Today was my first tour in Hanoi. Hanoi has 10 million people and 7 million motorcycles in Hanoi alone! Each person normally has a motorcycle. There doesn’t seem to be any rules for the roads at all! Even when there are 3 lanes, there is not a designated slow or fast. Instead, people just weave in and out of all 3 lanes with the objective of going a bit faster! Don’t understand how there are not more accidents. I had to close my eyes on more than a few occasions to stop myself grasping loudly, lol.
Incense Village – Quảng Phú Cầu
The bamboo to make the incense is brought from central Vietnam. Tonnes a day! The first part of the process is to soak the bamboo in muddy water. This can happen for up to 3 months. The reason they do this is to change the smell of the bamboo and remove any insect or future ones being attracted to it. Once they are dried, they will cut them into smaller pieces by hand, removing the green outer layer.
Once cut into the small sticks, we know incense to be either by hand or machine they then dye half the stick and leave in the sun to dry.
The next part of the process is adding the scented mix to the non dyed end. We saw this being done by machine, but previously, it was done by hand. This will be a mix of wood shavings from cutting the bamboo and herbs/spice. The one we saw was cinnamon and cloves.
We visited many different families to see them working on different parts of the incense creation. It is a real skill, and some of these women can cut so fast and actuate with a machete.
Then, I had the most colourful photo shoot of the trip and their were a student camera crew there and they asked if I would go on camera to say why I came and encourage other tourists to come. Might be on the local news, lol
Lunch
Boat ride – Tam Coc
Ha Long Bay on land is what the nickname of this place is, and it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best weather, but that added to the experience in a way. The rowers use their feet to row the boats, I’ve never seen anything like it, but I suppose it does make sense as our legs tend to be stronger than our arms.
We went under 3 caves and passed lilies, with beautiful views and some very heavy rain!
First king’s temple – Hoa Lu temple of the Dinh & Le Dynasties
The last stop on the tour was the first king of Vietnams temple. This used to be the capital but was moved by boat in 1946 to Hanoi. When you go into the temple, you have a high step to pass over. The reason for this is you would automatically bend down when you bring your second leg through, and therefore, you are bowing to the king regardless if you meant to.
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