One-Woman, Walking, Talking Freakshow

Friday started off normally enough with a trip to the gym and lunch but by the end of the day, I felt like a veritable fish out water.  I decided to visit Phu Tay Ho, a temple dedicated to the Mother goddess cult.  (Remember "phu" means palace?  And "Tay Ho" means West Lake.)  It's normally very popular, with any woman who spends any time in Hanoi stopping by to pray and make offerings, but Thursday had been the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 2011, the most important ides and one of the most important worship days of the year.  The crowds spilled over into Friday, and there were easily several hundred people at the temple jostling to pray and leave their goodies for the deities.

Located at the very end of the large peninsula of West Lake, Phu Tay Ho was originally built in the sixteenth century and has undergone several renovations since 1947 when the entire area was razed to the ground by the French.  (Yikes.)

Phu Tay Ho is at the very tip of the large peninsula jutting into West Lake.

Entrance gate.

In the foreground is the altar to the Princess, opposite the altar to the Damsel. The large structure in the back is the main temple, with three altars.  First to the Five Mandarins; second to the three Mother Goddesses of Heaven, Mountains and Forests, and Water; third is the forbidden sanctuary of the Mother of Heaven, accessible only by private interview...so I didn't get to see it.  

Within the second altar, with a table for offerings.

Son Trang Temple (Temple of the Mountain Domain), which was built with donations from individuals and is home to...

...a really cool bell and...

...an impressively ornate altar to the Goddess of Mountains and Forests.

This was between the two temples...I don't think there's much religious significance.

Exit gate. A tiger and dragon flank the arch and represent the meeting of extraordinary people from whom much can be expected.

This area was once an independent village that has been incorporated into Hanoi.  I usually draw more attention in these outlying areas, where the people are far less familiar with seeing foreigners than in the middle of town.  But the level of interest I drew was, for the first time since I've been in Vietnam, overwhelming and verily uncomfortable.  Perhaps it was partially my dress/leggings combo (a trend which has apparently not yet made it out here), but for whatever reason, the hundreds of pairs of eyes on me that afternoon made me feel something akin to a leper...except for the excessive and (again for the first time) leering looks I received from far too many of the men, which just made me feel rather cheap and in need of a shower.  Ick.


A cornucopia of religious offerings and snacks were being sold on the streets outside the pagoda.  There's even been a row of stalls constructed along the long wall inside the pagoda complex, creating a bottleneck and crowding the area further.

Incense and paper money.

Hot dogs on a stick and I think some sort of doughy...thingy.

No explanation needed.

These are little donuts fried with whole, unshelled shrimp in them...I passed.

Anybody need a "cao boi" hat? I thought this was too hilarious to pass by without visual evidence. :D

Unfortunately, my suddenly intensified visual appeal didn't weaken when I decided to set out for another pagoda I'd passed on my to Phu Tay Ho.  I believe this one is called Pho Linh Pagoda, but I'm not entirely sure as I didn't have a guidebook and absolutely nothing was in English.  After being forcibly sold a bouquet to leave as an offering, I walked in and immediately began asking myself "Where AM I?"  I proceeded in this fashion for approximately half an hour.  It appears that this pagoda is also a monastery, a hypothesis I formed after staring back at a monkling with a shaved head (except his bangs) and brown robes.

This is where I started wondering if I'd wandered into the Twilight Zone.

My rip-off bouquet is in this pile.

Altar filled with Buddhas in various stages of his search for enlightenment.

Cemetery.

Saturday, Kyle and I returned to Bat Trang with his friend, Ken, who has recently arrived in Hanoi to work here for a few months.  Both he and Kyle have had experience making their own pottery, so it was nice to get an experienced opinion about the huge supply of pots the village provides.  We mostly stuck to the commercialized area this time, and popped into shop after shop on street after street filled with row after row of basically the same five styles.  I immensely enjoy Bat Trang for, although it is a village and foreigners receive quite a bit of attention, everyone is very genial and you frequently get Hello-ed by villagers, especially adorable young children.

The fugliest cup in the history of tea.

Water buffalo-mobile.

I think the squished pot is really funky and cool. I'd have considered buying it if it wouldn't have used up all my airline-allotted baggage weight.

Pottery in action.

These are the casts for those giant pots that are as tall as me.

Quasi-medieval-looking tower in the middle of 'Nam.

Everything was copacetic till some guy grabbed my arm while I was getting off the bus after arriving back in Hanoi--yet more attention of the unsavory variety.  I shrugged him off and power-walked away, the evening being saved only by an absolutely fabulous dinner at Da Paolo, the best Italian restaurant in Hanoi.  Indeed, it's some of the best Italian food I've ever had and was only outshined by the company, which included the lovely Australian couple who had invited us to their home for dinner before Tet and Yasue (from the Ba Vi National Park trip) and her friend, Joanne, who was a real spitfire in addition to being a hoot and a holler.  The lively dinner conversation (and a couple glasses of wine) soon lifted my spirits right back up.  I'm trying really hard not to let this series of downers...well, get me down.  It's unfortunate that so many icky experiences happened on consecutive days, or else I would have been able to get past them fairly easily.  I'm determined not to let a few bad apples spoil the bunch of wonderful experiences I've had and people I've met.  These distasteful encounters won't color my view of Vietnam as whole.


The highlight of the last two days was accomplishing something I've been planning since my third day here and the first time I visited Bat Trang.  My real reason for going back Saturday was to find the perfect tea set, one that is unique (i.e. not blue and white China or typical mass-produced red-and-green Vietnamese ware), functional, affordable (since, as you may have noticed, I'm fairly clumsy), and captures my essence in the form of cup, saucer and pot.  And, my good readers, you'll be relieved and ecstatic to learn that I found just such a set and the only one like it in any of the plethora of stores we perused.  Oh, I'm positively head over heels for it.  I can't wait to get it home and brew up a steaming pot of Earl Grey or Pomegranate Green Tea.  I might even have a biscuit or two. :)

It's polka-dotted!!! How fabulous is that?!?!