Ba Chua Kho Temple - Duong O Paper Village

Last weekend, a friend and I took a quick trip on a motorbike the the area around the town of Bac Ninh, just north of Hanoi. After coffee in the park for a little planning, we headed to the Ba Chua Kho temple, on a hill just the other side of the railroad tracks. It felt like the whole village, which really formed an arm off of Bac Ninh itself, was waiting for our arrival. Trying to stay assertive as we were enthusiastically encouraged to buy offerings ranging from platters of food and drink for our ancestors in the afterlife, we settled on some incense and fake paper money. The temple was beautiful, partly for its setting on a hill near a lake. But the significance wasn't so much religious as historical: the temple had been built about 1000 years ago to honor a woman, remarkable in itself. She had been a poor woman who married well, a king's brother, and when she was tasked with managing the region's farms, she set up a grain storage system for about 75 farms. While this sensible move makes most of us nod approvingly, her claim to legend was that her prudence paid off by feeding Vietnamese troops fighting off one of the waves of northern invaders.

Our second stop was in the village of Duong O - Phong Khe, just off the highway south of Bac Ninh. Around Hanoi, there are groups of traditional handicraft villages, specializing in small-scale manufacturing: pottery, weaving, paper fans, wood-carving, etc. Just as U.S. farms are rarely a little self-sustaining plot of land with cows and chickens anymore, these villages are no living history park, either: many of these villages are fighting for survival, and have industrialized their specialty, sometimes with mixed results. The paper village we visited has diversified into everything from tissues and toilet paper to big rolls of paper for fake paper money offerings. Much of the paper is recycled from waste paper, though you might not like what it does to the water. But the town is thriving, evidenced by several new homes, and must not get many Western visitors: when we parked the bike on the corner, two older gentlemen advised us to park it inside one of their houses, never asked for a fee, and found it amusing that we were taking pictures of the alley around their place. At one of the larger processors, a woman gave us a quick explanation of her 24/7 operations without us asking at all.

Click this photo (below) to go to my Picasa album (about 20 photos):

2009 1108 Ba Chua Kho Temple and Duong O Paper Village

Samui Island, Thailand

I had always pictured kayaking as a sport listed under "adventure sports," and somehow involving aligators, shark cages, and the National Geographic Channel. But on my three-day trip to a sandy island in southern Thailand, I learned that it's just a clever way to get tourists onto canoes without making it sound lame. And it was great! I met up with two friends currently working in Thailand to enjoy the beach, and then spend a day of exploring nearby rocks and islands by boat, "kayak," snorkeling (kind of), and, well, beach volleyball. The sand and waters were clean (except for those pesky little jellyfish), the hotel quiet, and the food good. I'd never really sought out beach vacations before, but after sampling one, I could be tempted by their appeal again.

Click this photo (below) to go to my Picasa album (about 20 pictures):

2009 1010 Samui Island - Thailand

Harvest Moon Festival - Tet Trung Thu

When I lived in Germany's most fertile neighborhood, I remember seeing children carrying lanterns in early October, and I thought it was just a precursor to Halloween, tamed down for preschoolers. I was later corrected: it was borrowed from the Asian communities living in Berlin. This year, on a warm Sat. night in early October, I got to experience the full Vietnamese version of the Harvest Moon Festival (also translated as Children's New Year and other variations) in Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Earlier in the evening/afternoon, children had been out with their candle-lit lanterns, but by the time I arrived at the entrance to the night market--a pedestrian-only shopping zone for locals and tourists on the weekends--it was completely overwhelmed with student revelers, decked out in punker wigs, lit-up devil's horns, and other off-the-shelf costumes. Noisemakers, balloons, street food, and more were all extras to the usual shoulder-to-shoulder night. A couple of the temples had programs for kids with songs, gongs, and lanterns. A few groups had the bright idea to form conga lines and race through the masses to clear a path. I eventually waded to the shores of the Old Quarter to wander home. And I never saw the moon, come to think of it.

Click this photo (below) to go to my Picasa album (about 24 pictures):

2009 1003 Harvest Moon Festival