BAMBOO CIRCUS SHOW IN HOI AN

Did you know bamboo is a symbol of strength? The Vietnamese bamboo industry is worth over $1 billion USD per year! Vietnam is the world's leading producer of bamboo timber, and industry that has started in the 1980s. In addition, bamboo is used in everyday life in a variety of ways, instruments, crafts, decorations, building, furniture, food - and performing arts. On our last night in Hoi An we were very fortunate to experience of seeing a bamboo circus.

This circus is a feat of human strength that shows Vietnamese culture and traditions through acrobatics, juggling and live music. The show is held in a very cool theatre, also made of bamboo and the props and stage pieces use local materials like local baskets and long bamboo poles. 

We took some photos of the stage and after the show but during the show you had to keep the cameras off. The performers were trained professionals and it was amazing what they could do with the long bamboo and giant baskets, they kept surprising us with their moves. We enjoyed this show so much!

You can see more about the theatre and show here: 

https://www.luneproduction.com/partners/bamboo-circus-awes-in-telling-vietnamese-culture-to-the-world?show_id=&venue_id=&location_id=&from_date=2024-12-31T17%3A00%3A00.000Z&to_date=2025-01-31T17%3A00%3A00.000Z&limit=&step=0 

But our night wasn't over... after the show we enjoyed wandering through the night market area and found a fun inflatable to play on! Hoi An is such a pretty city - we hope you will get a chance to see for yourself some day :)

Beach time in Hoi An

Who knew Hoi An had such nice beaches? Today it was a beautiful 25 degrees, so we decided to find out a way to the water. We had our choice of beaches, there are 2 within a short drive/ride of where we are staying. We chose An Bang Beach. The Grab ride we got dropped us of at a central point and we started out for a walk down the beach, there were already tons of people there - other tourists and people selling stuff. Every 10 feet we were approached by someone wanting us to choose their chairs to rest on!

 

We walked down the beach for a bit, before heading back to all the comfy looking chairs. We chose three together in the shade and spread out our stuff. We built sandcastles, read our books, and even took little naps! It was very relaxing. At some point, Alex was even turned into a sand-mermaid...



After all of our fun, we were hot. So, we decided to go for a swim in the water. It was cold, and wavy, but after a few minutes we were having too much fun to care! We jumped over the waves (well, tried to) and body-surfed on the sand-bar. Once we were out and dried off, we ordered some lunch and got back to relaxing. :) We enjoyed some fries, cold drinks and spring rolls - a perfect beach snack!



A few hours later, we packed up and headed back our hotel. Now, we're getting ready to go our into the town and see a bamboo circus show! it is called the Lune show. Unlike the last show, it is in a small bamboo theatre with a small cast. Nonetheless, we are definitely looking forward to it! :)

Sending sun and warmth your way! 🌞💛

Tailoring in Hoi An

Not only is Hoi An a beautiful city, it is also famous for its tailoring and tailor shops. Over 630 tailors work in Hoi An, and it has become a huge part of their tourism. 

A few days ago, we went into town to get some clothes made for our family. We wandered around and checked out different shops, finally landing on one called 'Mr. Xhe'.  We looked at what they had on display, and talked to the ladies working there. 

First, we asked about having a suit made for my dad. They took measurements and looked at colours and fabrics while my mom and I went to another room with Alex to ask about some coats and dresses. 

We told them the styles we wanted and looked at fabrics we liked. At the end of our 'session', we had decided on what we wanted, and what colours we liked. 

Alex and I got to help my dad pick out his suit lining colour. At first he just wanted black, (bo-ring) but we persuaded him and chose a dark purple.   :) 

Even though they already had our measurements, we had to go back the next day for our 'first fitting'. I had expected the clothes to be half-done and mostly held together by pins, but I was wrong! The clothes were almost finished, down to the buttons on my dad's suit. We made some minor adjustments and left. 

Today, we will go back to the tailors for our last fitting, where we will have one last chance to change anything about the garments.

 I'm very excited! 😋

Lantern Making in Hoi An

Today we had an amazing adventure in town! We wandered around the streets and stalls, saw a park with Tet decorations, and ended with a cool workshop that blended culture and art. 

At first, we were just walking down a street, but then we stopped to check out a store selling cute little dishes. We looked around, and while Alex took some last minute pictures, my mom and I went down an alley. At the end of the narrow alley was a shop that also offered lantern making classes. When we asked about the classes, the woman working there told us how they were made, showed us the different shapes and sizes, and gave us the price. We decided to take a lantern making class from her.

