Songkran in Bangkok

After another really boring drive up to Bangkok, I ended up staying at a hotel right in the middle of the Songkran festival area.

At first this didn't promises to be much fun due to the many people around which made it impossible to take the motorbike out.

Still, if Ban Phe was great fun for Songkran, Bangkok was a few levels higher.

After having some lunch and managing to get to the hotel halfway dry, it all started to get really, really wet.

It wasn't just kids but also adults acting like kids and having water fights on the streets. Everyone had fun and was in a good mood.

It was like being a kid again and just enjoying yourself at a big street party.

This lasted till about 22:00 when the police decided to break it off and make sure people went home.

Still, it was great fun and I enjoyed not only the atmosphere but also acting like a kid and having water fights with strangers.

Having the Olympus TG-4 around allowed me to capture the action without having to worry about the camera.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Songkran in Bangkok and thought it might be best to avoid it, it ended up being great fun and I can recommend it.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2016

Drumming, traffic jams and teenagers driving on fully loaded trucks around. This can mean only one thing. It's mid-autumn festival time again.

Hue more so than other cities I've seen celebrates the mid-autumn festival a lot more with more drumming, more lion dances and more traffic jams.

It is fun and exciting, the kids certainly love it and even adults like to stop and see the different lion dance performances.

There are quite a lot of different performance groups with various size, skill and entertainment factor. No matter which groups you end up seeing, it's always worth it and very entertaining.

All photos (except the last one) have been taken with the GXR A12 mount and GR lens, the last one is a Moto X Play photo.

Hue Festival 2016 - Day 3

The third day of the Hue Festival had a parade with some street performances from different countries.

As is typical in Asia, the parade started late but was fun. I chose a spot to take photos which was shooting against the sun. While a big no-no in photography terms I liked the shadows it created and wanted different photos.

It started quiet with only a few people around but more and more people and motorbikes came along as the parade went on.

For the evening I figured I'll head to Thanh Toan bridge since they had some nice lantern display and live music.

The lights were great and it was packed so this time I was certainly in the right place.

Aside from the lights and music, they also had some games for adults, teens and kids alike.

The games didn't make it too difficult for people to win something so everyone was happy.

Hue Festival 2016 - Day 2

Another day at the Hue Festival and it feels like I'm always at the wrong venue and the wrong side of the river.

Still, I wanted to see the things around the Citadel and check out the international food fair.

The food fair was quite busy and there were a lot of hotels showcasing their cooking. There were some stalls selling food from around Asia but it mostly boiled down to bbq and sticky rice.

Still, it's been fun to walk around and take photos although I should have probably gone to see the Ao Dai fashion show or gone inside the Citadel for the events there.

Hue Festival 2016 - Day 1

This post was supposed to have two parts in it, first about my morning trip to A Luoi and back and then the evening part about my walk around the Hue Festival.

I decided to keep it all about the Hue Festival in the end as it made more sense and will tie in better with the upcoming days.

Today marked the start of the Hue Festival 2016, the international arts and performance festival held every 2 years.

There are a quite a few different events and performances planned over the next few days and there are quite a few art and light installations around the city.

It should be a fun and interesting festival.

Mid-Autumn Lion Dance

When you hear drumming and see traffic jams everywhere in Hue, it's not the daily rush hour as you would think coming from London but the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival gets celebrated in quite a few countries in Asia but in Vietnam it mostly means Lion Dances everywhere. There is also Moon cake of course but mostly it's about Lion Dances.

People drive around in small lorries with all their gear ready to hop off and perform their dance routine in front of shops and restaurants.

This means that as soon as they start dancing it will cause a traffic jam and even the police trying to regulate this is not very successful.

It's pretty cool to see overall and good fun. It's funny how many different Lion Dance groups there are and you see sometimes 3 or 4 different teams all around the same area.