Here's one of the best shot amongst a few.
8 - "Portside of Resto." There was a live band and a firedance show to entertain us. The ferry docked and it was time to head back to hotel. I got lucky to step out of the ferry first and was able to capture this scene. Just one shot as I have already started a bottleneck.
9 - "Saigon's Best: Tran Manh Tuan." The night was still young, so some of us decided to alight at Ben Tanh Market instead of heading back to hotel. A chill out was a great idea so we walked towards a popular Jazz bar for some drinks. The bar is owned by Tran Manh Tuan, a popular jazz saxophonist. Singapore's Mario Sergio used to have regular performances here.
10 - "Best Seat In The House." I have always wanted to play serious jazz music, in its highest form. But the opportunity keeps on eluding me. Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with what I can play at the moment and maybe just pass on the passion to my kids later on. Jazz drummers, I respect them that's why for me, this is 'the best seat in the house.'
11 - "Speaking Hands." There was an interplay of spotlights highlighting the band. I waited for the yellow light to hit the pianist, hoping to capture the melancholy of the song the band was playing at the time.
12 - "SGD$1.00 Beer." If Phils have San Miguel and Singapore have Tiger, Vietnam has Saigon Beer. But unlike in Singapore, beer in Vietnam is very cheap. Almost everything there is cheap if you are coming from a first world country. But Saigon is not their favourite beer afterall. You will know from my 'Day-3 chronicles' coming soon...
13 - "Saigon Means 'Kapok' Tree." Walking back to the hotel, I can't help but adore the giant Kapok Trees (about 30-metres tall) lined up along most streets. They are like pine trees along the streets of Baguio City (Phils). In Singapore, there are a lot of these trees introduced by Landscapers recently (in the past 5 years) but never had I seen gigantic ones as those in HCM.
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