Exploring!

I have had a great day today. After we took Orlo to school, Amanda and I took a taxi to the city and I was dropped off at the Women's Museum. This is excellent.

The first floor contained exhibits and information about marriage and birth customs (in that order !). Some lovely exhibits of both older and modern dress along with typical gifts and videos of wedding parties etc. The second part showed the care of the newborn, along with information for mothers about feeding.

The next floor was all about women's role in the wars, particularly the last one. Women were relied upon to keep the farming going, but they were also very involved in defence and resistance, and campaigning for a place in modern society.

The third floor was women's fashion, with some great exhibits of typical tribal dress, culminating in some beautiful Ao Dais ( the Ao Dai is the typical dress ), by modern designers.

The top floor was an exhibition of modern art, which I did not rate!

I then braved the busy streets and walked South about 5 blocks to the Cho Houm market,. The ground floor had mainly clothing stalls with fruit stalls behind. Upstairs were more fabric stalls than you can imagine! They were cheek by jowl with tiny alleyways in between. I bought 2 separate metres of cotton shirting, and a 2metre length of silk to make a dress.....one day! I explored further round the back of the market where they were selling meat, fish, shellfish etc. the crabs and prawns were alive and being kept fresh in bowls of water. I wended my way back through the market to emerge to find a 'fabric' street. One street with shops selling nothing else but fabric. The one that really caught my eye sold Ao Dai silks. They were beautiful!

For some reason Blogger is playing up, so I am having to put photos in in a block. 

I then strolled North back to the more tourist area. I was the only Westerner in that market and on the streets until I reached the Government buildings and Hoan Kien lake. Lots of tempting shops on the way, including Cath Kidston bags for about £21!!! Lots of shoe shops too, mainly casual and sports shoes, like Nike, Keen, etc. After a pleasant lunch at the Avalon cafe, I got a taxi home. I met Orlo from school, and started making bags for his party. They are being recycled from newspapers.....as recycling is very much the vogue at present. 😉👍

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Tomorrow,I am going to bake the birthday cake and help prepare for the party which is after school on Thursday........