The alarm sounds at 4:30 AM, ready for the dawn patrol, and a 5AM meeting time. What’s Ap starts binging with messages of pouring rain and decisions of whether we should go to the market which is only partially covered. Pouring rain was an understatement, one could not hope to step outside without getting completely soaked. We had been provided with raincoats that would fit the average 6 ‘5″ man weighing 350 pounds. So coverage was not the issue, however, suffocating under them and having them drag in the mud proved to be a challenge. Yet,we stoic dedicated photographers loaded ourselves into the vans provided.

Off a just waking up market, we were warned to look in all directions as not to be annihilated by motor scooters with 100 pounds of cabbage, or plywood, or just about anything you can load on a truck. Narrow pathways divided the stalls. The motorbikes wove in and out between people pushing loaded hand carts. Meanwhile the tarps that were held up by bending poles were releasing the water weight like a waterfall, dumping pounds of water onto the muddy lanes. Where were we? Trying desperately to stay dry. Some of our cameras went on strike from the moisture, even the iphones refused to submit to the weather. The raincoats for the camera did not really fit, the plastic bag trick failed, and whatever head gear we were wearing also failed. Our feet sloshed around in our shoes, and the inside of the rain gear was just about as wet as the outside from our sweating from the humidity.

After two hours of shooting we got together and exchanged stories of our interactions with people, animals, trucks, motor scooters and the rain. Off to breakfast of Pho in a tiny restaurant, then back to the a another market called the Thief’s market. Full of mechanical tools, wires, rubber, saws, compressors both used, and stolen, anything you could want to fix something was found here. Finding pictures to take was interesting, my favorite being the millions of electrical wires tangled together on poles, trees, or just about anywhere you can use to attach something. How anyone could figure out where wires provided electricity to what, would be anyone’s nightmare. Despite the rain, we had a great experience.

We are now looking forward to our massages before we get on a night train to Lao Cai outside Sapa. Up north into a non tourist areas, where we are hopeful it stops raining.