Craft villages

Saturday December 21st

Yesterday we went on a customised tour arranged with Withlocals.com to craft villages located about 40km south of the city. 

Our first stop though was to a lacquer workshop and showroom in the city near the Ethnology Musuem. Here we were given an outline explanation to the processes used to create the fine lacquer paintings and artefacts made here. This tour finished in a large showroom where they wanted us to make purchases, we didn't! This was the only time during the day in which we were put under any pressure to buy goods made in the workshop.

The long drive out of the city followed, first through the typical Hanoi traffic, then into the countryside with rice fields, some of which had been ploughed, and the occasional grazing buffalo.

The conical hat village was the first port of call, it was interesting to learn how they are made and to distinguish between low quality and high quality. All the local people wear these hats, they are both sun shades and rain hats. 

A high quality hat



The interior finish:  the blue and red sewn area holds the scarf tie which holds the hat on.

The carpentry/wood carving village was next and Michael was in his element here, asking about the different types of wood. We learned that the jack fruit tree is used for much of the carving, and the Buddhas are not carved out of a whole piece. I had a little wander up the street while he was learning about the processes.

Jack fruit

Notice how they have used the grain of the wood in this face

Animal sculpture/carvings are used to protect the temples and some homes

These young men smelled quite strongly of alcohol! All the family had their photo taken with Orlo!

It became obvious that morning session at school had just finished as literally hundreds of pupils began to go past on bike and scooters.

As you can see it was a grey damp day, I wore a long sleeve t shirt, jeans, shoes and socks and my lightweight quilted jacket all day and was never too warm. Quite a contrast to previous days which have been warm summer weather days.

The 'birdcage' village was close by so we popped in there too. In fact they make a lot more than birdcages and everything is made from bamboo. Huge bamboo canes were stacked along the streets. Orlo immediately spotted waste paper baskets in this workshop and we negotiated to buy one as he said he needed one for his bedroom. I think it cost about £1.30p!! He hadn't got his pocket money with him, so he owes his Grandad ;-). We climbed the steps inside the building  to see more of their work, our health and safety people would be horrified. Cable tripping hazards, corrugated roof to walk on (I kept off it!) opened metal stairs,  etc!

Lampshades galore



They were also doing some weaving for decorative tops and bases for steaming baskets 

By this time it was nearly lunchtime and while we drove across country to the laquer village our driver was looking for somewhere for us to eat. Our guide, David, had already ascertained what we might like! Eventually we stopped at a local cafe, again somewhere we would never have gone in on our own.

Three of us had Com Rang Dau Bo which was fried rice, served with a bowl of beef and pickled cabbage in a broth and a bowl of vegetable broth. We did not order rice for Michael! Orlo had Pho Bo which is the tradition broth with beef and noodles.  A lot of local people were eating here, and we couldn't believe the speed at which they downed their meal and left! Michael was amazed that we were able to buy 2 x 440ml beers for 25,000 Vietnamese Dong, about 80p. The cheapest he has seen so far and, as many of you will know, he keeps an eye on the price of alcohol!

The last village on the schedule was the lacquer village. When we arrived the owner of the workshop wasn't ready for us so we had a wander and came across another workshop where they were very busy gilding large carved wood overmantles, maybe for temple doorways.

As you can see the women are sitting on very low stools which support the Asian squat. All the working people sit like this. As we walked back the owner of the workshop we were to visit came to find us and Orlo and I enjoyed a short session doing silver inlay. I would have made a better job of mine if I had had a translation first, however, it was an interesting process; tracing the design, then etching through the tracing onto the lacquered base, painting on laquer and laying on the silver inlays. Had I known the process in advance I would have chosen a more simple design and been able to paint with more accuracy, but, he ho, it is a nice souvenir !

We then drove back in the Friday afternoon traffic, it was not without incident, at one point lumps of stone/concrete fell from  an overpass which was being built, hitting some vehicles, fortunately they missed the motorcycle and scooter riders. We felt a bump on the car roof, but later inspection revealed no damage. However a few minutes later an SUV driver gently ran into the back of us, so we had to stop, with all the traffic going around us, while the  two drivers had a conference. Towards the end of our journey home we detoured into a large garage workshop for a repair estimate to be made, the offending driver has followed us.  Finally we were on the last stage of the drive home arriving about 4.30 having left at 9.0am.  

A very full day out, we really liked the driver who spoke a little English, but we didn't take to the guide, David. He was a bit too smooth, and at one point spent a long time on his phone. 

In the evening we went out to dinner at the home of one of Orlo's schoolfriends', a very multicultural experience. The parents were of Indian heritage, born in the USA to Indian immigrant parents. The other couple were American and Vietnamese. We ate Vietnamese, Indian, Egyptian, American  and English  food.  Spring rolls, dips, popcorn, aubergine dip and bread for appetisers, chicken and veggie kebabs with an Egyptian dish made from lentils, pasta, rice and special spices, salad, apple pie with cheese, and cookies. The kids and Michael had pizza!! I made the apple pie. Wine, beer, hibiscus lemonade, gin and tonic were also consumed

All in all a very busy and fascinating day!