Lost in Afternoon: Capturing moments in Northern Vietnam is a real travel story and a poetic account. Moments in time are just that, but some can live on in memory forever.
I first came to Vietnam in September 2017, touching down in the capital city of Hanoi, after my first long haul flight from my native England.
It was early morning, shortly after 5am. I stepped off the plane and remember feeling stifled by the wall of humidity in the air. The sun hadn’t even come up and already I was drowning in my own pool of sweat! It was my first time in South-East Asia and I was more used to cold, English mornings.
I hasten to add, after some time here, it would be the climate of Vietnam I would soon be used to and prefer, beyond any doubt.
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Monsoonal Moments
Fast forward to that afternoon. I had met a German father and son while huddling under the exterior of some shop. We were trying to avoid being drenched by the incessant rain. It was monsoon season in Northern Vietnam.
The streets were already beginning to flood, as scooters whizzed by in all directions. We bought disposable raincoats from a street vendor, you know, the see-through ones. Mine was royal blue. The hood covered my head and the rest of the coat flowed like a gown over my body. At a quick glance maybe I looked like the Virgin Mary.
Indeed, going from the rather sedate streets of the UK, to the spiderweb of honking traffic in Hanoi, amid an almost biblical deluge, seemed akin to a religious experience.
The three of us shuffled from under one canopy to another, moving through the soaking streets, where older women with conical hats sold fruit and vegetables out of their bicycle baskets. We had no particular place to go. We were lost in afternoon, in Northern Vietnam.
Haiphong: The Flamboyant City
Some days later I arrived in the port city of Haiphong, roughly 100km to the east of Hanoi. It is the third largest city in Vietnam and close to the tourist hotspots of Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island. One can easily reach Haiphong by local bus from Hanoi, it takes no more than two hours. I find it’s better to go in person to the bus station and pick up a ticket on the day of travel, rather than book online.
Haiphong is noted for it’s beautiful, leafy boulevards and French colonial era buildings, such as the neoclassical Opera House.
This lively and edgy city is also known as the ‘flamboyant city’ or ‘flame-flower city’, due to the striking red trees aligning the roads. They’re particularly apparent if you take a ride out to the nearest beach 20km away, that being Do son.
Do Son is a great place to relax and eat some fresh seafood or even visit one of the local pagodas there, including Hang pagoda and the impressive Tuong Long tower pagoda, which is over 1000 years old.
An artist in Northern Vietnam: The Broader Vision
Haiphong would become my new home over the next four years. There I would teach English as a foreign language to local kids and adults.
However, I am primarily an artist and my broader vision was to capture the feel of this wonderful, new adventure, as seen from my own artistic perspective.
Moreover, I would create original linocuts to document places, moments and people from popular culture. You can check out my artwork here.
Briefly, for those unfamiliar, a linocut is a branch of relief printmaking in art, the process involves drawing out an image on linoleum, cutting this image out using small tools, inking the lino with a roller and then taking a print on paper placed over the top. The idea is, say your ink is black, then what ever you have cut away from the piece of lino will not pick up ink and will remain white on the finished artwork. The rest will be black.
A Higher Purpose
Whether I was propelling myself far out into the rural countryside of Haiphong on my trusty Honda Air Blade or simply sitting in a cafe on a rainy evening, there was a higher purpose to what I was experiencing. There were moments to really capture and store away in the treasure trove of my imagination. At least, this was how I always felt.
In the early days I did a lot of freelancing as an English teacher. Some of my ‘gigs’ as I called them, were right out in distant, countryside areas, away from the lively city streets of Lach Tray or To Hieu. I would work in places like Ngu Lao, Thuy Nguyen or Kien An.
In any event, I would almost feel like a rock star turning up to a gig, with the distinct impression the audience had never seen a white westerner in real life before. The students seemed fascinated to see me and were so welcoming. More importantly, it was just great to be able to give something back to the city where I was living.
The journey to Ngu Lao
I did one class a week, teaching local kids, in far-flung Ngu Lao. The lesson was held in an old, abandoned sports hall and outside were tennis courts. I would ride for an hour each week to reach that place. I’d emerge fom the main city centre of Haiphong, crossing the towering Cau Binh (Binh Bridge) and enter Thuy Nguyen.
The long, straight roads carried me out eventually to the countryside, nearer to the pastel pink mountains on the horizon. These roads were the tre trau’s (young buffalo) playground. They were reckless or daredevil riders who weave high-speed through on coming traffic, seemingly with no hope left in their heart. Sometimes I would pull into the side of the road, as they thundered past, feeling my own heart beat faster.
Ngu Lao, itself, is unremarkable. There are fields, pylons and factory chimneys in the distance.
Coffee Hoi An, Thuy Son
I would ride past a grand French-colonial era house, which seemed kind of jaded and swallowed by the dust and dirt of the street. It’s uniqueness still made me smile though.
I sometimes pulled into the quiet Coffee Hoi An prior to work, where red and golden Chinese lanterns adorned the garden. And tiny, blue and white tea cups were laid out all over the table, waiting for customers that never came. The dark coffee shop interior was full of large, wooden chairs, each with a smattering of dust . The smiles of the friendly staff lit the way to my seat. It wasn’t luxury surroundings, but, nevertheless, I liked it there.
I believe Coffee Hoi An had a revamp since my last visit some years ago and certainly holds more of an appeal to a wider audience. I loved it then and no doubt would like it even more now.
