van and i booked a private "tour" from the discount hotel in hanoi to visit the silk and ceramic villages outside of hanoi. while i was expecting to travel to van phuc; we instead went to another silk village that was in town. i think if we were more literal we would have allowed this to bother us; but in the end it turned out to be an excellent day of winding through 2-foot alleyways and barging in to people's homes and asking them "whatchya doin?" and getting very personalized tours of how to make ceramics and silk garments. i'm not sure you get that in the group tour. the other added benefit was a stop at an authentic vietnamese grill-house. the tour guide (phuon) kept asking us if we wanted "green" chicken. we figured we were in for some special vietnamese curry dish; but it turned out to be some of the best "grilled" chicken we've had. overall, the second best day of our vacation just behind the halong bay trip.

highlight of the day: wandering the back-alleys of the ceramic village and nearly getting lost with van
2009-04-27 04:42:58 • 0 Comments • Tags: