For The Love of Travel

The village, 35 kms from Hanoi, that upholds the tradition of incense-making for more than 100 years, is awash with vibrance, colour and spectacle! To Vietnamese, burning incense is the traditional ritual meant to build a bridge between the visible life of the present and the spiritual world of gods and past generations. Burning incense, daily – at home, temples or pagodas – is the first thing to do to establish an environment conducive to spiritual elevation and attract spirit attention!

Red and pink are the primary hues on display, but some green, purple and yellow have slipped in as well. Portraits of villagers and workers against colour-rich backgrounds, pics of incense set out to dry in various formations… make for brilliant and visually arresting photos. Making incense generates income for about 3,000 households, 70% of the village. 200 tonnes of bamboo is consumed daily in incense production. Wowsers!!

How do you make incense you ask? By first chopping bamboo into thin small smooth sticks, soaking in water for days and then drying them, before partially dipping the sticks in hot liquid dyes, letting them dry outdoors, mixing eucalyptus/cinnamon barks; clove roots; star anise and other aromatics with water and glue powder and applying the resultant incense paste to the sticks (the most difficult part of the process), and finally sun-drying one more time.

Just wandered the neighbourhoods of Hoan Kiem and the French Quarter. ‘Vi Mot Tuong Lai Xanh’ means ‘to a green future’.

I was mesmerised watching florist staff ‘reflexing’ roses, flipping petals outwards to create voluminous blooms.

The sun was shining and it was quite warm, a good reason for Hanoians eating ice creams today, from crispy cones shaped like conch-shells – the Trang Tien company has a business history of over 60 years and prides itself on an ice cream that’s free of additives, with a ‘gentle sweetness’.

The Children’s Palace, since 1976 has been a centre for culture, sports and political events for young people. This is a picture of Ho Chi Minh on the walls of the Palace. (Ho always had a commitment to promoting youth involvement in society, founding a National Youth Union in 1931). To keep pace with demand for activities, Government has announced an additional complex will be built for $56M – incorporating an 800 seat theatre, 200 seat 3D cinema, 500 seat stadium, 10 lane swimming pool, library and admin offices.

Tran Quoc Pagoda is the oldest Buddhist temple, constructed in the 6thC by Emperor Ly. Monks live onsite and teach Buddhism to locals. Incense is burned in the shrine to send wishes to the gods and receive good luck in return. Female Buddhas, known as “Mothers” are worshipped – the green mother has dominion over mountains and forests; the white mother over water; and red mother over the sky.The pagoda has a picturesque setting on West Lake.

On the way to dinner tonight, passed by locals shopping on their way home and eating at restaurants. Love the way trees and buildings are decorated with tiny lights…they make a colourful statement at night. Also found the famous ‘Train St’ – tiny, narrow, surrounded by high houses packed closely together, the train passes literally a few metres from houses. Because of tourists in the past being desperate to get an ‘Instagrammable’ photo (i.e. standing in the middle of the track to get a front-on pic), and on a few occasions, dying….there are now guards posted at the narrowest part, (trying to) prevent tourist entry.

Time to venture out of the city and commune with nature! Ninh Binh consists of 3 different types of landscapes – wetlands, coastal delta and uplands. And famous for its goat meat, much firmer, leaner and fresher as they are raised on rock mountains rather than hills. Goat meat’s weird smell has to be eliminated prior to sale – its preparation by processors, by marinating and spicing it, makes it saleable! On road sales are everywhere!

Known as “Halong Bay on land”, the province is an area of natural beauty, Tam Coc and Trang An being the main towns. The area boasts a stunning landscape with karst mountains, deep green valleys and winding rivers.

Tam Coc offers boat rides past green fields and the feet of mountains into the mouth of caves…where they encounter stalagmite and stalactite surprises! A very touristy enclave though with lots of touts and pressure to buy ‘merch’ and boat rides. These boat ladies were (mostly) very prepared for the photo, for which I asked permission, always!

Trang An…47 grottos and caves, 31 valleys and stunning karst sceneries. But the staging post for getting onto a boat to enjoy those sights looked horrendous…

Van Long Reserve provides another opportunity to ride a boat on winding canals of the wetlands, the area dotted with over 30 caves and limestone mountains….and a place to spot bird species for ‘twitchers’! This is my choice of a relaxing time floating on the river, communing with nature!

Bai Dinh Pagoda is the largest Buddhist complex in South East Asia. The ancient 100m pagoda was built in 1136 …from 2003, the Truong construction enterprise has invested in restoring and expanding the complex area to 1000 hectares today, with a bell tower, palace and various temples. There are 500 Arhat statues carved out of blue stone by artisans, lining 1.7km of 2 corridors in the complex, with 300 steps. It was definitely a challenge, but I made it.

Dinner – I needed it! Decided to sample Cha Ca (grilled fish with dill, spring onion and tumeric). I wasn’t prepared for the amount of oil the fish and veg were cooked in, but a delightful meal nevertheless.

A full day, exhausted and early to bed!