2 DAYS IN THE MEKONG DELTA
- Price: US$690 / person
- Duration: 2 Days / 1 Night
- Group Size: 2 persons min. / 6 max.
- Level: Beginners to Advanced
- Pickup and Drop off: Your hotel
- Departure Date: Any day, based on availability
- Departure Time: 5:30am
Solo Traveler?
Next Scheduled Departures:
2023
Embark on a superb 2-day photography tour in the heart of the Mekong Delta, taking you to our favorite floating markets and locations at the golden hour.
On the first day, we will visit the charming coconut groves of Ben Tre, followed by a photo session in a few authentic pagodas and meet with the monks. The next day, we will set out early in the morning to immerse ourselves in the heart of 2 floating markets and capture their fantastic atmosphere. We will end our trip with at brick kiln village, where workers still do their craft the ancestral way.
A great opportunity to hone your photographic skills and bring home great memorable pictures!
Day 1
● Ho Chi Minh ￫ Ben Tre ￫ Tra Vinh ￫ Can Tho
● 5 hours’ travelling / 5 hours of photography
We begin the day by picking you up at your hotel and heading down to the Delta, with our first stop being Ben Tre.
We start our exploration of the Delta by taking a sampan along a narrow canal lined with mangrove trees, before returning to land for a stroll ride through dense coconut plantations. We then return to the quayside in Ben Tre, where the bustling market and streets full of commercial activity provides a vibrant tableau for street photography.
In the afternoon we head to the Khmer cultural heartland of Tra Vinh, where we will visit some of the 141 Khmer temples practicing the Theravada branch of Buddhism – a wonderful opportunity to experience these serene, peaceful places and get some wonderful portraits of the young monks in their saffron-colored robes.
We will then head to Can Tho where we will have dinner and spend the night.
Day 2
● Can Tho ￫ Phong Dien ￫ Cai Rang ￫ Vinh Long ￫ Ho Chi Minh
● 4 hours’ travelling / 5 hours of photography
Sunrise on the beautiful Phong Dien floating market with its fruit-filled sampans.
We make our way through the market on board one of these boats to be closer to the vendors when the first rays of sunlight up the market. We will then go to the Cai Rang floating market, the largest wholesaler market on the delta.
Peasants and farmers come to sell their produce to wholesalers who fill their large barges. We sail between the barges and then embark on one to capture the atmosphere of trading. After breakfast, we will take the road to Vinh Long.
Upon arrival, we will drive to a nearby village scattered with temple-looking brick ovens. We will capture the worker’s ancestral know-how of brick manufacturing, as well as the geometric forms of the ovens and bricks alignments.
We will then take the road back to Ho Chi Minh and expect to arrive around 7-8pm.
Tour Highlights
- Photo report in artisanal villages
- Beautiful rice fields along the Mekong Delta
- A traditional village of brick manufacturing
- Sunset in Khmer pagodas and portraits of monks
- Sunrise on the Phong Dien floating market
- Cai Rang wholesale floating market
Includes
✔ Private air-conditioned transport
✔ Boat rides
✔ All meals and non-alcoholic beverages
✔ Snacks and water during tour
✔ Sites entry fees (if applicable)
Excludes
✘ Alcoholic beverages
✘ Personal expenses
✘ Entry Visa to Vietnam
✘ Flight tickets from/to HCMC
✘ Tipping
Optional
□ Make the tour private
General Information
Anyone who loves travel and photography is welcomed, whatever your level of experience – the most important thing is enthusiasm. Our tours can be summed up in three words – sharing, friendship and smiles. Your non-photographer friends & family are also welcomed to join – as long as they don’t mind hanging around while the photographers do their thing!
With Arnaud’s advice and guidance, you’ll quickly become more familiar with your equipment and refine your eye for a good image without being swamped by technical details. You’ll learn how to read light, how to compose a shot, and how to tell a visual story – in short, you’ll release more of your creative potential.
Mastering photography is a long and enjoyable journey, and one without end. The main objective of our tours is for you to become a better photographer by the end of each day.
The best camera is the one you already have! Travel light – a DSLR with wide angle and zoom lenses is more than sufficient for our tours. Hybrids, compacts and even smartphones are equally welcome! Other than that, all you’ll need is a fully-charged battery and enough memory cards. If you can, bring along your laptop so we can critique your photos and also show you a few tips for using Lightroom.
You’ll get to meet the local population, find out about their way of life, and experience their friendly company – all while taking some fantastic photos! We’ll show you how to break the ice with the Vietnamese and how to make your camera a valuable ally in making connections with them.
We don’t impose strict itineraries on our travelers; every one of our journeys in Vietnam is unique – no two tours are ever the same! Spontaneous encounters and varying light conditions create different photography opportunities every time. One moment you’ll be standing on the edge of a rice field photographing a farmer at work; the next you’ll be invited into a local house for tea; or maybe you’ll be navigating your way along a narrow canal by sampan or a country lane on the back of a motorbike – most of the time we’ll just go with the flow!
Our maximum group size is six. This enables us to give every photographer plenty of individual attention, and also makes it easier for us to blend into the environment and not be overly intrusive when we’re meeting the locals.
A keen photographer of landscapes and people, Arnaud leads photography tours in the Mekong Delta and other beautiful places in Vietnam. Before becoming a photographer he spent ten years in Vietnam as a tour operator and knows the country intimately. Photography has always been his passion, and so one day he decided to turn that passion into a living – now he devotes his time to helping fellow photography enthusiasts discover little-known and picturesque parts of Vietnam, while improving their photographic skills.