Then, she said she was glad we wanted to learn from her, she would teach us this grandfather craft but with her sister and she asked us to follow her. We walked about 3 minutes away to a temple. Inside the temple, she took us to a small room where her sister did the workshops. 

We sat down and looked through a pile of fabrics for our lanterns. Alex chose a rainbow one with butterflies, and I picked a blue fabric with birds and flowers. The woman came back and gave us each a bamboo frame for our lanterns, then she told us what to do first. It looked pretty easy but you had to get just the right amount of glue, which was tricky! We spread glue along 3 narrow bamboo pieces, then stretched the fabric across the 3 strips. We repeated this twice, then trimmed the edges. Half of our lantern was covered. Then we did the same thing to the remaining sides, and cut the edges of that too. 

When the fabric was all secure, we added strips of cloth to the top and bottom to seal the ends of the rest in, and added a tassel at the bottom. Our lanterns were finished! They both looked very pretty, if I do says so myself. (and I do) :) 

I was glad to learn a little bit more about the creation process. We have seen lanterns EVERYWHERE, but I thought they were a bit harder than that. Lanterns of all colours and shapes are used as decorations for Tet, so there are tons out right now, and it has been a big part of the sightseeing. I'm so glad we got to do this workshop! 

Hoi An Memories Show

On a chilly night after we ate a delicious dinner at Phan Gai restaurant we got our tickets for the Hoi An Memories Show and crossed a colourful (LIGHT UP) bridge to Hoi An Memories Land, which is called that because the memory show is performed there. Once we had crossed the bridge we went through a theme park with shops and walkways. It was a beautiful place sand there was also a “shouting fountain” that you yell at - the louder you yelled, the higher the water would go!

The show was about the history of Hoi An and there were five unique acts explaining different significant events in their culture and history. The show also had many actors and dancers, about 500 people in all. The dancers used different props, sometimes they danced with water and once they even danced with fire. It was a wonderful show with everybody in beautiful traditional Vietnamese costumes.

Once the wonderful show was over we walked out through a lit up tunnel, there are lights and lanterns everywhere in Hoi An. In Vietnam, lanterns are symbols of good luck, health, prosperity and fortune. There are also many floating lanterns which connect to ancestral spirits. When we were close to the bridge we saw a tree but instead of leaves this tree had lanterns many, many, different colored lanterns! The tree, like so much of the Hoi An area was beautiful - we are so lucky to visit this place.

 

Welcome to Hội An

Yesterday we arrived in Hội An, Vietnam. The plane from Hanoi was only 2 hours, but the check-in line was super long!! We made it through with lots of time, and got through security. Alex and I did French homework while we waited for the plane to board. 

Now in Hội An, we are checked in to our hotel, Little Gem. Last night we went out for dinner at The Circle. My dad says he liked this restaurant because the name was closed to the name Family Circle. After dinner we wandered a bit, and found a little store that sold snacks, so we bought some milk and Oreos. The city is beautiful on it's own, and the decorations for Tet are really pretty. 

We will be in Cambodia during Tet, but the preparations all over Vietnam seem to be well underway, it is a magical time to be here, with so much red everywhere. Tet is a very significant holiday, much like Christmas at home. It celebrates the start of spring and beginning of a new year based on the Vietnamese calendar. Usually, Tet is celebrated by reuniting with family and friends, wearing new clothes, and receiving "lucky money". 

We are excited to have a few days to rest from our adventure in Halong Bay, and there is a nice pool at the hotel to check out. We will definitely be back in the old town, and are looking forward to getting to know the city of Hội An! 

A Letter to Grade 4/5's from Alex

Dear Grade Four/Five classmates

Thank you for your letters! It was really nice to hear from you and I loved all the comments, questions and images. I'd love to have time to write each of you back individually but we have so much to see that I will write a letter to the whole class instead :) We will keep updating our blog as we travel to different places and we hope that you will keep reading so you can learn more about this part of the world from our experience.

A lot of people asked questions about the elephants so I want to tell you more about those and add some more photos. The place we visited was a family-owned elephant sanctuary. There are many elephant sanctuaries in Thailand and you have to do a lot of research to make sure the one that you are visiting is a good one. The place we visited was recommended to us because they take good care of the elephants and they have baby elephants. Did you know that it takes almost 2 years To make a baby elephant? Which makes sense when you think about how big elephants are! at the sanctuary there were three baby elephants each one was about as tall as me but they weighed a lot more! The grown-up elephants were huge. The baby elephants were really interested in eating and playing. One man in our group from Singapore was very confident in physically joking around with the baby elephant and the baby became quite attached to him in the short time that we were there. We also made them little snack balls and we got to feed them to them. The snack balls were designed to help their digestive system. Elephants seem to spend a lot of their day eating!

