After a night of good rest, we woke up early for breakfast. Nothing too fancy about the breakfast but it was acceptable for the price we paid for the stay. The scrambled eggs were quite good nonetheless.
Our first destination of the day was Bat Trang Pottery Village. Just get a map from hotel and you are able to "conquer" Old Quarter easily, We took about 20 minutes to walk to Long Bien Bus Terminal without any troubles. Bear in mind that the traffic in Hanoi is quite insane but once you overcome your fear, the road is yours, haha, just cross calmly and the motorcyclists will avoid you.
To go to Bat Trang Village, you need to take bus 47 and the journey takes about one hour. The bus fare is 7000 vnd per way per person. When you alight, remember to check with the driver about the bus schedule back to Hanoi in order to avoid unnecessary waiting hours. A lot of local people will approach you for pottery class and don't forget to bargain with them. The normal price range for one piece of pottery is from 20000 to 30000 vnd.
There is a pottery market in Bat Trang, selling different kinds of clay-made products. We only explored for a while because our main task was to make our own pottery. Saw photos posted by my friends who visited before and it seemed really fun.
My failed. product, obviously no talents, so embarrasing because the kids who were having pottery class were doing so much better than us.
Happily showing off my failed product,
The guy showed us how to make pottery. I think he must be speechless of our lousy skills. I could destroy the whole piece in less than 5 minutes after he set it up nicely for me. Too bad that we could not really communicate with each other. I saw him providing briefings and step-by-step guidance to a group of Vietnamese visitors. Perhaps we would perform better if we could get clearer instructions? #justsaying
I made this! I am so talented! Just kidding, how could it be possible? He managed to do this within 5 minutes, I was really impressed!
In the end, he asked us what we wanted to bring home as souvenir and made two mugs for us in the end. I requested for a heart-shaped one. Yes, the mug you see in the picture was not made by me. =.= The next stage was drying. It took about one hour for complete drying. We hang around and got some drinks while waiting for the mugs to be dried.
It's time to get some colours for our mugs. All up to your creativity, haha. It's like painting classes during primary school. I tried my best and it looked very bright and colourful, right?
To sum up, I think it's fun to have make your own pottery if you have never tried before. It's very easy to get to Bat Trang and the transport fee is not expensive. You can spend around half day in Bat Trang! Piece of advice: Keep the pottery properly in your luggage, best to be cushioned between clothes or towel because they are very fragile. =)
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