Xa Cong Hoa Village, Vietnam

We visited Xa Cong Hoa Village, outside of Hanoi.

 

 

Ducks and rice fields go hand in hand. Ducks eats the bugs and insects around the rice paddies. The white specks are the ducks relaxing in the pond.

 

 

Curious water buffalos.

 

 

 

 

We visited a place that makes tapioca.

 

 

 

 

Tapioca before they become tapioca balls or flour. In Vietnam, there is no wheat production so all baguette breads are made with tapioca flour.

 

 

Bricks with no holes in them are heavier and used for the foundation of the house.

 

 

 

 

Bricks with holes in them are lighter and used for the walls of the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spinning threads onto a spindle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Separating the grain part from the grassy part.

 

 

The grassy part can be dried and used to make brooms. You can buy hers for 20,000 dong.

 

 

Drying out the grassy part on the rooftop.

 

 

 

Drying out rice grains in the sun, takes about 2-3 hours.

 

 

 

If you don't have the machine to separate the rice grains from the grassy part, you can lay it out on the road for people to walk/ride over it.

 

 

Drying the rice grains in the communal area.

 

 

Also, in the communal area, families were drying a thin rice mixture on straw trays. They will later become vermicelli rice noodles, used in pho noodle soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanoi, Vietnam

We woke up to the sound of the loud speakers outside. Communist propaganda through the loud speaker is part of the morning routine for the Northerners. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are very different cities.  In Hanoi,  red flags are up every few meters on the streets. Compared to the south, there is also not a lot of English spoken in the North. I noticed in the Ho Chi Minh City, the locals are welcoming and interested in making me part with my money, in Hanoi, there weren't too many people interested in having my business. 

 

Also in the North, there is an 11 pm curfew. Shops, restaurants etc. must be shut down by 11 pm.

 

 

Motorcycles are parked on the sidewalks and food stalls take up space on the sidewalks too, so you are forced to walk on the streets.

 

Traffic is much more crazy in Hanoi, you have to be alert at all times.

 

 

 

 

A motorcycle cost $15,000 US for the Vietnamese. A factory worker at Samsung makes about 3 million dong a month (about $150 US).

 

 

 

Market full of cheap quality stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drinking beer out on the streets, be carefully not to get hit by cyclists or motorists. Beers are 25 cents here.

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the red flags everywhere?

 

 

The next morning we visited some of the sites in Hanoi.

 

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum.

 

Ho Chi Minh's cars.