Well, we had a very productive day after a lazy day yesterday. Yesterday, we rested most of the day, went for a long walk and visited the temple of literature which was the main higher education center in Vietnam starting in the 11th century. We went to a yummy Indian restaurant for dinner and then ended up meeting with a bunch of ex-pats who are starting a climbing business on cat ba island. We went to a club for a bit and then headed home because are day started early today.
We were picked up by our driver at around 8am and he took us on a tour of local handicraft villages which was quite fascinating. The first village was the main ceramic village in Vietnam. Teapots, vases, plates, bowls...you name it, the place was filled with all kinds of pottery. We watched many a young women glazing various things and preparing pieces for the kiln. Hoyt really seemed to enjoy watching others with their handicraft. We them moved on to a village known for making traditional paintings but they were actually printmaking not painting as much. Still it was fun to watch how the paintings are made and Hoyt even gave his hand go at it. We then finished up there and stopped at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant and ate some squid, some soup with what seemed like what corn puffs would actually be fried corn, rice (of course) and some chicken from the backyard. We finished up here and moved on to the last village which is where most of the wooden furniture in SE Asia is made. There were these huge wooden chairs with intricate detailing throughout the entire piece and unfortunately they were a little too big for our carry on.
We headed back to town, rested up a bit and then headed for the water puppet theatre. Right after we bought our tickets, we went to grab some food and a torrential downpour hit. Turns out that the sewage system in Hanoi is not the best and the flooding waters pushed the drain covers up and sewage was spewing onto the street, we had to run through it for a second to get back to the theatre so needless to say we have had to disinfect our feet...icks...the good news is that the water puppets were phenomenal and the music was a perfect way to end our time here in Vietnam....
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2 comments:
Sounds like a wonderfully adventurous day! One of the best parts is that you are giving yourselves rest time. Six weeks is a lot of time to be going 90-miles an hour continuously!!
Fun is more fun when you are rested! Wish I were there! The food and friends sound great!
Lv mm
Love the water puppets! (But not so much the goo infected feet)
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