Vietnam – Hue to Hoi An 4 – Silk

It has been a long time since my last post on our trip to Vietnam.  I’m afraid that this is becoming a bit of a habit.

This post completes our journey from Hue to Hoi An, and covers a visit to a silk manufacturer.  I found that I hadn’t taken many photos here, and those that I do have are not very inspiring.  They are included for completeness of our tour, which is possibly not a very good reason.  Although our tour of the silk making works covered all the stages of silk manufacture, I do not have images for each step.  I believe that the steps are as follows:

The silk worms are fed on Mulberry leaves after which they spin a silk cocoon.  The cocoons are then sorted for colour and quality, after which they are boiled for a few minutes, which softens the cocoon and kills the caterpillar.

The silk is now delicately removed from the cocoon, and spun into stronger threads which are dyed and then woven into the final product.

The dead caterpillars can be used for feeding poultry, or possibly as a gourmet food for people.

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More accurate detail of the silk manufacturing process, and its history worldwide can be found on Wikipedia.  This link also provides some information on the silk manufacturing process in Vietnam.

I will be continuing the story of our Vietnam trip.  Please stay patient because I have a lot more to offer.

Vietnam – Hue to Hoi An 3 – Marble

After visiting the Museum of Cham Sculpture we moved on to see still more sculpture.  These statues were, however, not nearly as old.  In fact, we visited one of the many Marble Statue Shops in the area.  I’m sorry, but I can’t remember the name of the business now.  There are many of these shops, stemming from the proximity to The Marble Mountains, though I believe that the marble is now sourced from elsewhere.

Many of the statues would have looked good in our English gardens, and would have been good value at the prices asked.  Sadly, that sort of excess baggage would have been out of the question on our return flights.  Of course, they offered to ship their products to the UK for a fee, which would have rather reduced their ‘good value’.  Never mind, I took a few photos instead.

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I also took a few of the marble textures and some ‘work in progress’.

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We certainly crammed a lot into this day so far.  We haven’t had lunch yet.  Our journey to Hoi An continues after lunch, initially with a visit to a silk making factory.  Please come back to have a look.

Vietnam – Hue to Hoi An 2 – Museum Of Cham Sculpture

En route to Hoi An, we passed through Da Nang, where we visited the Museum of Cham Sculpture.  It was too crowded to get good photographs.  Though nothing special, the following photos serve to give an idea of the content of this museum.

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A little more information on Champa Art can be found here.

The journey to Hoi An will continue in the next post of this series.  Please come back and have a look.

Vietnam – Hue to Hoi An 1

Our departure from Hue, to Hoi An saw the first real rain of our tour.  This was a shame, as the views from the coach on the way to our first stop at Lang Co could have been spectacular.  I have included a few photos, but all they show is how bad the weather was for this part of the trip.

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When we stopped for coffee at Lang Co, the rain stopped and we were entertained by a programme of palm tree demolition.  Not sure why they were being pulled down but it may have been to do with building a stronger sea wall.  After this, as we left the area, we were able to see rather more clearly some of the fishing structures that the Lang Co area is known for.

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As we approached Da Nang we passed the rather grim apartment block shown in the last photo.  Most of these shots were grabbed through the coach windows so are not of very good quality.

The next post in this series will cover the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang.  Please come back and have a look.

Vietnam – Hue 5

I feel so bad about failing to complete my posts about our trip to Vietnam in 2008.  As I said in my last post on Vietnam, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember all of the detail about the trip.  Now that I have worked out how to add ‘galleries’ to posts, this opens the opportunity for me to present some of my photographs with only a few words about the particular area being visited.  Hopefully, this will allow me to complete to story of the tour, albeit not with the detail that I originally intended.  Maybe, if recollections come to me in the future, I will be able to revisit some images again, with a bit more detail.

Let me continue the tour then.  While we were in Hue we also visited the Citadel of Hue Imperial City.  Most of the photos in this gallery are from that visit, with a couple from our lunch break and a couple more from the Perfume River when we returned to the hotel.

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I do intend to continue this tour, probably using this ‘gallery’ format and minimal narrative.  I hope you can still enjoy the images.

Thanks for looking and please come back when you can.

Vietnam – Hue 4: The Perfume River

It’s been a while now since my last post on our Vietnam trip.  I really do need to apologise to anyone who had their interest fired up, and then found my Vietnam posts drying up.  This has been purely down to finding enough time to sort through the Vietnam archive and choose what to include, whilst continuing my busy retirement.  In other words, no real excuse.

As I had to say in my last post on the trip, it is getting increasingly difficult to remember all of the day to day details, so there will not be much of a commentary.

During our brief stay in Hue, as well as visiting the the Dong Ba Market, Tu Duc’s Tomb, and the Thien Mu Pagoda, we were also able to enjoy a Dragon Boat Cruise on the Perfume River.

Vietnam – Hue 3: Thien Mu Pagoda

The last post about our tour of Vietnam, was way back in February, and was about Tu Duc’s Tomb in Hue.  I thought that I should try to get back to the job of completing the story of our tour.  For this post we are still in Hue, visiting the Thien Mu Pagoda.

Vietnam – Hue 2: Tu Duc’s Tomb

My last post saw our arrival in Hue.  After lunch, we set off to visit the tomb of the Emperor Tu Duc, and this post includes a few images from that visit.

Vietnam – Hue 1

My last post was primarily about Ha Long Bay.  Afterwards we travelled back to Hanoi for the night, before rising early for our first internal flight, to Hue.  All together we were to do three internal flights during this tour.  Without these flights we would have spent much additional time travelling by coach or train, rather than experiencing the country of Vietnam.  As it turned out, the internal flight was pretty quick, with little time being wasted at the airports.  We were sightseeing again by quite early in the morning.

Vietnam – Hai Phong and Ha Long Bay

My last post had us arriving in Hai Phong, en route to Ha Long Bay.  A look Wikipedia link for Hai Phong will tell you more about the history of the city than I can, but essentially, Hai Phong is now the main port in northern Vietnam and pretty industrialised.