"Around Hanoi - exploring the villages" Top 5 Page for this destination Hanoi Travelogue by King_Golo

Around Hanoi, several villages are dedicated to the production of just one good. For instance, there's a noodle village, a steel village, a furniture village and so on. A tour through these villages provides you with off-the-beaten-path views of rural Vietnam and is a great experience! Moreover, the people in the villages are not used to tourists at all, so they'll regard you with utmost curiosity. In one of the villages, I was invited for lunch and some rice liquor... It was fun driving on afterwards!

A man carving wood for a bed

A particularly interesting village is the furniture village. It used to produce fireworks but after a desastrous accident with some fireworks, the Vietnamese government forbid the use of them and the whole village had to find a new occupation. For whatever reason they chose to start building furniture and other wooden goods - and they are damn good at it!

Women making conical hats

In rural Vietnam, one sees the famous conic hats nearly everywhere. But how are they produced? In a village south of Hanoi I was able to get an insight into this process. The hats are completely handmade and produced in very small numbers (2 per day) as the production process is very hard work. Everything has to be connected with a thin thread!

Silk and Silk Worms

A good place to avoid the over-expensive shopping streets in central Hanoi is the Silk Village Van Phuc south of Hanoi. Basically, there are silk shops and silk shops and more silk shops! One neighbors the next and I spent ages looking for fabrics for new shirts and trousers!

Brick factory east of Hanoi

A tour through the villages is a good opportunity to meet the incredibly friendly locals. Nowhere else is it possible to get into contact with them this easily - you'll be the object of curiosity everywhere! Unfortunately, the language barrier makes it a little bit difficult to really communicate with them. I'd recommend to do the tour with some Vietnamese-speaking people as this will ensure the communication to work. In my case, Van was my translator and guide. She made it possible to get into contact with many interesting people and to learn about their life.

Drying noodles, Ha Tay Province

Driving outside of Hanoi is a great experience, but also sort of an adventure. Sometimes, streets are in an incredibly bad condition, sometimes, they are only dust and dirt. Be careful, sharp stones can destroy your tyres easily!

Men playing chess in a village dinh (parish house)

The dust is a pretty big problem - be sure to wear a mask when driving, otherwise you'll not be able to stop coughing! Even worse is dust and darkness combined. NEVER drive at night, many people do not use their headlights and accidents, often fatal, are very common!

How many sacks can YOU transport on a bike?

Whatever the dangers: Just do it!