I was picked up in the lobby at about 8AM and the car/driver was different than last time. I deliberately took a picture of the vehicle as I did not recognize the brand. We headed out of Hanoi using a familiar route that passed the World Bank building which has served as my main marker throughout my stay.
The city went on and on and eventually things started to get more rural. Junie mentioned that a large area of land was annexed by the City of Hanoi I think she said over the past 20 years and that is why the city now seems to stretch on and on and on. It still looked somewhat urban as the scenery eventually melted into the countryside.
The road was not great but the roller coaster ride was worth it. We drove through one small enclave of people after another, on what seemed to be a raised piece of land between two soft valleys. The road was reminiscent of driving on a causeway except there was not water on either side. There were scooters everywhere and a lot of dodge-em manoeuvers pulled off instantaneously all along the course to avoid them. Large trucks whose brands I have never heard of sprung up all along the way; that was a different flavour of dodge-em.
We winded our way down a narrow road, half covered by alternating piles of sand and rocks. The first stop as was a pagoda. Pagodas in Vietnam are places of worship though they are not Buddhist Temples. They are the next closest thing. Just before getting to the pagoda, we saw the first of over 2 million piles of neatly arranged bricks at the side of the road. These piles are sometimes quite massive and so nicely arranged in a criss-cross fashion.
Inside the pagoda was the usual assortment of altars, busts, and Buddha-like figures, not to mention the ever-present incense. There were some very interesting trees with a cluster of narrowish feet at the base that split into more branches not far from the ground. I have seen these all over Hanoi. The buildings in the courtyard were classically Vietnamese with the traditional rooves many with turned up intricate corners.
The inside was wonderful, lots of reds and gold coloured tributes to Buddha, and did I mention the incense? There was lots of wood surrounding the inner courtyard and a concrete tower as well as many low distinctive buildings on the border of said courtyard. Some of the smaller altars had small figures on them, and were made out of wood and sometimes stone (the altars that is :)).
The inside is punctuated by pagoda flags which are very colourful, narrow, and tall material separated into a few vertical parts by intricate assortments of coloured cloth. I saw a few windows with 2 familiar Asian signs in them made from sculpted concrete. I think one of them means long life. There was naturally a small cafe on the way out, and then I saw one of many buses made by my favourite automobile manufacturer Hyundai. Our next stop was another pagoda.
This one was populated on the inside by an assortment of Buddha-like figures again, sized all the way from as tall as a 5 year-old child to the size of Goliath (from David and Goliath fame, yes that one). They were made out of wood, I think, though some could have been marble. The pagoda flags were out in full force, and I saw a handful of black figures decked out in very colourful clothing. There was the standard rock/brick tower in the middle of the inner courtyard as well as the wooden tables and beams supporting the roof on the perimeter as well. By the way, the Lacetti chariot we were in today is made by nobody else than ... Chevrolet! Who would'a thunk??
There was some driving between the stops. The distance between the first two pagodas was about 30 minutes. The drive to Bat Trang where we had lunch and hung out for 2 hours or so was quite a bit longer. The architecture of the houses all throughout the trip was so Southeast Asian, or at least what I expected it to look like. Just like in Japan (from what I have heard and seen on Discovery channel :)). they build up rather than out. I saw many houses 3 or 4 stories high with a footprint probably less than 50 square metres or 400 or so square feet (i.e., 20 by 20 feet). I would not want to find out what the temperature is like on the fourth floor on a day like this.
The next stop was Bát Tràng ... a famous ceramics outlet town and oh ya, just in case you are missing them already, a pagoda! Bát Tràng was a huge treat. We started by going to a pagoda, of all things :), but after a conversation we had with someone there, we were told to do the town walkabout then come back. The town is exactly 1,000 years old I was told, having been founded in 1010 of all years!! The streets were narrow, the architecture wonderful and very heavily weathered, and the sites a treat to see. We saw the familiar piles of bricks seen elsewhere, except some of them were actually other clay components than traditional bricks. Some were a variation of brick that had two centimetre holes drilled through their length probably for drainage. We returned to the pagida and had a look around. It was beautiful inside and I purchased some goodies for my babies and Annabelle/Paddy/Sean/Avery (soon-to-arrive grandson ... yessirreeeee ... August 23 through September 5 is his due date :)).
We then spent about 15 minutes trying to find somewhere for lunch and that was an adventure. We finally ended up at a place called Nàh Hàm Gống (sweet ... found out how to do the "o" with the 2 accents ... beauty!!!!!!!!!! ... and yes even though it looks like an "o" with a tilde [~] character, it is correct). I ordered the chicken, and was told they only had whole chickens. No problem, I will take the rest home. Guess what ... they did mean the whole chicken; the beady eyes were looking right at me, I cut off the head and hid it under a piece of chicken skin. The owner took me outside by the arm after I shook her hand and thanked her and said something to me in Vietnamese that I actually understood ... " bring all your friends here too". We then went to a ceramic spot ... no not a store, a factory, after a stroll through the marketplace. Junie painted a bowl the guy who works there made and we had a tea while it was fired.
We then headed back to Hanoi and I was sort of glad to be going back to air-conditioning. The day was beyond expectations and I have the pictures to prove it.
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