I had a pretty good night sleep after the streets of Hanoi day, but had another early start with Son for our trip out to Quang Phu Cau Village. It more commonly know name is “Incense Village” as they are famous for making incense sticks. Son had convinced me that, yes, we would see the place the everyone goes, but he was going to take us through the village and see the real Quang Phu Cau. There was one other person on the tour, Damian, who was from Poland. He was an incredible photographer and showed us a few of his images from his trip in Vietnam that were amazing.

They picked me up at 5:30 am and we did the 1 1/2 hr drive out to the village. Son told that we would start the tour having breakfast at restaurant that served a freshwater crab Pho. He said it was the best and most unique Pho anywhere. He told us a bit more about the village and what we would see beyond the usual tourist stop. I guess the entire village has built an economy around bamboo with a big part of it being around incense sticks. These are used heavily in the Buddhist tradition for offering prayers and gratitude to Buddha.

The first stop on the tour was the famous place where they dry the incense sticks. Everyone comes here to get their Instagram shot. It is a pretty famous shot…hence the cover photo for the post. It’s the real deal, but has been definitely set up to cater to the tourists. We walked around taking pictures while the lady laid out the sticks in bundles. Damian even had a drone with him which he flew around taking pictures and video. I guess he does a lot of video work. It was cool and the shots were cool, but it felt way too manufactured for me. That aside, it was a pretty photogenic place so who am I to complain?

Next up we stopped into a little shop to chat with an older dude. He had been involved in the 1979 war with China and had lost a leg in one of the battles. It took a number of years in the hospital to recover. He now lives in the village with his family and sells basic things like cokes and cigarettes. The place was pretty dark, especially on such a rainy day. At one point his son stopped by and chatted with him and Son. Son translated for us which helped us understand the context of his situation much better. Son told me that he loves tea and always brings him some when he is there.

We headed out into the village to check out the factories and local business that were processing the bamboo. I guess there is no bamboo in the area, everything is imported to the village. It was just one of the those center of gravity things where it turned itself into a bamboo center even though they didn’t grow the bamboo.

It mind-numbingly hard work and starts with stripping the fine bark off the raw bamboo. They usually start work around 6:00 a.m., take an hour and half break at lunch and continue on until 5. After stripping they let the bamboo dry.

Next in the process is splitting the dried bamboo into smaller pieces that can then be worked into the incense sticks. We stopped at a small little processing shop where, by hand, they do this work. We had to carry masks with us as in some of the places there is a lot of bamboo dust that you definitely don’t want to breathe into your lungs.

When then went to the factory where the use machines to work the bamboo down into the thin, smooth incense sticks. You definitely didn’t want to hang out inside without a mask on. There was dust everywhere. It was quite noisy and in the summer it must be ungodly hot.

After the sticks are split into the right size, they are loaded into the smoothing machine. The machine agitates back and forth which rubs the sticks together and over time makes them very smooth.

It was an incredibly labor intensive process to get the sticks to this point and the process isn’t even done yet! Next up dying the sticks.

To dye the sticks they make a brew out of turmeric and a green tree bark that turns bright pink when it is boiled. They dip then in the dye and then let them dry. The woman told us that she had an order from 1000 kg of sticks she was doing that day. Each bundle was about 3 kilos.

The village does more than just incense sticks; they do all things bamboo. Often this is done on a small scale individual or family basis. We stopped by one house where the woman was creating strands of bamboo for weaving and other purposes. She was super nice and let us photograph her and her house. It was an absolutely stunning backdrop.

She was telling Son all about the house and its history. I guess during the war a bomb exploded not far away and a piece of the shrapnel damaged the door frame. She also had a very cute dog that kept coming and checking out what was going on. Eventually it determined we weren’t all that interesting and found a comfy pile of bamboo to take a snooze.

We made our last stop at a house where the lady made baskets by hand. We were lucky that she had a big supply on hand as they made a great photo background. She served us dragon fruit and showed us how she made baskets while Son was constantly making her laugh. She had a dog as well that keep coming and checking us out.

We piled back in the car and drove back to Hanoi. It had been a great two days with Son. He really made my visit to Hanoi special and I will forever be grateful for that. I am glad to have taken the time find him and I can’t stress enough how important it is to have someone with you that speaks the language and knows the culture. They can open doors you cannot.