Hanoi - Day 3

Today we leave the city for Tho Ha village about 30 miles from Hanoi which is known for making rice paper.  It is somewhat isolated from the nearby communities by the river, so they seldom have visitors from overseas.  We have to take a local ferry which we board on a very shaky iron mesh walk and which is used by anyone who wants to go into the nearby towns, including numerous motorbikes which seem to have (or grab) priority, followed by a walk up a steep embankment to get to the village.  Once there we walk through the village, its market, and past a local school.  The students are  playing, quite competitively, a game similar to our Charades.  Along every street and alleyway there are hundreds of bamboo racks of rice paper drying in the sun.  We are going to a home where the mother is to show us how she makes rice paper in circles about the size of a large flour tortilla..  She makes about 2,000 per day over 9 hours.  Her own little assembly line, I guess. This home is also part of a family compound, and is now  home to the 4th generation of this family.  It is very nice, clean, beautiful ceramic floors, nice antique furniture.  We continue to walk through the village, stopping to look at a 3 century old Buddhist temple that is being replaced by a new temple built higher off the ground to prevent flooding during the rainy season.  Upon our return to Hanoi we have lunch and return to our hotel.  We need to repack so that we are ready for our trip to Halong Bay tomorrow.  We are taking only an overnight bag so we will reshuffle a little.  Tonight we went with some of  the group to a nearby restaurant for a really nice dinner.  We really enjoyed our meal as it was not traditional Vietnamese, but not really western either.