Departure from Madrid on 29 August on a one-stop flight to Hanoi (Noi Bai airport). There is no direct flight: the journey takes between 16 and 24 hours and Hanoi is 5 hours ahead of Madrid, so you land at some point on 30 August, the first day of the programme on the ground. Each traveller books their own international flight, which is not included in the price. Night on board.

Arrival on 30 August at Noi Bai International Airport, after the flight from Madrid. Let us know your arrival time so we can arrange the private transfer to the hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter. Rooms are available from 14:00: if you land earlier, you can leave your luggage at reception and walk around the city until then. The afternoon is free: an unscheduled walk through the streets of the Thirty-Six Guilds is the best way to read the pulse of the city before starting to photograph. Photographic orientation with the Zero guide at the end of the day.

Pre-dawn departure to Long Bien Bridge, the French colonial bridge of 1902 that crosses the Red River every morning with bicycles loaded with vegetables and motorbikes carrying the whole day ahead. The grazing light and the movement over the water are a genuine image of northern Vietnam, without poses or staging.

Return to the hotel for breakfast. Free time during the morning to explore or process images. Late afternoon, departure in private minibus to walk through the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem lake, the exterior of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the famous Train Street, where the railway tracks cross an alley so narrow that trains pass within centimeters of the café chairs. Access to Train Street is managed through the local cafés in the alley, not as an organized group visit.

Departure at 5:30 from Hanoi heading to Hung Yen. Three artisan villages that have been doing the same thing for centuries and preserve, intact, the visual dimension of that work.

Quang Phu Cau, the incense village: thousands of red sticks drying in the sun in compositions that look painted. We arrive before the tourist groups. Tuong Ban, the soy sauce village: endless rows of black ceramic jars fermenting in the sun, and artisans whose hands have been on the same clay for generations. Thu Sy, the bamboo fish trap weaving: techniques passed from grandparents to grandchildren in a village that mass tourism has not yet reached.

In Quang Phu Cau, the artisans prepare and arrange the compositions specifically for the photographic session. It is not the spontaneous everyday life of the village, it is a collaboration with the local community, directly compensated.

Departure in private minibus from Hanoi at 8:00. Six hours of road climbing northwest, crossing the Red River delta and entering the mountains of the Chinese border. Arrival in Sapa around 14:00. Check-in and lunch.

In the afternoon, first immersion in the Muong Hoa valley aboard the mountain monorail: an elevated route over the terraces that allows a first visual reading of the landscape before going down to photograph it the next day.

Pre-dawn start. We climb up to O Quy Ho Pass or the Lonely Tree viewpoint: after days of rain, the valley wakes covered by a sea of clouds that the sun gradually breaks into layers. It is one of the most photographed weather phenomena in northern Vietnam, and September is its best month.

Back to the hotel for breakfast. Then a walking day through the valley: Lao Chai and Ta Van, the H’mong and Dao villages in the heart of the valley, with their terraces in full golden harvest. We continue toward Nam Sai and Nam Cang, much less touristic, where the path winds along rivers and bamboo forests between Red Dao villages that receive few foreign visitors.

We have an extra morning in Sapa before the return. If the weather did not cooperate the day before, today we repeat the key spots. If it was perfect, we use the time to explore mountain markets or climb to a different vantage point for a new perspective on the valley.

Departure by minibus toward Hanoi at midday. The return includes stops at panoramic viewpoints and villages along the route. Night in Hanoi before embarking in Halong.

Early pickup at the hotel. Transfer to Tuan Chau marina (three hours). Boarding the boutique cruise at midday. Lunch on board while the boat enters the limestone formations. In the afternoon, visit to the Sung Sot Cave, one of the largest cavities in the bay, with formations the light transforms. Climb to Titop Island for an elevated view of the bay.

At sunset, the boat anchors in a quiet cove. Dinner in the open air. The night in the bay, with the karsts cut against the starry sky, is a photographic experience in itself.

Optional Tai Chi on deck at sunrise. The bay at this hour, with the first light filtering between the karsts and the local fishermen starting their day, is the image we have been carrying in mind since leaving Madrid.

