Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam

A busy hamlet turned city on the back of coffee revenue, Buon Ma Thuot is in no way a destination for the regular tourist. For the inexperienced photographer using a cheap Chinese cell phone camera, the city is not necessarily photogenic. Furthermore, there is little to no english infrastructure nor even a trace of nightlife... Yet it was a perfect place to incorporate oneself into the lifestyle of the local. A morning of chatting with a Vietnamese woman over coffee resulted in an afternoon of exploring with her two kids, sister, and nephew in the village of Ban Don. We later had dinner and drinks at their house after some solid neighborhood street soccer.

Anyway, Buon Ma Thuot can be described as a series of cheap coffee breaks serviced by robusta beans from nearby farms, steet-side beers, waterfalls, and ethnic minority villages that give the city a highland identity much different from those of central Vietnam's coastal towns.Read more