Helloooo

We got a later start today, looked liked rain,so we hired a car and driver to take us to the villages we wanted, ate a quick breakfast, returned our motorbikes from day before and then we were  off. 1 hour later we arrived in Thach Xa. 

Driver dropped us off near a school. The children were sanding and painting a big wall for beautification. The teacher was happy to work with us, the kids learn a few basic English words in school and they got to practice. Hellooo came from everywhere we went. The kids would then shy away and giggle.  Again we were famous and drew crowds. Kids , parents, grandparents... word got out fast in the village that they had visitors. And everyone came out to see, parents grabbed the babies and wanted us to interact with them. We obliged. These villages are NOT tourist spots by any means which, made it even more special.

Thach XA is A unique village with the tradition of making bamboo dragonflies in Thach Xa Commune, Ha Tay. Thanks to making bamboo dragonflies sell to the shop and sell as toys for the children, people’s life here have a lot better than before. Bamboo dragonfly is a unique handicraft products symbolized for talent of the artisan. 

(This family invited us into their private home to see the work being done and it was amazing.)The rustic and homely bamboo dragonfly always attracted not only children but also older travelers, they also want to buy some bamboo dragonflies for using or a gift for descendants when they have the opportunity to visit Thach Xa village.

These are beautiful, huge and heavy. Hand crafted also in this village. 
Villagers even got candy in on the cement mixing action. We stopped at a small shop and have a cuppa coffee . Brewed the old fashion way. And as much as I love coffee this was an NASTY strong Vietnamese coffee. (and here I thought I liked any kind of coffee).admirersI seen the mother get all three of her girls to the door to see us , so I interacted with them, most of them know the English word helloooo and I got one to shake my hand and they just laugh and giggle and runaway . Trinity popping bubbles with the boys He kept watching us and circling around. As did many, many others ... I think we were photographed and videotaped more than we took pictures. 

Off to the next village! Chang son. 

Chang Son fan making village

Chang Son village is a traditional village which was famous hundred years ago in Chang Son Commune, Thach That District, and Ha Noi. Since the 19th century, Chang Son fans was famous inside and outside Vietnam, in the period of French colony, French had repeatedly brought fan of Chang Son to Paris for exhibition.

Ancient Vietnam people have been familiar with paper fan whenever the weather became sweltering and hot in summer day when there was no electric fan. Now, paper fans always present in daily life, silent and supple as a tacit circuit never off. 

Whether wall-mounted or handheld, the fan still exudes a soft and charm beauty of motifs and images between a fan. The fans even more impressive by the silk material with iridescent royal color, shimmering patterns blend with natural motifs are carved above.admirershard at work. We were invited into this family’s shop to see the work being done . I always seem to attract this generation. I wonder why? LolPeople even waited at the door of the shop we were in, crowds. As we were meandering around the village, this little lady was desperate for us to go into her home to show us something, so we followed. She was tickled when I showed her this picture, but she wasn’t quite sure what I was doing with my iPhone . We were not exactly sure what we were looking at but we smiled and nodded our head yes and interacted with this elderly woman (after we return back to our home stay we asked him what the certificates were and it turns out that she was telling us that she was a veteran of the Vietnam war. A very important/respected/famous woman in the village. 

We were then invited into a gentleman’s family home (garden) for Tea and again it tasted like boiled grass,but we obliged and thanked him . He took a photo with all of us . back on the streets. (Alleys) Candy interacting and sharing popcorn. They were thrilled! 

More Admirers 

This guy was anxiously waiting for somebody to take his photo so , I obliged.admirers so then we had to go back to the spot where the van driver dropped us off to get a ride back to Hanoi. So Candy and Trinity pulled out a deck of Uno cards and started playing two person UNO and a lot of kids and mothers gathered around to watch them play. Candy and Trinity were wonderful with these children and got them involved in the play as well. Our van driver arrived so Candy and Trinity left the cards to the kids to finish the game. I don’t think that that deck of cards will ever be the same, as they probably went to 10 different families. 

This was a great day in the villages but one thing that most of our group noticed was people were grabbing arms with both of their hands in their hands and cannot fit around the arm and a lot of people pat bellies like we were too fat and a lot of side comments. We expected this, as we did our research and knew this was going to happen, we are not quite sure if that was the adoration or just that they had five white American women in the village. We will never know. 

Dinner time!  Divina got a burger the size of her face. So after dinner we went upstairs to the tattoo and piercing shop. I held Trinity’s hand While she got her nose pierced,  it looks great and she did wonderful.And Luann was touched in the village that we visited yesterday and got a tattoo on her heart because it meant so much to her. When she tells the story,  it brings her to tears so this is a very meaningful tattoo for Luann. PS it is also her first tattoo. Never too old.We then hit the market Street and I was very happy to say no video games, no cell phones no electronics. They play jump rope and hackney sack, dancing and singing. . We found a flower area. Turns out that the day we arrived or proximately there about,  the prime minister of Vietnam had died and there are memorials all over and we “think “this was one of the memorials.  Luann is our flower person and she thought she was in heaven here until......we went to the midnight flower market.colors everywhere you look. I bought candy one and a half dozen of pink roses for four dollars USD. You will never ever get that price back in the states. 

It is now 4AM, everybody else is sleeping and I am headed to bed. Good night.