Hanoi Report 2

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

The gods of good fortune continue to grace me with their benevolence, and the past few days have been exceptionally fruitful in terms of adding to my self-assigned project.

In Ha Noi, I favor staying at the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel, which I consider my home away from home. I came to know most of its staff by name, and they are exceptionally helpful whenever I need. Its location is perfect as it sits right in the Old Quarter; known here as Pho Co. Around the corner from it is Ly Quoc Su, where the small and inexpensive Pho 10 restaurant offers one of the best pho bo I've ever consumed.

Since my last post, my daily calendar has been filled with photo shoots. Along with the indefatigable Ms Tu, I attended another Lên đồng ceremony performed by quite a famous medium (Ống Đồng)  called Phung Minh Tri and an exceptionally pretty female medium (Bà Đồng).

Bà Đồng

This morning, I was expecting to fill the day with some street photography but I had to re-arrange my priorities when advised that Ms Tu and I were expected to photograph a Ca Tru musician in Hoan Kiem. Naturally, the streets of Ha Noi will wait for me....and we drove off to the lake.

We spent couple of hours photographing Ms Hường Đặng, a Ca Tru musician that I met when attending one her performances a few nights ago. In my Facebook post recording this photo shoot, I wrote that I had gone to Heaven for an hour or so. The backdrop of the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of the lake was just perfect, and the cloudy weather fully cooperated with us.