Day 9 - More Hanoi

We saved the best for last in Hanoi...on our last day we hopped a cab for a 20 min ride just outside of the city to the Museum of Ethnology. Because there are so many minority tribes in Vietnam, this museum serves to highlight their unique cultural identities and the need to help preserve them. The section of the museum I was most excited about was the outdoor museum showcasing the dwellings of a few of the tribes (tribe members were brought down to rebuild their structures to ensure total authenticity).

The daily 'I can't believe they fit that on a bike/scooter' shot

On that note, this peddler was well known for carrying nearly 1,000 fish traps on his bicycle.

 Now that he has passed, his bike and fish traps sit in the museum. :-)

There were a few models of dwellings inside the museum...as well as a few recreations of tribes wearing their traditional clothing.

Which of these five weavers doesn't belong?

I believe this was the traditional attire of the Hmong...it reminded me of a book I read a few years ago entitled, 'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" about a sick Hmong child.

The museum had a floor of traditional activities children could try...Ryan learned some basic weaving skills. :-)

The museum also has a restaurant on site that is run by at risk youth, who are trained in the culinary arts. Our meal was pricey by Vietnamese standards (although we did order drinks, appetizers and desserts along with our main dishes), but delicious!

We absolutely loved our tours through the dwellings...despite the cruder materials used, it makes you very momentarily nostalgic for a simpler time. And we couldn't help but marvel at the ingenuity used by the tribes when they don't even have nails to work with.

Lesson learned: the chubbier you are, the more the bamboo creaks and bends and sounds like it's going to break. :-(

Another spontaneous pose by Ryan. You gotta give him credit for patiently posing a thousand times a day for me...insanity is bound to happen.

Since he'd just learned to weave...he was aghast at whichever person messed up this project.

Mud floors, no plumbing/electric and no air filtration system for the smoky fires? And yet...I bet their food tastes a lot better and is a lot healthier than ours.

You can't tell from looking at this photo, but they're sitting around a fire pit about 30 feet above the ground.

Some of the structures were long houses used by villagers (vs private dwellings). This one was at least a hundred yards long.

I want this table.

Lots and lots of breasts were on this long house...even on the ladders...

As you might've guessed, this structure was dedicated to fertility. This is the PG version of it, I assure you.

The rest of our day was spent back at the Old Quarter doing last minute souvenir shopping for my mom and Ryan (a wooden fan, a t-shirt and a coconut shell bowl) before heading back to do laundry and pack up (since we flew out early the next day to Bangkok).

Figured I'd close with one more 'I can't believe they fit that on a bike/scooter' shot from the afternoon