BONSAI COFFEE – Space for those who love bonsai art

Hello all of you,

It has been more than half a month now I have not had any posts because the work at the end of the lunar year is quite busy. Every Spring, the streets are crowded and busier than usual. Although the current Covid-19 epidemic is still complicated, the economy of people is still difficult in this period, it can't be stopped people going out to the streets to shop for a warm traditional Tet, looking for a Tet atmosphere. In Vietnam, usually the last days of the lunar year are the busiest days, because almost everyone has to race against time to get all the work done before Tet. I have a week off before Tet, so today I have time to write an article to share with you about a cafe with a Koi pond and also a place to display bonsai of the city's bonsai association. This is a very suitable space for those who love bonsai art as well as love a gentle space that is not too crowded and noisy.

This Bonsai cafe is located at 33 Xuan Thuy Street, Cam Le District, Da Nang City. Right next to this cafe is Thanh Nien park, this is also a new park built in recent years, in the evening this area is crowded with young people coming here to drink, relax and have fun in the park. Although the space of the cafe is not too large like many other cafes in Da Nang, the space of Bonsai cafe here creates a feeling of closeness to nature. I came here early in the morning, at this time, there were not many customers, ordered 1 cup of roasted coffee and sat alone to enjoy, the drinks here are quite cheap, 1 cup of milk coffee is only 15,000 VND (nearly 7 US dollars).

In the middle of the cafe is a very beautiful Koi fish pond highlighted by mountain miniatures with waterfalls falling down creating a beautiful and impressive landscape. Around the Koi pond, there are small seats along the aquarium for you to enjoy coffee while watching the colorful Koi fish swimming around. Drinks here are quite popular, only from 15,000 VND to 30,000 VND, but you are spoiled for watching the enchanting bonsai creatures worth from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of VND.

The inside of this cafe is also the place where the office of the Da Nang City Bonsai Association is located, a place for the exchange of bonsai artisans, as well as a place to display, exchange, and buy bosons, different ornamental plants. According to an artist who is also the owner of valuable bonsai here, these bonsai trees are worth from a few million dong to hundreds of millions of dong depending on the age, rare tree species and artistic value of bonsai. You can see that there are many unique tree shapes that are nurtured from a few years to a few decades. Thus, only a rough estimate of the value of all the trees here can be up to tens of billions of VND.

Talk a little more about the Bonsai art form. Bonsai translated in Sino-Vietnamese means "plants grown in pots". This is a tree with an ancient shape but small in size and planted in a pot. The art of playing Bonsai originated in China and spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Currently, with the development trend, in Da Nang city, there are many individuals and families starting to play bonsai and there are also many artists involved in this field. I also really like the art of bonsai because of the uniqueness of the shapes created by the artists.

After drinking a cup of coffee, I took a walk around the front area to see and take pictures of the unique bonsai works of artistic value as well as economic value. As you know, in order to have a beautiful and valuable bonsai pot, the process of planting, caring for and bending branches for bonsai are a process that takes a lot of time and effort of the grower. They must have knowledge of crop agriculture; use a lot of different techniques such as wrapping, cutting, grafting and special care to create such unique artistic images. To have a complete work, the player must take at least 5 - 10 years from the time the embryo tree (the original tree). Because of that, the price of bonsai pots is often quite expensive. Small and easy-to-grow pots are usually a few hundred, and there are larger pots, rarer plants used to make bonsai, the price can be from a few million to hundreds of millions of VND.

According to the owner of the café who is also the owner of this bonsai garden, for ordinary people, if they are not knowledgeable about this art form, it is difficult to value ornamental plants because the value of these trees is very high. This bonsai depends heavily on the talented hands of bonsai artisans. Bonsai players must know how to care for the tree to grow slower than usual, so that it is easy to shape according to the artist's intentions and especially to have an ancient set of roots. The creation of shapes for trees is also extremely rich; each shape has a different meaning. The trees are valuable if sold on the market at the price from 50 to 60 million dong. And the tree is only really valuable when the tree player understands the tree position and the owner's elaboration.

Normally, every year, he rents a land opposite the monument 2.9 Da Nang to display and sell, also where the center buys and sells ornamental plants to serve Tet every spring, but this year because of the prolonged epidemic, business due to difficult economic conditions, he decided to display the location in front of the Bonsai cafe, saving the cost of renting land to sell his bonsai products.

Guests who come to drink Bonsai coffee here can visit and see the beautiful and unique works of hundreds of bonsai trees in different shapes. In addition to the bonsai trees displayed for sale here, you can also see beautiful works of art made from wood. The number of visitors coming here to buy and sell can be artisans or lovers of the bonsai art form, or people who love this art form and also have money.

And every year at the park 29.3, near the Lunar New Year, there is a spring flower festival, this is an opportunity for hundreds of Da Nang artisans to bring hundreds of unique bonsai trees to the contest and display at the festival. Spring flowers for people to enjoy as well as buy and sell.

It can be said that this is a suitable cafe for those of you who love the lightness, not too noisy to talk with friends with affordable drinks. And this is also a place for bonsai artists to gather to exchange professional experience, as well as a place to display, exchange and buy bonsai. Although this is an artistic hobby, the bonsai profession in Da Nang is developing in the direction of producing good income for many artisans and farmers, thereby helping many individuals to rise up to wealth when the city entered the period of rapid urbanization boom and there was not much land left for farming.

I hope the photos of this cafe will help you to imagine somewhat of what I have experienced. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and have a nice day.