Motor Bikes

It's amazing how the Vietnamese here can pile so much onto their motor bikes. If you don't have a car then you just pile it on either side of the bike. The strangest thing I have seen people carrying is in the country: they were carrying chickens in cages. The women with flowers will have bundles of flowers on the back of their bicycles.

As I was out toward the Old Quarters I saw my first accident here. A car rear-ended a motor bike which sent the woman's bike to the ground and threw her forward. I hope she is okay!

As I was riding my bike I saw the police "directing traffic" or picking people off the street and checking to see if they have proper licensing for their vehicle. They had a big truck and were filling it with people's bikes. I have been told that when this happens the best thing to do is to pay off the police. Then they will give you your bike back right there and then, instead of going in to retrieve your bike.

Ethnology Museum

I have only been to two museum during my time here and the Ethnology museum was the second. This museum told all about the 54 ethnic minorities that are living all over Vietnam. It was really interesting to read and to see all the different culture differences between each one. Outside they had many different styles of homes that many ethnic minorities would live in and are still living in them. We were able to walk inside of all the homes and to learn the history behind each one. The one below is raised up pretty high with steep stairs leading the top. This particular home has only home main floor and is all one room. The floor is all the homes were bamboo and was very comfortable. The ceiling as you can tell in the photo below is also made out of bamboo.

There was a grave cite that had a bunch of statues that symbolize the different fertility of a man and a women. I thought the guy below was funny and cool looking with his arms.

We watched part of the water puppet show where there are people behind a screen in the little pond moving around objects on sticks. They tell a story the entire time while traditional music is being played. We went through the entire museum as we saw how many other parts of the world are different from each other, not just Vietnam.

Lets talk about dog

The photo below is the restaurant that I ate dog meat; you can see where they wash the dishes in the street and in big tubs. I took another photos of the actual dog meat that I ate weeks a go. Below are many different parts of the animals and I had all of that! Crazy!

As I was riding with my co-worker to a factory one morning a few weeks ago, we came across this man driving down the road. It was a shock to see all these dead dogs strapped to this man's motor bike. It did make me a little sick to see this especially up close on a bike where you are right next to the driver. This man came from the country where they probably have a type of dog farm where they sell to some of the restaurants in Hanoi. Usually they aren't as uncovered as you see in the photo.

Dog really does look different then any other animals that I have seen on the streets of Hanoi and I'm not sure why that is yet. I think it has to do with the skin on the dogs compared to a pig or chicken. I don't regret so far anything that I have eaten during my time in Vietnam. I feel like I have really gotten to learn and to become part of the culture here when I will never have this opportunity again in my life. I learned from my friend that in the country they eat every type of animal even bugs.  I'm so happy and proud of myself that I have put myself out here in Vietnam. I have really been trying to understand why the people here say the things they say or do the things they do. I have learned so much that I would have never been able to imagine from reading a book or watching a movie.

Market

In the Old Quarters they have a food market that is right next to the huge fabric market. In this market they mostly have many different types of nuts that are in huge bags that are half my height. You can also find many different sizes of squid. The picture above is one of the bigger ones which is used in cooking. Shrimp can be found here even the little tiny ones! They are delicious! The market is big and the rows of stalls are very close together with limited space. This is where everything is sold for a whole sale price instead of going to an actual store.

Lets talk about nails

Most of the men here have long finger nails and sometimes toe nails. I feel like this is the culture in most of Asia. I have asked multiple people why they grow them out. I asked the security guard at the church and he said that its useful. I'm guessing he meant that he can scratch his nose or other parts of his body. I guess it makes sense but even when I have short acrylic fake nails its hard to do basic things. Another person told me that if you have long fingernails it means you don't work in the factories or doing hard labor. It shows your class and where you stand in society. I find this interesting because of all things, it has to be nails. I wonder if people look at each other's nails when they meet.

This is blood?

I ate boiled blood...and more blood. I had the chance to try another Vietnamese dish with some people from my church. When I think that I have eaten basically everything I can in Hanoi they always take me somewhere new. The broth of the soup that I ate was pig blood; would you eat that? Well I did - or I tried to eat all of it but didn't succeed. In the soup was all different parts of a pig including a knee, boiled blood, beef, vegetables, and other parts of the animal. You add ginger, onions and banana flower on top of the soup.

I have to be honest this was probably the worst thing I have eaten yet in Vietnam. I have loved almost everything I have eaten so far except this dish. I did try it and that's what I own to being here in Vietnam: to try everything at least once.

I also ate eel porridge which was also interesting. Eel actually isn't bad at all! It tasted like beef a little bit, but we had it in the form of soup. Again something you try once and will probably never have again.

This is shrimp with a breading around it. I went to an area around West Lake where they are know for this dish. I loved it! Seafood has grown on me a lot since I have been here and so has tofu.

I ate chicken feet! They really don't taste like much even with the sauce that I used. I really couldn't get over the fact that when I ripped off the toes that I could feel and hear the bones cracking.

This next dish is close to American food that I have gotten in a Vietnamese restaurant here. The outline of the skillet is a cow! It consist of pork, potatoes, onions, an egg, and French bread. It was really good, and reminded me of beef stew.

Burn baby burn

I have noticed when I'm on the streets here in Vietnam that when it starts to get dark out a lot of people burn paper outside their buildings. In the ground outside some homes there are little boxes that are used for burning these papers. They only do this in special days in the year.

They burn fake American money for their ancestors to send them money when they are in heaven. If you drive around the Old Quarters you will smell a lot of smoke when they are doing this on special days during the year. I went up to this man above to see what he was doing and he had a bunch of 100 dollar bills. I became richer after meeting this man when he gave me some money. I guess some travelers will use this money in hotels or to buy things around Hanoi and some will take it as payment even though they know it's fake.

History

I came across a kiln in the ceramic village since we were working over for a week. Happened to see it as we were driving by and it is a very ancient and huge kiln. It was amazing! This specific kiln is over one thousand years old. Such an impressive way to build a kiln with so many rooms and vents. As you can see in the photos below it consist on four separate "rooms" where they would fire the ceramic pieces. It really is amazing how much we have evolved in the way do so many things now. They don't use this kiln anymore but is open for people to learn and explore. The entrance to the kiln is through the little arch ways on the side which is on both sides. I went inside and it was cool to see all the ceramic pieces they had inside and to imagine people working in inside of these kilns.

I went to an old church also which was in the middle of some homes in a village. The architecture is amazing with so much detail in the stone. There are so many catholic churches around Hanoi because of the French. I wasn't able to go inside of this church but the outside was beautiful.

Rice Paddies

I have found that Hanoi is surrounded by rice paddies no matter what direction you go. They are beautiful! I never knew or even thought about how rice was made and I'm still not 100 percent sure how the process works. The fields are made up of many small individual plants. Right now it's farming season. When I first got here the plants were very short, but as I have been here they have grown quite a lot. In the harvesting season the rice paddies will all be a yellow color. I have seen pictures of this and I would love to come back to see!

The workers in the field are sometimes pulling plants out, spreading seeds, or watching cattle grazing on the crops. All of these photos were taken outside of Hanoi about two hours out. In a village the fields are divided up by families. Vietnam has the richest agriculture region and is second in the world in its export of rice. It is also the seventh ranked consumer of rice in the world. I feel like every meal is made out of rice! You can tell from the photos that the rice plants are in neat rows; it's amazing! When I went to Sapa they were speading rice on what looked like a huge tarp; they were drying the rice to make rice paper. It is used in a lot of dishes here in Asia.