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Instagramable Vietnam part 1 – Quang Phu Cau

May 2, 2024
Life , Travel

Quang Phu Cau – a hidden gem!

If you’re planning a trip to Vietnam and wondering what the hidden gems and photogenic, must-see spots are, look no further. PIN this post, SUBSCRIBE and read on for a series based off my recent 21-day trip traveling through the country. I’ll be sharing insider tips, recommended photographers, and tons of photo inspo! The mesmerizing incense village called Quang Phu Cau for instance, needs to be on your must-see hidden gems list. Quang Phu Cau is a village nestled in the heart of the countryside on the outskirts of Hanoi with such rich heritage. And it promises to provide a unique, culturally immersive experience for those looking for photogenic spots off the touristy track.

YES! This is an incense farm that you’re looking at (not a garden). (Incense is popular in Vietnam because of their religious practices and the practice of lighting them at their ancestors’ altars). We were there at peak incense production time right before the Lunar new year celebrations making it the perfect time to go. They say about 50,000 incense sticks are made per day during this time. And this traditional craft is passed on from family to family, artisan to artisan. 70% of this village in fact, is involved in making incense sticks! When they say it takes a village, I’m pretty sure they were referring to this place!! There are such intricate steps to the process such as stripping and chopping bamboo bark to sorting, bundling, dyeing and drying; it’s really a fascinating art form

Of course, there are several English speaking tours available for those interested in seeing and learning all the production details. But given I had already read all about it, was limited on time and was mostly interested in getting those coveted Instagram-worthy shots, I opted to arrive early with my photographer ready to capture all the angles (making sure to arrive early also allowed me to shoot before the tour groups got there). And as you can see, I basically had the whole place to myself.

Book my photographer

So I decided to hire a local photographer who was recommended through the last photographer I worked with in Sapa, Vietnam. (As you can see from these photos it was totally worth it)! For 3million dong (roughly equivalent to 118$ I got the photographer (and his private car + driver to helpfully pick me up from my hotel (and drop me off), and shoot with his stylist / assistant + the nominal $5 admission for each of us. The stylist brought traditional Vietnamese clothes to shoot with, helped with hair and helped with translations. I had an entire team to myself for 4-5 hours. What a dream, right? Tiem Anh Nguyen (you can contact him through FB HERE). I could never afford a package like this in the states. Tell me in the comments how much you would have paid in the states for : a private driver, photographer, 200+ digital images + 30 edited images, a stylist and rented clothes and 5 hours of everyone’s time.

While the venue did have a small selection of rentable Vietnamese clothes (and thankfully, dressing areas on site), I did not have to pay extra for mine or worry about the ones on site fitting. My stylist took my size needs and prepared a suitcase full of Vietnamese dresses shoes and accessories to perfectly suit me! She even brought her hair kit and changed up my hairstyle for one of the shoots!! I was not expecting this!! And it was so fun to shoot in the authentic Vietnamese clothing and accessories.

I also highly recommend hiring a professional photographer because this is one of these unique spots that you’ll basically have one chance in your lifetime to ever shoot. Moreover, it is really a challenging shoot to get right. The photographer has to be comfortable shooting from the top of ladders, be willing to climb onto the terraced areas and then know how to compose the shot all while directing you from above. Let’s just say, I was thankful I was there with the professional and not my insta-husband!

The angles have to be just perfect. And yes, an amateur can stay for double the time to figure out through trial and error how to shoot from above , utilize the staircases the professional photographers are using, all while trying to shoot without other people in the background. But the Instagram husband or even average social media friend won’t have the experience and skill to properly account for the varying walls of incense, lighting challenges or be able to speak to the farmers in their language to adjust placement of incense etc. Plus that person’s patience is likely to run out fast given the weather in Vietnam is often blazing hot and not ideal.

Normally, I’m sweating and busy running back and forth to my tripod or insta husband framing and composing shots and then hoping my tripod doesn’t fall over or praying my husband doesn’t move out of frame and ruin my perfectly pre-composed shot. Being photographer and subject would have been impossible here. You can’t be running back and forth: through the narrow pathways, up the ladders and traversing through the overhead walkways. Besides, the subject really needs to concentrate on getting the pose and his/her angles right while sitting in the hot sun here.

