Vietnam, the eastern most country on the Indochina Peninsula is no less than a photographers dream. Boasting rugged limestone mountains, misty bays, green and luscious rice fields, sparkling rivers and waterways, floating markets and flamboyant urban activity, Vietnam is a destination on every photographers “must-see” list.

Like India, Sri-Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and other Asian countries, Vietnam is famed for its colorful people, contrasting lifestyles, turbulent history and breathtaking vistas. Whether your main interest is biodiversity, jungle, mountains, portraiture, ethnography, urban or geographical photography, Vietnam has to offer all that you could ever desire.

The ethnic minorities with their bright and colorful costumes, bewitching eyes, fabulist faces and exciting ways of life truly are a sight that can never be forgotten. Photographers finding their way into the heart of Vietnamese landscapes and cultures not only will come away with a mind full of incredible images and work, but a new found working knowledge and first hand empathy for a largely forgotten people and extinct way of life. Vietnam is amongst a minority of countries throughout the world that still boasts a thriving community of tribal ethnic minorities, living out their existence in their own traditional style, away for the influences and pressures of modern life.

Vietnam is a long, thin country 1,650km in length and 50km in width at its narrowest point. The difference in equatorial proximity from north to south, 3,200km of coastline (excluding islands) as well as vast mountainous areas, give Vietnam a uniquely rich diversity of sights. With climates ranging from tropical to temperate, forests, dense jungle, coastal fishing villages, swamps and sprawling Mekong tributaries, in Vietnam there is never a shortage of subjects for photography. On researching this country of immense beauty and stark extremes, the enthusiast’s appetite cannot evade to be whetted.