Vietnam Guide...

[Ron Marshall]

Safe, scenic AND affordable. Sounds like an ideal venue for photography.

Besides phrases like "Bom-me-bow" (Bier 33), "dinky-dow" (crazy), and "number 1" and "number 10" my current Vietnamese is, ah, limited. Wonder if French is still spoken in the north?

Although most of the French left in 1956, there are a few French high schools; the people to whom I spoke in French were either over 60 or under 20.

In tourist areas there is ample English spoken.

I stayed in a small privately owned hotel in Hanoi. The owner was a university professor, who spoke perfect English, with a mild accent. He bent over backwards to take care of me. I didn't need a guide, but I'm sure if I had he would have found a reliable one for me.

[David Karp]

"knew of a good local guide with experience working with photographers."

do you really wants to shoot the same pictures as your predecessor ? ;-)

Does being in the same vicinity mean that you will make the same photos?

If yes, then perhaps we should all just give up.