In 10 years, Halloween may be a part of Vietnam. This article implies that it is already starting to creep in (and we did see a few things in the supermarket here in a tiny display):
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Halloween in Hanoi
It is not the holiday we're used to (no pumpkins, no trick-or-treaters, 85 degree weather), but we were able to celebrate Halloween here with a few costumes and a party for the kids. It was a lot of fun -- and a little surreal -- to celebrate Halloween with people that had never celebrated it before. I mean, who's never heard of the Great Pumpkin?!? Or even Charlie Brown for that matter? But we had a good time tonight. We may not have had pumpkins to carve, but we had seafood curry pizza. Happy Halloween, Vietnam style!
Motorbike life in Hanoi
Our record is five, but while traveling on a taxi yesterday, we saw this family of four riding home on a motorbike with their groceries. We especially liked the little guy in the middle:
Friday, October 30, 2015
Diagon Alley Suit Guy
Two things you should know about this picture:
1. Noah is with Huong, a 23 year-old clothing store owner in the small streets near our apartment. He has asked Noah to stop by periodically and help him speak English. Huong is a great guy and very generous with Noah.
2. The Vietnamese love putting things on their shirts in English -- and most of the time not knowing what it means.
A great ride
While the kids were in school today, Libby and I plunked down our $3 and rented bikes so we could ride the 10 miles around the entire Ho Tay (West Lake) on a gorgeous, sunny 88 degree day in late October. We enjoyed being outside and riding bikes, something we haven't been able to do in Hanoi. West Lake and the Tay Ho district are one of the more interesting areas of Hanoi.
While riding along, we found this cafe place. Seemed appropriate:
Lunch -- yoghurt coffee and eggplant in a clay pot. Delicious.
We also managed to find our friend Viet on the bike ride. Viet was wearing a pollution protection mask (very common in Vietnam, especially in the last few weeks) and Libby was trying to hear what she was saying without much luck:
One other highlight of the day (there were many): The Chula dress store right near the bike shop. These were amazing silk dresses and clothes with different messages and images on them. A little out of our price range, but still very cool:
Vietnam Fine Arts Museum
Libby and I finally made it to the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum yesterday afternoon, and we found an interesting mixture of old and modern works.
One of our favorite displays was of The Patriachs, a series of statues from the eighteenth century that commemorated Buddhist leaders. They were all made from lacquered wood:
This guy is cleaning his ears out:
We also some pretty impressive lacquered wood sculptures from 17th century pagodas, such as the
Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteshvara:
Throughout the museum we saw several pieces in traditional media such as oil on canvas, silk painting, wood cuts, and ceramics:
This one made me laugh out loud. The title is "Effect of Wine":
These are some paintings on silk. Libby noticed that much of the artwork on display from the last 50 years has either been political, military, or realism. Very little interpretive work or representing other themes.
But what really drew us to the museum was the lacquer painting. Libby is taking some private lessons to learn this Vietnamese art form, which involves painting on wood, putting on lots of layers, and using different materials like gold leaf and egg shells. We wanted to see some lacquer works in this national gallery.
I was drawn to the historical and military pieces. This one is entitled "Two Soldiers Getting Ready to Move Against American Aggressors."
This is entitled "Vinh Linh Youth Setting Off To Fight Against The American Invaders". Sensing a theme? I got a close up of the picture to see the egg shells.
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