Those dusty afternoons, zig-zagging through the hustle and bustle, to reach the sanctuary of the coffee shop and then the peaceful countryside, was always a journey I felt happy to undertake.
An Lao
An Lao is an open expanse of rice paddies set against grey, jagged mountains, most notably the rocky formation known as Elephant Mountain or Nui Voi in Vietnamese. Apparently it resembles a lying elephant from a distance over the fields. I couldn’t see it myself!
In any event, An Lao holds a sense of mystery, with it’s caves and random houses nestled tight below the mountains. Pot-holed roads cover the perimeter of the rice paddies and in late afternoon, your lover can clutch your waist, as you ride around in golden timelessness.
Truong Thanh Farm
Truong Thanh Farm, also in the Haiphong district of An Lao is well worth a visit. It’s a really nice place to walk around and snap some photos. You can even grab a meal at the restaurant there.
The first time I went there it was a stormy afternoon. Moody, grey skies loomed overhead as I wandered around the lotus flower lake. I could smell the rain in the air. The farm has a surreal hotchpotch of sculptures, from dinosaurs to elephants, then on to brightly painted totem pole carvings.
When you think of farms, you think of animals, at least live animals right? Don’t expect to see much in the way of that. Instead, check out the brontosaurus trying to see over the tree tops or sample the delicious starfruit, that’s grown there. The admission price is cheap and it’s a great way to wile away the afternoon.
For me, the skies rumbled with thunder, Chinese lanterns swayed from the sides of buildings and the heavens opened. It felt truly atmospheric being in this countryside Never-Never Land.
A lunch Invitation
One really fantastic thing about the Vietnamese is their hospitality. To be invited as a guest to a friend’s house for lunch or dinner is one of my favourite experiences when living here. Not only do you get presented with a plethora of dishes, but usually you learn a little more about the local culture and customs each time. Living in Haiphong presented many such opportunities, fortunately for me.
I remember the time I shared a house with some young Vietnamese people. A close friend of mine there, Long, had introduced me to his own friends and we all started hanging out. One of these guys, Uyen, arranged for us all to visit his family home in Lap Le. It is an area in Thuy Nguyen, Haiphong in the countryside. Therefore, on a bright, blue sunny day a group of us all set out to Uyen’s place.
Lap Le: A feast in the Verdant landscape
I remember being struck by how verdant the landscape was, deep green banana trees and plants everywhere, with a brownish red stream that cut through the fresh flora.
Uyen’s family members helped prepare a veritable feast for us. A few canvas mats had been laid out in the garden and gradually it got more and more populated with plates and dishes full of food. We had seafood, vegetables, hotpot, noodles and much more.
Of course, few friendly gatherings like this are complete without beer and homemade rice wine. We had plenty of the stuff to keep the toasts and merriment flowing!
Lunch was delicious and getting to know Uyen’s family as we sat cross-legged together was an unbeatable experience.
Drinking 'Ugly Water'
After our meal, Long whipped up some new drink for me to try. It was a further extension of local hospitality. It was as if he transformed into Tom Cruise in the movie ‘Cocktail’. The drink consisted of a cup of mashed-up ice, with a brown syrup poured over and topped with some small, round fruit. It went by the not-so-affectionate name of nuoc xau xi or ‘ugly water’. But this ugly water was so flavorsome and refreshing under the hazy afternoon sun.
Uyen’s family had gone back indoors and we stayed outside. We lounged in the shade of a tree, laughing and chatting for some time. I knew this was a special day in which I felt so lucky to be a part of.
Forever Memories
You may be wondering why these places and memories are important to me, especially as I’m not necessarily highlighting some famous tourist site or a luxury experience, often associated with travel. I often describe somewhat shabby surroundings or drab weather in my account of these memories. However, it’s these everyday moments that fired my imagination, when the mundane became romantic or special for me.
Distant memories of riding through the moody landscape of northern Vietnam in the rainy season, seeing workers in the rice paddies, pondering the mystery of some lonely mountain top where few feet have walked, shared experiences with friends, the dusty, noisy roads bursting with activity, they are all forever memories. They appealed to my sense of adventure. They inspired my artwork. I felt suspended in time and lost in afternoon. I loved the feeling of going to a new place and being enveloped by the shifting landscape, as I got deeper into it.
Indeed, I have many long-lasting memories, these are just a handful and I hope to share more with you in the future. Until then, I urge you to keep exploring and travel for as long as you wish.
For further reading on Northern Vietnam why not check out my Northern Vietnam’s Hidden Gems : 5 awe-inspiring places to visit
About the Writer
Mark James Murphy is a writer, artist and adventurer. He was born in Sunderland, North-East England in the early 1980s.
He has solo travelled extensively throughout the world and in 2017 decided to leave behind his job and apartment in the UK to teach English in Vietnam, South East Asia, for almost five years, describing it as the best moments of his life so far.
There he also continued developing his practice as an artist and printmaker, documenting his travels through the medium of linocut.
In 2019 he fulfilled a childhood dream when he backpacked for two months throughout the whole of India, ending up in a remote village in the Himalayan foothills.
He has played football with local kids in the Sahara desert, lived with Hmong people high in the mountains of North Vietnam and worked as a farmhand in Southern Spain.
Why not check out Mark’s ebook: Travel For As Long As You Wish: The Blueprint For Budget Travel, Backpacking And Escaping The Rat Race
