Peter Bergdahl's Personal Blog

A lesson I learned and would like to convey in this post is to trust your first instinct.

Me and my friend Stefan were in Hoi An in central Vietnam a few days ago and we passed a small ponds with some flowers. The flowers and the pond looked ordinary so I walked past the pond and the flowers. Something nagged me however so I walked back to the pond and quickly snapped a couple of close up images of one of the flowers. At first it looked like the image was over exposed when i looked in the LCD screen but I didn’t care, i just walked up to Stefan who waited for me.

Once i was back home in Hanoi I opened up the image in Photoshop CS and i was amazed by the colors. I’m no flower expert but i think it’s a water lily or a lotus flower.

Water Lily or Lotus Flower

So something that looked ordinary turned out to be so beautiful. I really love the colors that almost look like painted.

Close up of water lily or lotus flower

In this close up the colors are even more amazing and can you see the small fly in the image?

Is it a Water Lily or a Lotus Flower?

I had a pretty dramatic experience a couple of days ago when a cockfight almost went on in my knees. I was sitting in a park, drinking a lemon juice when i noticed a cock coming up close to me. Cool i thought, and grabbed my iPhone to take a picture.

Moments after i took the first picture another cock came from behind me and attacked the first cock. It took only about 10 seconds until the owners separated the cocks but it were some pretty intense seconds.

Here’s the first picture i took before the fight

Before the cockfight started

And here the second cock attacks the first one.

The cockfight has started

Now it’s full war between them.

Full war between the cocks

Both cocks were unharmed and i was OK to

Hanoi is both a beautiful city but can also be perceived as chaotic at times, especially the traffic in Hanoi.

I’ve made this short video that takes you from my home at the beautiful Truc Bach lake which is where John McCain was shot down during the Vietnamese was, passing through the presidential palace and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and finally arrived to the office in Dong Da district.

Today is a public holiday in Vietnam and there are Vietnamese flags hanging everywhere. Ho Chi Minh declared independence already on September 2nd 1945, 9 years before the French left and 30 years before South Vietnam fell.

Independence day in Vietnam with Vietnamese flags everywhere

Hanoi can be messy and especially the traffic is terrible but Hanoi is also a very beautiful and romantic city with many lakes.

I’m blessed with a fantastic view over Hanoi where i can see both Truc Bach and Tay Ho (west lake) from my balcony. The sunsets are just amazing and I can see it almost every day.

This image is smoking fresh, just taken minutes ago from my balcony. I can still almost see this sunset by looking out from my window

Sunset over Truc Bach and Tay Ho

I stitched together two images into a panorama.

What do you think? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.