AP video producer Hau Din had embarked on a midsummer weekend getaway with his partner in the seaside resort of Vung Tau, Vietnam. But when when a surge of COVID-19 prompted tight restrictions, turning his visit into more than nine weeks of lockdown, Dinh delivered an all-formats first-person account of his life stuck in an apartment away from home as the delta variant swept through Vietnam.
In text, photos and video, Hanoi-based Dinh opened the doors to his lockdown home, creatively documenting what one does with so much time indoors while restricted to a quick once-a-week trip to a nearby drug store and grocery. He said he sometimes lost track of time, but a stark reminder of how long he’d been in lockdown was an avocado plant. A seed when he took it from a restaurant just before the lockdown, he watched it grow more than 30 centimeters (1 foot) tall.
AP journalist Hau Dinh, right, gets a haircut from his partner, Mathieu Le Besq, during extended virus lockdown in Vung Tau, Vietnam, Sept. 13, 2021. Dinh said he and Le Besq hadn’t spent such a long period of time together in the past seven years.
AP Photo / Hau Dinh
A street is blocked with carts and trash cans during extended virus lockdown in Vung Tau, Vietnam, Sept. 13, 2021. More than a half of Vietnam was under a lockdown order to contain its worst virus outbreak yet.
AP Photo / Hau Dinh
AP journalist Hau Dinh works on a laptop during extended virus lockdown in Vung Tau, Vietnam, Sept. 13, 2021. Based in Hanoi, Dinh documented his prolonged lockdown, saying he considered himself lucky for not having to spend the lockdown in far less comfortable conditions.
AP Photo / Mathieu Le Besq
A busy seaside area of Vung Tau, Vietnam, is shown at left, April 30, 2021, and at right on Sept. 13, 2021, virtually empty during virus lockdown.
AP Photo / Mathieu Le Besq
A nine-week avocado plant is grows at the lockdown apartment of AP journalist Hau Dinh in Vung Tau, Vietnam, Sept. 15, 2021. Dinh started the seed in midsummer, wondering if it would even sprout before the restrictions were lifted.
AP Photo / Hau Dinh