And a Hue we go! (See what I did there???)

Last weekend was a long weekend here in Vietnam so we took advantage and made a flying trip up to Hue.  It had never really been high on our must do list while we were here as it always seemed to be in second place behind places like Halong Bay, Hoian, Nha Trang etc. Only a quick one hour flight from HCMC it was perfect for just a 2 night visit.  Hue was the capital of Vietnam from the beginning of  the 19th century until 1945.  It is a stunning ancient city with some amazing buildings including the Citadel that used to house the emperor, his wife and often his hundreds of back up wives.  Hue is also very proud that Ho Chi Minh was educated here.  Unfortunately not all of the things Hue is famous for are fabulous.  In 1968 it was also the site of one of the major battles of the infamous Tet Offensive and many of the buildings were very badly damaged or destroyed during the month long battle.

Having left it so late to book these were the only seats left.  Not nearly as extravagant as it sounds, the prices are still pretty reasonable....and we needed the leg room.

.....actually, I can't back that up.

Our home for 2 nights was the very tranquil La Residence Hotel.

With stunning views over the Perfume River it was a beautiful property.

Usually travel within Vietnam on long weekends is horrendously busy.  I don't know where everyone went this holiday but it wasn't to Hue.  The place was nearly deserted.

  

With not too much planned for day one we just hung out at the pool.

Seriously, I think she is half mermaid.

The kids made a new friend.

The weather was overcast, drizzly but still pretty hot.  Not bad weather for exploring we thought.

These fantastic boats can take you along the Perfume River.  Apparently in Autumn flowers from the orchids upsteam fall into the river giving it a perfume like aroma.  Being the cynic that I am, I find it hard to believe that any river in Vietnam can smell like perfume but it is a nice story none the less.

This is the Thien Mu Pagoda on the banks of the river.  It was built in 1601 and has its roots in local legend.  Apparently an old woman appeared on the hill and said that the Lord would come and build a Buddhist pagoda for the country's prosperity. Hearing this Lord Nguyen Hoang ordered the construction of the pagoda of the "Heavenly Lady" (Thien Mu)

Phuoc Dien Tower has seven levels as 7 is an extremely lucky number in Buddhism.  

Fearsome temple guardian.

One of my favourite parts of the trip.  When you say your prayer to Buddha this lovely monk waits until you finish then hits the bell to signal to Buddha that your prayer is on the way.

One of the more bizarre things within the temple and not what I was expecting to see!

This is the Austin car that you can see in the background of that very famous photo of the Buddhist monk who drove from Hue to Saigon, got out of the car and set himself alight in protest of the anti-buddhist stance of the South Vietnamese government. 

Here is the photo in question.  This was made all the more poignant as the photographer passed away just this week.

Monkeying around.

Our next adventure took us to the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. It was built in 1864-67 for Tu Duc who was the longest serving Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty (1848-83)  Interestingly, although he had hundreds of wives he never produced any children.  Do you think it might have been him?

The Emperor actually lived here during his reign.  It is a huge area and he could punt on the lake or go hunting within the grounds.

There was actually a coup attempted during the construction as it's construction was so elaborate that the people had to pay extra taxes and it was pretty much forced labour.

The colours are just amazing.  It's very hard to try to get a photo that does it justice.

This is his wife's tomb.

Now here's the thing.  After all of that, the guy is not even buried here!  He was buried in a secret location and to this day no one knows where it is.  The 200 labourers who buried him were beheaded on their return.

Incense is big business in this area.  What a stunning way to display your wares.

We then went to visit the enormous Citadel.  This is the flag tower near the entrance.  You can just make out Quiddy going crazy with such wide open spaces where you can RUN!

During the Tet Offensive in 1968 a lot of the fighting was concentrated around the Citadel and you can see remnants of it today.

That Sir, is a lovely handbag.  Work it baby!

Within the Citadel itself is another smaller Citadel called the Imperial Enclosure or the Forbidden Purple City.  You could spend hours wandering around exploring.

Right next door is a military exhibit which is worth a look.

The kids got a buzz out of clambering over the tanks.

It was Fathers Day in Australia so we had a lovely lunch at Vuon Thao Garden.

We of course had to try the local brew.  Not too bad.

All in all I would definitely say that Hue is worth a visit.  It was a tad challenging with the kids as they get templed out quite quickly but there are enough things for them to climb on to keep them happy.  If you wanted to extend the trip you could drive the beautiful Hai Van pass through the mountains and visit Hoian which is not far away.

Very Ngon....Very Nice!!!!

Some people are creative......some are not, (me not so much). Some people can hatch an idea and have it planned out in their heads with great foresight .......some need to see it first (if I can't see it, I sometimes cannot even imagine it). Some people are willing to lay it on the line and take a chance and believe in themselves....and some of us are glad they did!

I was lucky enough to spend some time recently with the super talented and enthusiastic Lise who not only has great foresight but great taste. A fellow Aussie expat living here in Ho Chi Minh City, she had an idea and went for it. Lise describes herself as a keen tea towel fancier and, after not being able to find any to her liking in HCMC, decided to hand-print her own range with her partner, Hieu.

Enter Very Ngon Homewares. Lise let me in on the story behind it all.

