Duong Lam ancient village - A weekend getaway in the suburb of Hanoi city

in Worldmappin3 years ago (edited)

Good day everyone!

When you are too busy to take a long leave, a weekend getaway in somewhere nearby is not bad idea, isn’t it? Today I will recommend you a place that you can consider (if you are currently in Hanoi) for your short trip to escape the city.


Didn’t have much time to go somewhere far away, I and my co-workers chose nearby places for our bonding trip. It was just a weekend trip, we rented a villa in Soc Son District to get away from the bustling Hanoi, just to get some fresh vibes after a hard-working week. Since check-in time was at noon, we still had a totally empty schedule for the whole morning. We decided to pay a short visit to Duong Lam ancient village located just 50km from Hanoi.


Duong Lam – a typical Viet old village

As my co-workers coming from different parts of the country, and some of them are even foreigners, they are not so familiar with the culture of North Vietnam and would love to get to know more about it. Being one of the oldest villages in Hanoi and well-known for its historical and cultural features, Duong Lam is definitely an ideal place where my colleagues can have great insights into what the north of Vietnam was like in the past. We started from Hanoi at 7am and arrived Duong Lam at 8.30 am. Our schedule was that we would explore the village for about 3 hours, have lunch at a local house, then depart to our villa to check in at noon.


cong.jpg
Source

Passing through several vast rice fields, the charming village appeared in front of us with a huge banyan tree and a village gate lied aside a green river. Village gate is an integral part of the Northern culture in the past. People here normally lived together in a closed space which was called a village. The village gate was not just a boundary that separates this village from another but also became what villagers took pride in - a symbol of the whole village. Behind the gate was the connection of the community of villagers with a distinct culture, customs, and lifestyle which were not mixed with any other places.

img_6236.jpg

Taking photo in front of the village gate is what all tourists do, according to our local guide. ^^

There were electric sightseeing car and bicycle renting services available right at the gate of the village for tourists, but we chose to stroll leisurely through the village. It sounded exhausted, especially in the heat of June. However, it was very enjoyable as we could swing by any place that we felt like.


rni_films_img_83847b48_c909_4cc0_b37c_5d85f55234e1.jpg


We booked a local to tour us around. His house was also famous in the village as it was one of the oldest here. We also planned to have lunch at his house too. Generations of his family had been living here for hundreds of years, the same period of time since his house was built. That is why he is very knowledgeable about the village as well as its history and culture.


img_2021.jpg

The ancient house of our tour guide


The village dating back hundreds of years was characterized by ancient houses of the north of Vietnam, with the typical architecture built from brick and stone. We could see that the locals really tried to preserve those ancient construction works although there was already a mix of several houses with modern style.


rni_films_img_98723e55_65e7_4c20_b5bd_3356c1bad156.jpg

Narrow hamlet surfaced with brick was a very common feature of Duong Lam Village

img_6306.jpg

In front of an ancient house with the wall showing colors of the time passing by

img_6335.jpg


At first, we stopped by Mong Phu Communal House which was an important part of the spiritual life of the villagers. The ambiance look of the House and the vast square yard in front was interesting to gaze at. Here was where many festivals, rituals, community bonding activities taking place. In every Northern people’s mind, “banyan trees, wells, wharf, and communal house yard” is an iconic image of the unique culture of Northern Vietnam. Although hundreds of years had passed by, the communal house was still there, not only attached to the daily life of each villager but also became an invaluable part of the community.


9cbf22d03490fdcea481.jpg

rni_films_img_b8ebc9b4_d6cf_4ba8_9847_050dced316e2.jpg


We strolled down those narrow brick hamlets to go deeper into the village to visit some of the oldest houses which were built hundreds of years ago. The villagers were very hospitable and welcoming. They offered us tea, shared their family history, and let us tour around their house to admire the old style that was still well preserved. The whole village brought us a vibe of peace and tranquility.


img_6305.jpg

img_6334.jpg

He is our boss, a Malaysian. He seemed to enjoy the vibe of tranquility in this village


img_6302.jpg

p_20200612_092436.jpg

I just wanted to take a picture in front of a lovely door of an old house. Then suddenly, the owner opened the door and invited us to come in and look around. How nice!


img_5997.jpg

rni_films_img_b330e719_42a7_41ec_bd4c_3d56207ed623.jpg

Visiting acient houses with grape vines


The village was also the birthplace of two kings, two national heroes of Vietnam: Phung Hung and Ngo Quyen. The villagers considered themselves as descendants of the two kings despite the fact that the two kings were not their true ancestors.


rni_films_img_8193f599_ff21_43e4_9457_4a61cb59505a.jpg

Temple of Phung Hung


Duong Lam village is well-known for soybean sauce. We could see a lot of houses having those clay pots covered with lids in their front yard. Those pots contained soybean inside, as a part of the soybean sauce-making process. We did try some in our lunch. Its taste was not quite familiar to me but it was worth a try.


img_6311.jpg


Chillax time

We had lunch at a local house with all the food that this village is well-known for. After lunch, we headed to our villa in Soc Son District – a suburb area of Hanoi city. The heat of summer was no kidding, and we really expected to cool down there. The whole villa rent for 1 night was $450 which was kind of expensive. But the riverside view and the facilities proved it’s definitely worth that much. Kayaking in the river, bicycling around, BBQ partying, enjoying swimming pool, etc. It was really the best way to chill out after an exhausting week.


img_1431.jpg

img_6339.jpg

a9b84a087e48b716ee59_1_.jpg

936dcefefebe37e06eaf.jpg

58648a6e_287e_4353_9eeb_7fec31d6c4c6.jpeg

If you are also looking for a getaway trip on the weekend, maybe you can schedule a trip as we did. We indeed had a very enjoyable time.

img_6310.jpg

linha_separadora_png_2.png

@hanggggbeeee

Sort:  

Congratulations @hanggggbeeee, you have received a 40% upvote. I'm the Vietnamese Community bot developed by witness @quochuy and powered by community SP delegations

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

This made me curious, are those Chinese characters?

I think so. :D there was a period of time when Vietnamese language was written using Chinese characters. Actually it was not 100% chinese characters, it was Chinese characters adapted for vernacular Vietnamese. this is an old writing system, we now use Roman alphabet.

Here is an ancient village, so it explains why we can see this old writing system appears sometimes.

Here is an ancient village, so it explains why we can see this old writing system appears sometimes.

Thank you, I now know why.

nhà em ngay gần đây chị ạ . cách có 1.5 km ý

Vậy hả? Thế có sang đây bao giờ k? Haha

Daily Travel Digest #1334.



Become part of our travel community:

Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!

Aww. It is you again @ybanezkim26. I really really appreciate. ❤️❤️ Thank youuu

Yes! It's me again! 😂 Awesome post again!

Cảnh tượng vùng quê ở đây dễ thương ghê. Yên bình và trong lành quá em ha

vâng chị. thực ra kiến trúc trong làng thì cũng không có gì quá nổi bật. nhưng mà bù lại cái không khí làng quê. từ HN sang chỗ này đúng kiểu đi thay đổi không khí. nên cũng chill dc chị ạ ^^

How cute of the old woman to let you guys in! Depending on where yoy go around the world the owner would've been pissed \o
... and that barbecue... dear God

yea. it took us by surprise, too. She even gave us a bunch of grapes in her front yard. :D

RNI-Films-IMG-8F5CC58E-2CFA-484B-AE30-6A2EEDBDF691.JPG