Kayak through the Luon caves area: we cross natural limestone arches by kayak into silent inner lagoons that the large boats cannot reach. Check-out. Buffet lunch on board. Return transfer to Hanoi and domestic flight to Da Nang (flight not included in the price). Transfer to the hotel in Hoi An.

Morning in two villages around Hoi An that have been perfecting their work for centuries: Thanh Ha, the pottery village where the wheel has not changed in three centuries; and Tra Que, the 300-year-old horticultural village next to the lagoon, where farmers work with tools their great-grandparents already knew.

Late afternoon, the guide takes us through the Old Town: the Japanese Bridge, the merchant houses from the 17th century, the night market. At 18:30, boat ride on the Thu Bồn and lantern release on the water. The city seen from the river, with hundreds of lights floating, is an image you do not forget.

Free day in Hoi An, with an optional photographic session with the fishing community of the Thu Bồn river delta: fishermen who work with traditional nets and basket boats —the thung chai, made of waterproofed bamboo fiber— at the same points in the river that their families have occupied for generations.

Sunrise over the water. The grazing light on the river reflections, the silhouettes of the basket boats, the nets that fly and fall.

The session is optional, not included in the trip price, and costs €100 per person, to be finalised on site. It includes direct economic compensation to the participating fishermen. It is not a performance, it is their everyday work. We ask permission, we pay for their time and we let them remain themselves in front of the camera. Those who do not take part have the day free to explore Hoi An on their own.

The morning is free for an independent photographic session: the Old Town before 7:00, when shopkeepers are setting out their goods and the tourists are still asleep, is a completely different place from the one we saw the previous afternoon. The Japanese Bridge with morning mist over the river is one of the most iconic compositions of central Vietnam.

At midday, transfer to Da Nang airport. Direct flight to Siem Reap (1h 37min, Cambodia Angkor Air; flight not included in the price). Arrival, immigration procedures and transfer to the hotel.

Departure at 5:00. We arrive at Angkor Wat before it opens, to position ourselves at the reflecting ponds of the western access. The sunrise over the silhouette of the five towers is one of the most reproduced images of Asia, but in the second week of September, without the equinox event, the crowds are considerably smaller. The difference is visible in every composition.

After sunrise: Angkor Thom, the fortress city of King Jayavarman VII, with its 54 stone towers covered in smiling faces. The Bayon temple at the exact center of the city. The Terrace of the Elephants. And at sunset, Ta Prohm: the temple the jungle has made its own, with the roots of centuries-old trees embracing the stone blocks in a symbiosis that looks deliberate.

The most differentiating day of the entire Cambodian itinerary. Early departure to Koh Ker, more than 100 kilometers north of Siem Reap: the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire between the years 928 and 944 AD. Only about twenty of its monuments are accessible to visitors because most of the area has not been completely demined. The solitude, the vegetation and the awareness of being in a place that mass tourism has not touched are part of the experience.

On the way back, stop at Beng Mealea: a 12th century Hindu temple that was never restored and that the jungle has completely colonized. Trees splitting walls, vines wrapping statues, stones lying in disordered piles where nine hundred years ago there were courtyards and galleries. It is the Angkor that would have been if no one had rediscovered it.

Banteay Srei, 35 kilometers north of Angkor: the smallest of the great Khmer temples, built in pink sandstone in the 10th century and dedicated to Shiva. Its bas-reliefs are the most detailed and best preserved of the entire Khmer civilization. The Khmer say they must have been carved by women’s hands because men do not have that precision.

In the afternoon, toward Tonle Sap lake: the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, which in September is at its peak level due to monsoon rains. The floating village of Kampong Phluk lives literally on the water: stilt houses, floating schools, boat markets. The community depends on fishing and September is its full active season. Sunset over the lake.

Breakfast at the hotel. Free time for the last images or to sit with a coffee and review what the days have left on the memory cards. Rooms must be vacated by 12:00. Transfer to Siem Reap International Airport for the flight back to Madrid (not included in the price); the transfer time depends on each traveller’s flight.

The one-stop flight lands in Madrid on the night of 13 September or during 14 September, depending on the airline. End of the trip.