Ceramic Village Bat Trang
On Monday we had lunch next to Jari's workplace. Unfortunately, Teacher's Day had brought a lot of
customers and of course this time the usually good service was not working. Since we were in a hurry,
Jari had asked us to order food in advance and mentioned that it didn't have to be a big meal. And it
was really small, but when we were leaving an hour later, the actual main courses were brought to the
table, which someone had marked as being brought, so a bit late. And then there was only time to grab a
few French fries.
Half an hour's drive from Ha Noi is the Bat Trang pottery village, whose traditions go back centuries.
The road there goes along the northern bank of the Red River (Song Hong). The village itself is growing
rapidly all the time and every visit reveals new features. We have always gone all the way to the
village, because that is where the cheapest shops are and there are also really narrow alleys.
In the alleys of the village, the walls are regularly filled with coal cakes, which are drying out before the actual burning. They have water and other substances mixed with the coal, which create a more precise and better combustion process than with powdered coal.
Although charcoal cakes look nice, they are not at all good for the environment and to our satisfaction we saw that gas stoves were already being used in several places. The alleys are indeed small and they also have a lot of traffic. Sometimes there is a cyclist moving there, sometimes a person carrying something.
The larger streets of the village were full of mud mixed with coal, soil, and water, although some of the alleys were really clean to walk on. However, sometimes it would have been more comfortable to walk in boots.
Guess why the bike Sini is passing in the picture below fell over?
A large part of the workforce seemed to be female-dominated and we were amazed that such small people could do such hard work. But perhaps we already live in a different world, where using muscle power does not make such a significant contribution to household income anymore.
The alleys finally ended at the riverbank, where it was really windy that day. There was no need to wonder why the river was called red.
After a short break, we continued our journey to the actual shopping.
Sini was delighted to find with Jonna's help a small kitten, which seemed to be treated very well and their expressions were really funny afterwards.
Most of the work in the village is still done by hand, which is why the prices are very affordable. But it is different to bring your purchases to Ha Noi than to drag them to the other side of the world. Smaller things didn not really interest me and larger ones would have been difficult to bring to Finland.
The young girls quickly and skillfully painted on the cups. Each one seemed to have a slightly different approach, but the results looked very similar.
And for dinner we went to Luna D'Autunno, where we also messed up a bit with our order. For some reason, restaurants in Ha Noi didn't do well today. Maybe they're jealous when teachers get a lot of roses and praise, but there's no Chef's Day to celebrate.