It’s a holiday today, the anniversary of the death of some general or another, so the street markets in Saigon have shriveled to a couple dozen hopeful vendors displaying baskets of veggies. The men drink beer and watch soccer. The woman do what ever women do when men drink beer an watch soccer, which typically is everything. I wander a few blocks from my apartment through side streets with my camera.
A woman slicing lettuce sees my camera and holds up a slack jawed, mostly naked baby for my appraisal. I snap a few pictures. She grins.
A man beckons me to photograph him and his limes. He squats and displays a winning smile, an onion in one hand, a lime in the other.
Down the block it goes. Take a picture of me! Now me! Wait- the baby too, look at this puppy, get all of us and the puppy!
I’m grabbed and shown a bulky Australian man as if to say -“Look! One of your own kind!” We shake hands and he asks me to sit for a beer and fried meat.
“They think we know each other. They think all the white people know each other. They’ve shown me four other tourists in the last half hour, your the first one that stopped.”
I want to say I’m not a tourist but instead I raise my camera to take another picture.
Where is your favorite place to wander about and snap pix? Refine your skills with Brave New Travelers Shoot Better Travel Photos With 5 Essential Travel Photo Tips and get some inspiration from Photo Essay: Trekking Langtang in Nepal.