Vietnam
Jan 5-Tour. Hello! Today I woke up at 7am for a full day tour. The first thing on the tour was going to see a pottery village and I got to make a bowl! It is actually quite easy and fun. There wasn’t an electric pottery wheel, so there was someone spinning the wheel with their foot. They do pottery because the base of the river is made out of clay. Then, they brought the group to a world heritage site (My Son) with temples and some of them are still standing 1500 years later! All the scientists in Vietnam cannot figure out what they used to make such strong bricks. Next, they brought the group to a place to see how they make rice noodles and rice paper. It was super cool! They would husk the rice then burn the husks for fire. Then would grind up rice and mix it with water to create a batter, and cook it for 1 minute on a cloth over fire. Then, they would dry it on a cloth in the sun to make it crispy. The noodles that we all learned how to make were served for lunch and were delicious! After lunch, the tour guide brought the group to a wood carving place, and everyone got to carve their name! The last stop of the day was going to see how to make sleeping mats. Sleeping mats are just a substitute for a mattress. They would dye long pieces of grass, and then weave it until it was long enough to sleep on. They also had to weave it all by hand, there were no electric or mechanical machines. By that time it was 6 pm and it was about an hour drive back.
Some photos:
The drying rice
Weaving
My name carved in wood



Happy New Year, Allison!
ReplyDeleteWe hope you are having a wonderful time! The acitivities you are doing seem really interesting, like carving your name in wood! We are very curious this morning, what the weather is like where you are, as it is -46 degrees celius with wind chill here! Freezing! In fact, we only have 10 students in Simburwa today. Mrs. Lunau is wondering how we can do the Batik art at school, it looks so fun! We are trying to visualize the pink mushroom, maybe you could find a picture online to show us?
Our student teacher, Ms. Luini started on Monday, and we love her!
Safe travels, we look forward to reading the next adventure!
~Simburwans!