My photographer seemed to have known everyone there and was even able to arrange for the farmers to be a part of certain overhead pictures. I love how he captured the tops of their Vietnamese hats which made for an interesting graphic against all the floral-like mounds of incense. And despite not knowing English well, he did a great job communicating his vision, new pose ideas and moving me to where he needed me to be -all with a gentle smile. He is quite affordable and great to work with. I highly recommend him!

What To expect:

The great thing about this incense farm is that they readily welcome visitors. You don’t feel like an intrusion into their work day. They seem pretty happy to see you, and will even help move incense around for you, as they continue on with their work day. They even have an entire wall posted with inspirational photos. I always research the hashtags of the places I plan to visit and basically :have screenshotted or saved certain angles, locations and poses I want to remember to find and try. But this wall provided reference photos already. Note it’s not a large space. So while the photos may have you believing these incense rows go on forever, they do not and there are trusses, ladders, other unphotogenic areas usually cut out of most photos. Here is an example of an uncropped photo that shows some of the metal framing around the area.

Overall tips for when you go:

Getting There:

Quang phu cau is a little over an hour away from the main city of Hanoi (in the Ung Hoa district). And while it is accessible by car, motorbike or bus, it is still a challenge for tourists to find their way out there, deal with the notorious Hanoi lawless traffic and navigate their way over then find this specific spot on their own.
The easiest way to reach this picturesque village is by hiring a taxi / photographer package like I did. If you’re more adventurous and comfortable navigating the crazy chaotic streets of Hanoi, then a cheaper option would be to rent a motorbike or car through the trusted Grab app. Travel along National Road 21B then onto Provincial Road 429. You can supposedly easily navigate the detailed route from Hanoi to Quang Phu Cau on Google Maps. Good luck if you go that route! Please come back and let me know in the comments how that went for you!

Ticketing and Open Hours:

Avoid rainy days as the incense cannot be displayed in the rain and will be pulled back in. Expect to pay around $4 USD depending on the exchange rate. Opens 7am-4pm

Avoid the weekend and mid day periods. You don’t want crowds interfering with your picture. And the place is not so big so you’ll need to go in the morning right at opening or at least plan to be finished by 11-12 when the tour guides tend to start rolling in with their groups. This will help you avoid photo bombers.

DON’T FORGET

Bring your own water, and a change of clothes, and have FUN! Enjoy the moment and relish the gorgeous surroundings!

I was so grateful to be able to experience and photograph this amazing place. It really is a photographer’s dream and being immersed in such vibrant color just made me so happy.

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How to Host a Squid Game Party! Game Decor & Costume Ideas!

April 19, 2023
Celebrating

Want To Host a Squid Game Themed Party?

As THE most popular Netflix series EVER, it’s no surprise that people would be interested in hosting a Squid Game themed event! After all, the world was obsessed with this show! But how do you host squid games without having to kill your guests and how do you play to the end if you don’t have as many people needed for team rounds? Moreover, how do you make a squid themed party more family-friendly? Those were the questions I was faced with when my husband told me he wanted to throw a squid game party. Read on for my tips and ideas!

Obviously, a Squid Game themed party revolves around games. Luckily, the game concepts are simple enough for anyone to play and for anyone to execute. Popular amongst school kids, the games featured in the movie mostly take some patience, luck and minimal skill. Since it’s been a while since most of you probably watched the movie, let me remind you of the

6 games featured in the show:

1). Sugar cookie cutout

(A round cookie in a tin with embossed shape in the middle must be carefully cut out with a needle without cracking the cookie and before the time limit). The cookie is called a dalgona cookie or sometimes called a honeycomb cookie.

How to: Purchase the tin kits here. It will include everything from the base from which your cookie is formed, to the lid from which it is concealed (so your guests blindly choose their indentation shape), to the needle that you poke the cookie out with.

Use this 2-ingredient recipe to make the sugar cookie. The hardest part is timing the inner shape indentation piece just right and taking it out before it cools and sets in there permanently. But don’t worry if this happens like it did with my first round, you can crack and crumble it, add it back to the pan and start over. This will overly brown your resulting cookie but it’s not important to get the color correct as it’s just about creating the cookie challenge and game. Once your players have blindly chosen their (closed) cookie tin, set the timer and rank who finishes getting their cookie out the fastest before time runs out!

TIP- It’s great to kick off your game series with this one since it doubles as an ice breaker. Contestants can easily chat while sitting and sharing some laughs while competing AND not even breaking a sweat! 😆.

