A visit to Bat Trang Ceramic village & Le Mat snake village from Hanoi

Bat Trang is an old, well-established village in the Gia Lam district of Hanoi. It is about 13 km from central Hanoi. Since the 14th century, the village has been famous for ceramic and pottery products of high quality. If you’re already familiar with Viet Nam, you may not be surprised to hear that Bat Trang’s vases, bowls, dishes, and many other kinds of ceramic products have been exported worldwide. Under careful instructions, kneading clay into animals and cartoon characters and making pottery has become a fun activity to let loose after long weeks traveling from Saigon to Hanoi, especially for children. Le Mat is a village in the Northeast of Hanoi, now in Viet Hung Ward, Long Bien district. It is 7km north-east of central Hanoi. Since the 18th century, the village is a purely agricultural one but it is famous for its snake catching vocation. 20% of villagers are living on the vocation of raising and catching snakes with new services generated around this job. Le Mat people own a treasure of knowledge and experience about snake catching techniques, making tonic medicine from snakes or medicine for treating injuries from snake bites. Along with village paths and big roads in Le Mat, you still see quite a lot of restaurants selling snake specialty products.