Hello! How are you today? Is your business doing well? Was your trip great today? For me, today I have a wonderful experience that I have never tried before, so now I would like to introduce to you some must-see destinations during the sunny days I visited in Hoi An which is one of the oldest cities of Vietnam recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage. Hoi An is famous for its ancient beauty for many generations along with unique specialties that cannot be found anywhere else. However, today I will introduce to you two places located on the edge of Hoi An ancient town, bearing the beauty of the popular traditional craft villages of our grandparents in the past. Today, there are still some handicraft villages such as silk weaving and pottery making, but they are not as popular as before, so few young people know and experience them. So I would like to introduce to you two traditional craft villages are Silk Village and Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An. Now, let find out more about these two craft villages through the pictures and information below!

TRADITIONAL CRAFT HOI AN SILK VILLAGE

You just need to run along Truong Sa coastal street from the center of Da Nang city, then turn into a little inside will come, it takes about 35 minutes by motorbike. Because this is also the first time I came here so I ran under the Google Maps guide, and it was not too hard to find Hoi An silk village. It is located in 28 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province. Despite the arrival, the gate of this place is a bit small, we went through that place a bit, then we had to circle. You should pay attention to the gate to the left hand side when going from Da Nang. You leave the motorbike outside the gate when you arrive and walk into the area below as shown to buy sightseeing tickets. Ticket price is 50,000VND / 1 person ~ $2 / 1 person, it includes tickets to visit silk production processes and silk sales areas, and plus you get to order a free drink. You can order at the shop after visiting or order and take away while visiting this place, we choose after visiting will receive water later.

Firstly, we visited the silkworm house where craftsmen raise mulberries and take silk from them for the silk weaving process. This is not a big space for mass production of handmade silk for export, it is just a small craft workshop serving the silk weaving process to sell to tourists and also for visitors to visit how to make traditional silk here. Currently, only silkworm cocoons are left on the large flat winnowing basket. It's a pity that you won't be able to see the silkworms at this time because the workers say that after a long time of covid without anyone taking care of them, the silkworms have all died, leaving only their cocoons. The silkworm cocoons are woven by craftsmen, they use simple traditional machinery frames, after the weaving process, the silk threads will be hung on a horizontal wooden bar to avoid tangles. In addition, if you have any questions you want to ask, do not hesitate to ask, the artisans here will answer you enthusiastically. Actually, when I was about 7 years old, I witnessed the process of raising silkworms and getting silk, because my grandparents at that time raised silkworms to got silks to weave and sold them to earn money in order to buy food. I heard my mother tell me that because this profession was also quite popular in the village at that time and it did not earn much money to support children and grandchildren, so after a few years, my grandparents moved to another profession. Until today, when I come to this village, I am reminded of the old memories when I lived with my grandparents.

Surrounded by other weavers such as "Cuu Dien Textile Machine House" and "Cham Weaving House" which sell products with bold ethnic motifs of the Cham people through towels, wallets, bags, clothes, etc...The items are neatly arranged and by area to make it easy for visitors to find and choose. You can buy it for yourself or give it to your loved ones.

And then I'll take you through an area that sells souvenirs, you can try on the costumes here and you can buy if you like them. The space here is extremely large, the house has many areas to display products, you can easily find what you want because the products are arranged very neatly and according to different areas. The price is a bit expensive compared to the outside, but because this is a handmade item, the quality of the product is extremely good. You can wear these clothes to walk around Hoi An ancient town, immerse yourself in the ancient scenery here through unique costumes created from the silk village. In addition to selling clothes, there are also accessories such as ties, scrunchies, scarves. Especially, they also sell large and thick silk sheets, you can buy to sew it according to your preferences. Prices here range from 200,000 VND - 3,000,000 VND ~ $10 - $120 depending on the item you want to buy. There are a lot of tourists come here to visit and try the items here, they seem to be very interested in the unique fashion of the silk village, according to my observation, there are a lot of tourists who decide to buy some of the following items when leaving. There is a room for you to try on, the staff is also extremely friendly to guide you where to change and ready to help you when you have problems with that item. After looked around for a while and tried on a few accessories, I decided to buy an innovative silk granny dress as picture below. It's quite soft and fits my body, it's both classic through the textures of the dress, and also modern through the combination of skirt and ao dai.

After visiting and buying things, we were led to the tea and coffee house by the staff member to order drinks. The shop is also decorated in an ancient style, we enjoy lemonade to cool down in the heat of these days. After drinking, we decided to go to our next location before dark.

THANH HA POTTERY VILLAGE

Thanh Ha pottery village is second location we visited today. It took about 10 minutes to reach Thanh Ha Pottery Village from Silk Village by motorbike. You park your motorbike outside the gate, then buy a ticket at the ticket counter, the usual ticket price is 35.000 VND / 1 person ~ $2 / 1 per, but currently, this place is in the process of promoting tourism, so the fare is 35.000 VND / 2 people ~ $2 / 2 people. Don't worry about not knowing where to go, the ticket agent will direct you to the location right on the ticket so you can visit the handmade pottery houses.

Walking along the road, you will see signs directing to the pottery village area aas well as the homes of the villagers, where most of the villagers make and sell ceramic products. In particular, coming here, you will experience making basic ceramic products from clay at local people houses here. You will see different ceramic shapes displayed on shelves, on the ground, even placed on fences to dry. To create these beautiful works, artisans use their skilled hands and long-term pottery experience to mold into unique shapes from pure clay lumps. After creating the desired shape, they would leave it out in the sun to dry the clay, and then they would begin to paint more colors to make it more eye-catching. It comes in different sizes so you can buy to decorate your room, your home or your car.

This is an experience house where you can try out clay pottery making. This is Uncle Nguyen Sau, with over 30 years of experience in pottery making in Hoi An. First, he is extremely friendly with tourists here, he always talks and guides us on how to do it. With skilled hands, he creates any work in just 2 minutes. From a block of clay that has not yet been shaped, he can create animal shapes such as pigs, buffaloes, tigers, and others or items such as cups, plates, bowls, flower pots, etc. With just a wooden turntable, and a lump of clay, the artisans here have created a series of famous ceramic works, from which Thanh Ha pottery village becomes a renowned place visited by many tourists. Coming here, we also experienced pottery, with the guidance and help from my uncle, I created a vase to decorate my room. Although it was not as detailed and beautiful as I imagined, I did my best to finish my work, which made me feel very excited.

The last special thing on this tour is that you will receive a gift made of ceramic at Miss Hau's house - Gift presentation attached with visitor's entry pass. A gift as a thank you from resident here to visitors for coming here to experience and visit.

Thanks for reading and see you guys in my next posts!!!