TADIOTO

Amazing how one can sometimes forget how hot it gets in Ha Noi. And the worst is still to come.  So you stay indoors most days, and think of cooler days elsewhere.  Like a bitter winter in Tokyo a couple of years back, where I shot this picture.

And here’s a blog by Vietnamese photojournalist Na Son.  Son was writing about an AP photographer, David Guttenfelder, and included a few Tokyo images as well: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-rh8hN3ohcrb2GxEccq7qAfI6?p=2407  

I met Na Son at a wedding here and had a coffee with him last night. He used to be a marketing person – selling oil in Iraq just as the war started. He recently came back from shooting in Lebanon during the short war with Israel. Some of his photos at the main church in Ha Noi (click on Life in Photo on right column): http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-rh8hN3ohcrb2GxEccq7qAfI6?p=2158  

Also quite captivating is his girlfriend, journalist Uyen Ly. Been a while since I’d talked to such a Vietnamese journalist: she’s passionate about her craft and her profession, and quite frank about the media in Viet Nam. Uyen Ly’s based in Ha Noi, but she’s also reported from Lebanon, and Shanghai, for Tuoi Tre (Youth) - one of the better newspapers in Viet Nam. Uyen Ly became fascinated with the war-time diary of Dang Thuy Tram, which became a big hit as a book here a couple of years back. Uyen Ly ultimately connected with the American soldier who found and kept the diary for 35 years before bringing it to Dang Thuy Tram’s family.  She also looked for the South Vietnamese soldier who persuaded the American to hang on to the diary-she interviewed him for a year by phone from Viet Nam, before going to California to meet him.  For those who can read Vietnamese, here’s her blog: http://360.yahoo.com/profile-FL2VjQckYqPFqUXIdwuUvywySoQ-?cq=1   Otherwise, Uyen Ly’s photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/LyTruongUyen