How did Very Ngon Homewares come to be?

I was lucky enough to have an all (basic) expenses paid trip to spend 18 months as a volunteer with the local NGO, Vietnam (now Mekong) Quilts. That’s what initially brought me to VN, but in the process I fell in love, both with the country and with my partner. Following my volunteering stint, I started toying with the idea of creating retro-inspired fabric-based homeware products which would be a good match for the skills and interests of both my partner, Hieu, and I. Hieu has a strong background in fashion production and textiles (she is currently the Production Manager of the above-said NGO). And textiles was one of my majors at art college way back when and I’ve continued to be fascinated by and hoard fabrics. Funnily enough I failed that major at uni!

My initial idea was then narrowed down to tea towels, when I was reminded about how sexy they are as a product. Practical, light weight, multi-purpose and potentially visually gorgeous. Plus, because the Vietnamese do not use tea towels, preferring to let the washing up drip-dry, it was all but impossible to find them in Vietnam, let alone any that were interesting to look at. Perfect! Very Ngon Homewares was thus born in 2010.

Where did the idea come from to use vintage postcards from the French Indochine days in your products?

I’ve long been a fan of all things retro and old yet interesting, especially homeware goodies. How I loved spending my spare time back in Australia op shopping, garage sale-ing and fossicking through church and school fetes on the week-ends.... So I was immediately attracted to the gorgeous old postcard images of Vietnam when I first spotted them. Once I had settled on the idea of creating fabric-based homeware products, I thought there might be potential to print the old images onto fabric to create our products. “But if only I could screen-print” I thought to myself….

Interestingly, print making was my other major at art college and I failed at it too! I hadn’t learnt screen printing (I concentrated on etching), so I was very lucky to have a friend who offered to teach me. So the lovely Florence, a talented French textile designer*, got me on my feet with the basics. It makes me laugh to look back at the first tea towels I printed – we’ve come such a long way since then. I had a few misgivings in the beginning, but Hieu and my friends were very enthusiastic, loved the concept and egged me on. I am so glad they did.

* My friend, Florence, and her partner, Erwan, have recently created their own brand, Metiseko (www.metiseko.com) and have shops in both Hoi An and Ha Noi – gorgeous organic fabrics used to create fashion and homeware products.

Can you tell me a little about the journey?

In the beginning, I was doing all of the screen printing which I initially really enjoyed. After about 6 months and following the launch of our tea towels at a local bazaar/arts market, we had to employ someone to help us. I was (and still am) working part-time and I couldn’t keep up with demand by myself. I am a bit embarrassed but kind of proud to say that our employee, Ms No, is now a way better printer than me…. So now I spend a fair chunk of my time sourcing new images which I know will look gorgeous on our products – this is something I LOVE doing but remains a constant challenge as quality images which are visually arresting can be difficult to find.

Tell me about your products and your plans for the future.

Tea towels were our first product and, because they are still very popular, we continue to create them, introducing new images as they are found. In fact, we have just launched a couple of beautiful new images recently. And of course we have needed to come up with new product ideas to keep it fresh, so we have branched out into aprons, drink coasters, oven mitts and cushion covers. Table settings will be our next offering, which are being printed as we speak.

All of our products feature interesting images from the early 1900s, including street scenes and landscapes, lovely French colonial buildings that are still around today, Vietnamese women (some of whom I suspect might actually have been prostitutes earning a bit of extra cash by posing for the pics, which was common at that time) and royalty, including Duy Tan, the young boy who became emperor at the age of 7. They all providing an interesting (if not overly romanticised) snapshot of life in Viet Nam during that era.

All of our products are hand-printed and hand-made in Vietnam with a focus on quality, which is something we can guarantee with Hieu’s background in production management. We use linen or linen-cotton mixes and print with imported, non-toxic, environmentally friendly ink which we found difficult to source in Vietnam. VNH also has a strong ethic of sustainability and re-use, hence our salvaged Vietnamese newspaper product bags, which our customers love. Our coaster images are printed onto fabric offcuts and we create oven mitts from tea towels which didn’t quite make the grade (such as a printing error on one part of the tea towel which we can cut around to use for a mitt).

Where can we find Very Ngon Homewares?

As we don’t have a shop (yet), you can find our products in Ho Chi Minh City at Decosy and Feeling Tropic in An Phu/District 2, soon in L’Usine’s new cafe & lifestyle store (opening on Le Loi St in D.1), in Hanoi at L'Atlier at West Lake/Tay Ho district, just recently at XQ in Dalat and in the Phnom Penh branch of Decosy as well. We also sell at local bazaars in Ho Chi Minh City and occasionally in Ha Noi – these are like artisan market days which are generally run as fund-raisers for local charities. Being the social media-challenged person that I am, I’ve only managed to get us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/VeryNgonHomewares), with our homepage providing the obvious things you’d expect - updates about new products, events we are attending, etc. And of course anyone who is interested can email us directly to make inquiries or to order products.

I'm always on the lookout for unique gifts for family and friends back home and I just love these products. So happy that Lise and Hieu are doing so well! Oh, and it's great to find a tea towel in Saigon!

For further information, contact Lise on 0938 036 920 or email veryngon@gmail.com.