Hanoi- Cho Gom Bát Tràng Artisan pottery village

This village about 30 minutes outside of Hanoi city was a perfect choice to get a good look into local life and the craftsmanship of the villagers with not a tourist in sight…other than steve and myself. Many photos are below in a slideshow with a few highlighted on the blog with descriptions

My mom would love this place being a porcelain artist .Each little nook and cranny of the village brought about new discoveries and surprises that would delight any pottery maker or artist.  Mom, I took lots of photos of those tiles being weighted by bricks to prevent them curling!!

 

Unfired pottery was drying in the sun everywhere we walked and artists in their open air shops were throwing pots on low wheels sitting at plastic stools….. and carving greenware (leather hard pottery not yet fired)   

This was a true working village with every shop being a different small group of artisans or family creating a unique style to their workshop.   Tourists do come here but it is very evident that the village functions as a community first….and entertains tourists when they have time to take a break from their 9 to 5.

It was lunch time and we grabbed a grilled taro cake from one of the many street vendors selling to the locals , then we went into tiny Pho shop for a great noodle soup which totally hit the spot.

They are using Kumquats instead of limes for that last squeeze of acid before eating the soup.   Now I know what to do with those kumquats!!!!! Brilliant flavor and great color

In Vietnam there are a number of dishes made with chicken that has black meat.  I’ve seen it but not tasted it.   Thats on our list for this trip ….the chicken  breed called  Ayam Cemani are highly regarded because their meat is believed to have mystical powers They are totally black , feathers, eyes and meat and is thought to have mystical powers

Throughout the village we saw many of these tangled bonsai in elaborate pots.  We weren’t sure if they grown as a display garden or being nurtured for eventual sale.   They looked like the Cambodian trees we saw strangling the forest temples but in miniature and must be quite old.

I had a blast standing on dusty street corners photographing village life as it passed us by. Hardly a word of English is spoken here but “Hi” is universal and gets an unspoken dialogue going.  This fella below indicated he was a photographer but spoke no English. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of my camera and I regret not handing it over for him to take Steves and my photo….he certainly loved that I took his….  Hindsight!!!

Below find all of the photos in a slideshow from the pottery village visit.  We also did a street food tour last night but that’s another blog post….what an adventure!!!.  We packed yesterday with so much fun and food that we slept like babies…until 3 AM which is why I’m blogging now. LOL!

 Below is a wonderful photo I had to squeeze in from our first day of a flower vendor .   We adore Hanoi!!!