#14 01.AUG.2015

VISIT TO VAN MIEU

XIN CHAO, EVERYONE! :) 

Mai, Gabriela and Jom went to visit Van Mieu last Saturday :)

Van Mieu can be called as "Temple of Literature" as well.

It's a must see tourist attraction spot in Hanoi! 

and you know what? It's exactly the building that was printed at the back of the Vietnamese dong banknote. #FUNFACT 

To enter the Van Mieu, we must buy the admission ticket. It costed us 30,000 dong per person! But actually there were some promotion for the student! It's just half price from the normal ticket but we didnt bring our student card. So, student who wanted to visit Van Mieu, don't forget to bring along student ID. The promotion is available for international student as well.

We were fascinated by the peace environment in the temple, which made a significant contrast with the bustling street surrounded the temple as if we have gotten into a new world that was filled with solemn yet peaceful atmosphere.

                                      

After passing through the lake floated with a lot of lotus, we stepped into the first courtyard of the Van Mieu.

 From the history of Van Mieu, it was the first ever university in Vietnam back to 1070 which uphold the thinking of Confusion. In the first courtyard, some of the major educator in the history were worship here such as Confucius and his disciplars.

As what I observed in Hanoi, turtle is the sacred animal in Vietnam. There is a legend story about the turtle.

There is an old man doing some calligraphy outside the first courtyard. 

 It started raining when we reached there. We stayed there and visited to some souvenir shop at the side of the first courtyard.

After visiting to the temple, we had banh da for lunch. It's similar to Kuey Teow but the texture is slightly different. The Banh Da here is more harder. The seller is really friendly, she kept on telling us her story even we don't really understand what was she talking. She was selling Banh Da with her small trunk since 20 years before.

Second Stop- Women Museum

Admission ticket: 30000dong for Adult, 15000 for student

#Visit to Museum of Ethnology

Together with V.E.O vice president and students from British Council :)

Museum of Ethnology

Met some vietnam little girls there who are soooo friendlyyyy! :D

 Some exhibitions in the museum that display the unique culture of Viet and many other ethnic groups in Vietnam included their living tools, costume, traditional occasion, house design and more. There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, each of this ethnic groups has their own astonish cultures

There is one art gallery in the museum which I think it was pretty cool. There are some life gallery of different ethnic groups in a black room.

Outside of the museum, there is some show room of the traditional houses of different ethnic groups. 

This is the tomb. They gathered all the dead body in the tomb. After few years, they will have the celebration in front of this tomb as the blessings for the dead people who already reincarnated to the other world. 

This is the stilt house of Bana in Vietnam. 

& there is a long house in vietnam as well. 

After we visited the museum, we continue our journey to Bah Trang (Pottery Village) 

Spontaneously photo in the antiquate dam when we were on our way to take bus to Bah Trang. To go to Bah Trang, we took bus in Long Bien Bus Stop, which is no 47A bus. (p/s: There are a lot of bus stations there, have to take a look on the signboard to get on the right bus)

Street view of Hanoi nearby the bus stop. 

#Visit to Bat Trang

Finally reached here in Bat Trang after 40minutes of journey on the bus, it's a small village that is very peaceful and full of pottery products. I guess all the villages that away from Hanoi are very tranquility and peaceful. :)

Started to make our own pottery, it cost us 40,000 Dong. There are some Vietnamese from the Pottery Village were promoting in the bus station, we were heading straight away to the shop from the bus station.

We have tried to mould the pottery ourselves but it's really difficult for a beginner O:!

Yeah, finally it's done! :D 

There will be an artisan who helping tourist to carve on the decorations on the pottery.

Lastly. colour up your pottery with your creativity like a flying horse XD

After making the pottery, we had our lunch in the restaurant nearby the bus stop :D!

It's a small restaurant serving Pho, Bun Cha and some traditional snacks. I've tried Bun Cha which is a soup made from fish sauce with some grilled pork, eat together with Bun (one type of noodle in Vietnamese).

Then, we visited to the pottery market.

My friend bought this as souvenir which we could customize the little pottery with alphabets ourselves into a bracelet. Every alphabet cost 5000dong. :D