Legend of the Hoan Kiem Tortoises

The central lake in Hanoi, Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, has a famous small building in the middle called the Tortoise tower. The lake is named after the legend of Emperor Le Loi, who handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will back to the Golden Turtle god who lived in the lake. The sword had brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty. It is believed that large soft shelled tortoises still live in Hoan Kiem lake and there is a pagoda and museum showing a preserved animal from many years ago.
In a very exciting morning, Greg and his parents were fortunate to catch a glimpse of one of these tortoises with the camera handy!

Top photo courtesy of Wikipaedia, all others belong to us.

How to make silk

We visited Van Phuc, the silk village on the outskirts of Hanoi where they make and sell some beautiful silk fabrics, clothers and accessories.
How to make silk:
Step 1 - silk worms eat mulberry leaves
Step 2 - the worms spin cocoons of one single continuous thread
Step 3 - the threads are unraveled, dyed and spun onto reels
Step 4 - the silk is wound onto the loom for weaving
Step 5 - the patterns are selected using different cards that cycle through the looms
Step 6 - the end product, with the lady who made it! (and my mum)

Silver Waterfall

One of the sites we visited during our trip to Sapa was the Silver Waterfall, high above the town.

Sapa

One of the most famous places to visit in northern Vietnam is Sapa, home to a number of ethnic minority groups and a cool retreat in the highlands from the noise and chaos of Hanoi.
After an overnight train trip, we arrived at Lao Cai station at 5am then took the winding road up to Sapa. As part of our trip we went on a 14km trek through some of the local villages and terraced rice fields. Mao, from the Black H'mong people, was our guide.
We also met some lovely women from the Red Dao (pronounced zao) people, identifiable through their colourful headress.
The Black H'mong children were playing at lunch time.

The families visit Hanoi

We had a great week hosting our two families in Hanoi, showing them around our town, eating in style and taking in the tourist sites.