Vietnam TravelTravel Special FeaturesVietnam - The Craft VillagesFlowers

Flowers

In the day leading up to Tet Nguyen Dan, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the narrow lanes of Hanoi's Old Quarter are cloaked in a fine mist. Yet despite the gray skies the city feels festive, its streets and markets transformed into gardens of peach trees. Strapped to the backs of bicycles, the pink-blossomed trees are paraded though the streets, bringing visions of the countryside - and spring - to the wintry capital.

Travel to the west of hanoi, beyond the edge of West Lake, and depending on the season, you'll pass fields ablaze with peach blossoms, sunflowers, roses and chrysanthemums. The district of Tu Liem, as this area is known, is famous for its traditional flower villages. In the past, all of the flowers sold in Hanoi wre grown in the villages of Dom, Ngoc ha, Nhat Tan and Nghi Tam. Today, as land in these areas grows increasingly valuable, many villagers are selling their plots to housing developers. Nghi Tam, for instance, now has many more luxurious vallas than it does fields of flowers. A few old-timers continue to cultivate bonsai trees and to raise aquarium fish, but the large-scale commercial flower plantations have relocated further out of town.

In Dam village, some 17km from central Hanoi, most of the flower-growers have switched to fancy imported strains, leaving the common roses, gladiolas and dahlias to farmers living further afield. Since the profit from growing imported strains of flowers is several times higher than that earned from paddy, more than 3,000 families in Dam village now cultivate exotic blooms like lilies and orchids. Set beside the Nhue River and surrounded by fields of flowers, the village is a pastoral dream. This beauty, however, comes at a price. The villagersmust rise at about four A.M. to transport their blooms to the capital's flower market, which open well before dawn. Their afternoons are spent watering and weeding their fields and cutting flowers for the following day, then wrapping each blossom in newspaper to protect it.

Venture west along th dyke road in early morning hours and you'll find a scene froma fairytale. As mist rises from the paddy fields, clusters of flower-vendors stand by the roadside, selling thick bushels of blooms from the backs of their bicycles and motorbikes. Bundled up againstthe early morning chill, women in conical hats crouch beside baskets heaped with fresh-cut flowers. Roses that cost just VND100 to VND200 per stem at these pre-dawn markets will later re-sell for VND5,000 to VND10,000 in urban flower shops.

You breathe in the heady scent of roses then, after handing over a few dollars, walk away with as amny blooms as you can carry.

Getting There

Quang An village is 5km west of Hanoi in Tay Ho District. Travel west for 3km on the dyke road, Lac Long Quan, and the village is on the right.