Bat Trang, Village of World-Renowned Ceramics

I’m baaaaack…… 😊

Sorry for the hiatus but that’s what happens when we travel to places without any Internet Access. We were out on an overnight foray into the incredible scenery of Ha Long Bay, a rather otherworldly location. More on that in a few days as I endeavor to catch up with this. The other related issue is actually having the time to put everything together as there is almost zero downtime on this trip! No “Sea Days” as we affectionally call a day without any Ports or Excursions when Cruising. On this trip its Go! Go! Go! (and then some!)

                        So, here goes as I pretend that I’m just proceeding along on schedule as that is the way that this was written, and I’m too tired to change it!

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Yesterday was another installment in the ongoing series, A Day in the Life of….. a program that O.A.T. brings to every Trip that they run. This is probably their signature feature when it comes to the immersion aspect of this style of travel.

It was another rainy day which made this indoor activity all the better. Travel we did to another riverside village, one that has been around for….. you guessed it…. about a thousand years. Their skills at ceramics have made the villagers of Bat Trang quite famous in this world of pottery. When Mr. Obama made a visit to Vietnam, it was an item from this village that was chosen to be the ceremonial gift to be given to him. This is quite an honor and secured Bat Trang’s status in the world of ceramics.

Back to the ceramics……

 Making vessels and figures out of clay and then firing them to achieve that “Ceramic” level, has been around ever since a guy accidently dropped his clay figurine into his wife’s cooking fire and received a ranting scolding over it. That was until the fire died down and his “Mistake” was able to be retrieved from the flames and eventually cooled down enough to hold. It was at that moment that he became a hero because he, and only he, now knew the secrets of this art. His wife became the envy of everyone on Triceratops Boulevard because her pottery collection had turned into beautiful artistic items. Mr. Caveman was out of the doghouse, sold some of his bestest pieces and bought his wife a new Bronto Benz 500SL to tool around the village in.

            The End.

Or something like that, history is cloudy on this subject as it may have actually been a Jaguar Jurassic that he gave her.

            Anyway, the Craze for Glaze had begun and peeps all over the world eventually learned how to make beautiful ceramics for fun and profit!

            The highlight of our visit yesterday was not the ceramics retail shops that we visited, nor the hands-on Make-a-Pot experience that were provided, although that was a hoot (more on that later). The best part of yesterday was a visit with Mr. Huy, whose family, one of the most prominent, and successful ones in the Region, were the victims of the 1954 Land Reform laws enacted at that time. These were the perfect Robin Hood scenarios of taking from the rich and giving to the poor…… oops!  I mean State! Because that’s where it all eventually ended up after it was redistributed to the poor, it was eventually taken back and added to the Collective. So, back in the day, when all of this reform started, anyone that had any success, no matter how good they actually were, was considered to be a blockage standing in the way of the goals of the communist ways that were infiltrating the government. If you were a landlord, even a good one, you were branded as an evil person and promptly stripped of your holdings. This sparked huge issues, so much that the government stopped all of it after about two years, and issued forms of apologies, and payments(?) for the land. Mr. Huy’s family received the equivalent of $130.00 for $30,000,000.00 worth of confiscated land. How reassuring.

                        But being the cool-headed intelligent folks that they were, they knew that biding their time, making smart decisions, and playing the game would be far better for them than fighting a futile fight. As time went on, the family grew again in stature, was able to spend judiciously some of their wealth that they had hidden from the government without drawing attention to themselves. The result is that now, the same family, is back in their ancestral home (where we were visiting) although portions of it had already been “distributed” to others. The family employs over two hundred workers in their ceramics studios, and Mr. Huy wore a jacket with the American Flag sewn onto one of the shoulders. This would not have been possible not too long ago. They are not bitter, they are thankful that they are still a family, that no one had been executed as many, many landlords were, and now decades later, are still together. They admit that they are one of the lucky ones.

                        And yes, we had some whiskey when we arrived!

I have to admit that it is fascinating traveling in a communist country that allows us to ask questions of its citizens and they can answer with honesty…. (when they know that they are in truly a safe place and with safe people). Phil has had many an aside with us, clueing us in, and at the same time letting us know that he could be in serious trouble if the wrong person were able to hear him tell us something. Unfortunate but still fascinating.

            After our frank discussions with Mr. Huy, back out into the rain and narrow alleyway went eventually ending up in Mr. Hiep’s workshop     and factory. It was here that we learned more about the actual process of making clay into incredibly gorgeous pieces of art. We had quickly stopped in another showroom at the beginning of our tour in order to use their Happy Room, in exchange for spending some time in their showroom. The prices were fair; some items were procured and on we went to that first stop at Mr. Huy’s home. But it was there that we had the opportunity to examine these masterpieces up front and personal and wonder how they are made.

Our questions were answered here at Mr. Hiep’s factory. He took us step by step through the process from the location where the clay was obtained (sixty feet underground) to the final glazing and firing after they were hand -painted by some very talented and trained artisans. This is the process that has been handed down from generation to generation here in the tiny village of Bat Trang. And we could tell that the village was successful just by the way things were kept up. They had the money to reinvest in their village; the streets and alleys were paved with tiles made by Mr. Huy’s family and it was much cleaner than most of the other villages that we had visited up to that point.

                        Then the fun began as we were led into a large room that had an obvious purpose to it ….. there all lined up against the walls were a series of small stools with turning wheels right in front of them accompanied by small bowls of water. We were instructed to choose a location and then Mr. Hiep proceed to create for us various shapes of vessels and plates from a single blob of clay that he continually worked in front of us. We watched as his trained hands transformed the clay and moved it from an initial cup to a final shallow bowl.

                        We were then given our own Plop and asked to make something of it, learning that here would be First, Second, and “Unique” prize given in those respective categories. I wish that we had more time as my Plop ended up resembling a warped alien’s flying saucer. Some of our group obviously had some previous pottery experience as their creations looked more like the pieces in Mr. Hiep’s showroom. These folks are no longer with the group as they have been conscripted and are now working in the “factory”.

I am glad that mine turned out so miserably!

                        As this was now several days ago and these days are running full speed into each other, I cannot remember what happened after we left this little village. It was raining so I’m quite sure it would have been an indoor activity. Probably it was the day the Paula took a cooking lesson and learned how to make their famous broth, Pho, which eventually can become any kind of soup that you’d like.

Harold, Sherry, and I decided to get some surprisingly good pizza at local joint just down the road which in addition to a fairly good pie, provided some of the best selections of 60’s and early 70’s good ol’ American Rock n’ Roll.

 If someone had told me that someday I’d be eating pizza in downtown Hanoi and listening to Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s All Long the Watchtower, well, you finish that sentence because I’m at a loss for words.