January 8th  Thanh Ha Pottery Village near Hoi An

This particular blog is for my brother Mark, a lifelong ceramics master artist.

On my last day in Hoi An, I checked out a bike from the hotel and rode outside of town to the Thanh Ha Pottery Village. This small village is where all the small ceramics that are sold in the Hoi An shops are made, and they are all made by hand. The government has marked this area for one of potential tourist development and there are several Google articles about it, if you're interested.

It was cloudy and threatening rain, a usual SE Asia type of day. I loaded up my daypack with poncho, and umbrella, hoping that I wouldn't have to use them. I rode on the only road to the southwest of Hoi An, so I knew I was going the right way. When I had ridden a while I thought it must be about time to come upon the village.
Here's the split in the road, with no discernible markings that I could see with the words Thanh Ha. But I turned off and pulled up beside a street stall and began asking if anyone knew about this and pointed to my map.

A woman from the marketplace ran over, smiling, pointed that I should park my bicycle, get on her motorbike and she'd take me to the pottery village. So I did. I always wonder just where I'll end up, but so far, encounters of this type have all ended happily.
The village was very close to where we were and she drove through a labyrinth of alleyways and down side streets to where her daughter had a shop. I explained that what I really wanted was to see the factory, so her daughter drove another few blocks to different shop, which turned out to be a pottery workshop.
Here's one of the kilns, there were two.

And where the wood is inserted.

A kiln almost loaded and ready to fire.

Here's the grandmother who evidently is the master potter. Notice that the grandaughter is turning the wheel with her foot.

Here are some small pots, ready to fire.

These small ceramics worshops are the only ones who have the exact measurements of the Hoi An ancient roof tiles, and they make all the replacement/restoration tiles.

They dig the clay 3 km away, over on this island.

Here's the clay.

Here's a person kneading the clay with foot power.

Here's the family operation, multiple generations.

Here's the shop entrance.

On the way back, I made a couple detours and rode down this lovely lane.

These are "market gardens," where families raise small amounts of crops to sell at the marketplace. Many families do this type of gardening.

Near the Japanese covered bridge, on the "locals" side, street food begins to appear.
I saw this lady yesterday and it looked so good, I decided to lunch here today. The menu is grilled pork, which has been marinated in some kind of sauce with chili, then BBQ'd. Each order has it's own tray with the kabobs, which are NOT skewered, but instead, the meat pieces are forced between a split bamboo thick chopstick to hold them. I ordered 4, which was 20,000 VND, which is $1 USD.

The way to eat these is to pick up 1/2 of a rice paper, lay on a wide cooked white noodle, squeeze that together to get the meat off the chopstick, pile on the mixed greens, top with cucumber strips, dip in a peanut, sesame seed, chili sauce and eat. It was sooooooo good.
Business was good, she attracted a crowd and also the shopkeepers buy their lunches from her. She's mobile, carrying everything on the bamboo over the shoulder poles. Great street food!

A little ways down from the grilled meat, was this mobile stand with "banana cakes,"  which are bananas sliced the wide way, dipped in a sort of sweetened batter and fried. I bought one for 10,000 VND which is $.50 USD. It was hot in temperature, sweet and a bit greasy, but all around delicious.

On the way back it began to rain, but that doesn't really stop anybody here. They're used to it. Another interesting experience in Vietnam.