TIP! Motivate players by pre-event asking adult contestants to each agree to pitch in a set amount of cash! Each of our adult contestants put in $20 each making a grand prize total of $120. While far from the movie’s 2.2 billion won amount, you’ll be surprised how (any) lump sum of money will incite the greed out of all your guests and increase the stakes for everyone! (You could also punish your guests along the way by requiring losers to drink after each round which we did not do because a couple of us were allergic to alcohol and likely could have actually died playing this version of Squid Games). lol.

Family-friendly TIP! We had adults competing against one another and found ways to get kids involved throughout the day. Most kids haven’t seen the movie and will simply enjoy watching parents get silly playing kiddie games and or have fun playing a 2nd round themselves. Because the cookie cutting game involves a needle though, you can ask the kids to judge while the parents compete and have them provide live commentary. OR, you could encourage them to try and draw one of the iconic movie characters while you do this particular game.

2). Marble game

There are tons of ways to play and you could replace marbles with whatever small balls you have around the house. In the movie though, a player holds a number of marbles in their hand. The other player guesses if the number is odd or even. If the player guesses correctly, he gets the same number of marbles as he’s holding (his wager).

Because we were using a ranking and point system to prevent having to eliminate players from playing further rounds, we kept score and didn’t let players “die off.” Also, because we didn’t have marbles, we decided to tweak this by gathering small balls to roll across the lawn. Whoever got it closest to the end point (wall in our case), without actually hitting the wall won and got the high score. If you hit the wall you got disqualified and subtract points off your total score. Person with the most points at the end of all game rounds wins!

3). Glass floor

In the movie, players had to cross a glass bridge but some of the glass squares would cause the player to fall through. In our version, paper squares were laid down and the backs read real glass or fake glass. “Fall” or “safe” could have been written too and instead of paper squares, cardboard boxes (some stable with something under them to be able to hold a human up vs some empty so the person falls when they stand on top would be great too). But we didn’t have enough cardboard boxes nor did we want to store that many for the game.😅.

TIP- to decide on order of who goes first, you could randomly draw numbers, give priority to those who ranked best from the last game, or have the kids each represent a # and have the parents each choose a child to find out what order they go in.

4). Red light green light

Probably the most memorable and iconic squid game from the movie (thanks to the unforgettable larger-than-life, head swiveling doll leader), is a fun one for all ages to try! Again, we had the adults compete against one another. Kids took turns saying the famous green light red light song in Korean (while dressed in soldier red) and holding a soldier (water-filled) gun. Each child was assigned an adult to watch and was instructed to squirt them if they saw them move when they weren’t supposed to. The power evidenced in these kids’ eyes when we told them all this was ridiculously scary! haha This was the of course, the kids’ favorite part of the party!

TIP, draw a chalk line for start and finish. Have only one child take turns at a time and say the famous phrase at a time, “Mugunghwa kkoci pieot seumnida.” And find water guns at your local dollar store! Next time, I’ll not only have the kids dress in red like the Squid Game soldiers but I’ll have the adults all dress in green like the Squid Game contestants!

5). Tug of war

We opted to skip this game in fear of someone getting hurt. But it can easily be replicated with any rope and a soft landing spot (grass or sand).

6) Squid game

It’s a game of tag with offense, defense and teams. We had a small, unbalanced male to female group, so making teams didn’t make sense and being that this was a more complicated game to explain the rules for, you may want to skip it too. For full rules and explanation, click here.

How To Create the Ambiance

Here’s a link for a kid’s red soldier costume, here are our masks, here’s a kiddo green soldier costume and here’s an adult green soldier costume if you wanna get real extra! Having these costumes at the party will bring the theme to life when you can’t exactly replicate all the movie sets. Wouldn’t this theme party be so fun for Halloween??

And if you want to decorate, go with a black white and red theme. Check out the themed balloons here. You can also easily create gift bags or backdrops by drawing in or taping the simple triangle circle and square symbols.

Share this!

Know someone who’d love a Squid Game themed party? Share these ideas with them by sending them this blog post or pin this to your Pinterest using the first image in the post for later!

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Instagram where I post more fabulous inspiration for celebrating the everyday in a stylish way. It’s where I also have saved video highlights from past parties that I’ve thrown! Or search “party” here and get more in-depth tips and ideas!

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