A few people asked questions about hiking. Walking is a great way to learn about a place and so we have done five major hikes in two countries since we started this trip. Often the hikes involved taking a van to the starting point for the hike and then a walking over rough paths. In Thailand we took a boat to the starting point for the heights. All of the hikes have been pretty steep and they usually involve walking for two or three hours. The climate here means that the forest is really wet if you go early in the morning and it is very tropical with lots of plants, vines and trees. A lot of the hikes we went on had stairs up instead of a pathway and you would climb up the stairs up the mountain. Sometimes there are ropes, wires or handrails to hold on to because the hiking can be quite dangerous. We have to take breaks to sip water and adjust to the outside altitude. Although the hikes can be very challenging, they are worth it because at the top you can see very far of the beautiful land and the view is incredible. Sometimes when you look down from the top the villages and people below look like they are miniature and it's hard to believe that you were down there not too long ago.

Some classmates asked about sports so I share what I have learned about sports and school. The children in Vietnam start school a bit earlier and end a lot later than we do in Canada. They have 4 schools, one for little kids, one for an elementary school, one for Middle School and one for high school and they have to pay a little bit of money to go to school. Some kids in their schools wear uniforms and others do not, but all schools take a long lunch break. Some children go to extra lessons after school to learn English or subjects of interest. We've noticed that other kids gather in the streets to play games of soccer. It seems like mostly groups of boys and we wonder where the young girls are. We've noticed that many kids also help their parents at the market stalls and in the restaurants.

A few people asked for more details about our visit to the museum. It was a huge complex that took us several hours to walk through. Where we started you had three options of which way to go, to the right, to the left or forwards - after we had gone through another gate, we saw what looked like four long tall poles and a fancy roof, inside there were stone turtles with tablets in on their backs each stone had something written, including the names of the people who got good marks on an exam that took place every 3 years. There was also a large pond with huge koi fish. The most interesting part for me was that the large outdoor garden was filled with life-size replicas of village homes from different regions of Vietnam. We learned about how their homes were laid out where people gathered, slept and ate. We also learned about why they built the house's structure the way they did. Something that was interesting to me is that when people died their bodies came back into the house and there was a period where they were laid to rest in one of the bedrooms for people to come to pay their respects. Many of the houses were quite simple: four bedrooms and a cooking space. While we were visiting the Museum we loved seeing the local young people all dressed up taking Tett photos. 

Lots of people asked questions about food and the cooking class. We already wrote a detailed entry about the cooking class because it was lots of fun. We had another cooking demonstration on the junk boat where we learned how to make fresh spring rolls. Fresh spring rolls are made with clear rice paper and inside of it you put some vegetables, noodles and a bit of me. It seems pretty flexible, you could put in it whatever you want. We are hoping to do another cooking class in Hoi Ann, with a group of kids who live in difficult situations and get help to train for jobs. Food is very important in Vietnamese culture and Thai culture, people seem to eat together a lot and often at little plastic tables and stools on the streets. They make wine from snakes, rice, and fruits! Not all the food is spicy though you can have it spicy if you like! Many of their foods are soups with noodles, vegetables and meat. often their dishes include rice. Pho is their national food and it can be made in lots of different ways depending on which region of Vietnam you are in - we will have to try to Pho restaurant when we are back in Kingston (my Mom loves this soup). For example, when we were touring the Halong Bay area my Mom got Seafood Pho for breakfast! I'm not a huge fan of soup so I leave that to my parents to eat. I am becoming a lot better at eating with chopsticks and trying different foods and sauces. Eating is almost as much of an adventure as the hikes we go on!

A lot of people asked about my favorite thing and this is such a hard question for me because everything was so amazing. When I think about my favorite thing it is probably best summed up to say that my favorite thing is being with my family to have all these new adventures and see so many different things that we don't have in Canada. I'm learning about how many ways there are to do things in the world, the incredible views and I feel very lucky to get to have this trip with my family. 

I really enjoyed reading your letters and hearing about your experiences and questions. Thanks for reading our blog and writing to me. I miss all of you, Love Alex