Today we were up early to go to the pottery village which is across the river and south east of Hanoi. It was stinking hot when we set off at 8.15 but out at the village it was much cooler. We had booked a driver which turned out very useful later on.....
We parked outside Bat Trang Conservation and went into the shop which had some lovely stuff but at silly prices!;)
We wandered down the street and found a pottery where they let children play. It was great! A lump of clay thrown onto a wheel and away we went. I last made a pot over 30 years ago, but I remembered quite a bit. The staff were great, not at all pushy and they helped Orlo to make two pots. Then he made a funny little figure which he said was a giraffe. I made a turtle. We left the pots to be fired and walked further on down the streets. Quite a number of the shops were closed, but enough were open. We explored down some of the lanes and in one we came across a lovely courtyard with a 'cafe'.....a wood and thatch structure......where we had coffee and a little bit of cake.
They had a really good set up for children to play with clay and Amanda is thinking that it would be a very good activity for Orlo's next birthday, I can just imagine about 10 little boys having a wonderful time getting mucky and wet ;))
We found a very nice shop for a couple of souvenirs, and pressies.
Amanda and Andrew had blue and white Vietnamese pottery for wedding presents and we were able to find a cookie jar to go with it. I expect they may go back there for more one day ;) other purchases included a large bowl to make a goldfish pond and some rectangular planters to grow herbs and for Orlo to sow some flower seeds.
We kept going back and forth to the car to fill the boot !
We went back to collect Orlo's pots , Orlo's all survived the firing, but my turtle didn't; then there was the option to paint the biscuit pots or have them glazed. He painted them as glazing would have involved leaving them to be fired again. This all cost 300,000 VND which converts to just over £9, worth every penny !
The village was very quiet today, maybe the tourist companies don't do tours there on Sundays.
Once back home we examined the spoils of the day and then Orlo's friend Max turned up to play. I spent the retst of the afternoon on Andrew's computer trying to restore Amandaz's iPhone and no one wants to hear about that !! ;)
Amanda is off to Bangkok tomorrow leaving at 7.0am and due back very late on Wednesday night.......so I may not have much time to blog for the next few days ......
Throwing a pot.....
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