Word Vietnam February 2014

Vietnam has changed. It may sound like a cliché, but it’s not. In less than two decades this country has transformed itself from a sleepy agricultural economy into one that now has vibrant cities and a growing focus on industry.

Poverty has reduced, a middle class has emerged and both the local and foreign tourism industry has grown from almost zero.

Now people have choices, choices on how to live their life and where they should live it.

Over the next 24 pages we try to encapsulate urban Vietnam as it is today. Focusing on the country’s two major cities — Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — we have taken photos at every hour, capturing the old and the new, the unique and the bizarre, the funny and the serious. The reason? To try and set in stone those scenes and situations that show Vietnam as it is in early 2014, before it continues its inexorable sprint into the future.

Hanoi photos by Francis Roux and Nick Ross.

Ho Chi Minh City photos by DragonImages February 2014 Word | 53