Hanoi: Thổ Hà Craft Village

Thổ Hà sits on a bend of the Cầu River north of Hà Nội, its clay-brick houses and narrow alleys largely unchanged since it was one of northern Vietnam's major pottery centres. The kilns have mostly gone quiet, but rice-paper making has taken their place as the village's working craft — sheets set out to dry in long wooden racks that turn entire alleyways into corridors of drying paper, angled to catch whatever sun the day offers. Walking through means walking past people actually working — paper pressed and hung, an elderly resident navigating the same alley they've walked for decades, kids on tricycles weaving between the racks. The village temple anchors the older, pottery-era history of the place, a quieter counterpoint to the rice-paper alleys. The day ends on the water — a traditional boat ride back along the Cầu River, the village's brick rooftops and drying racks receding the way they've receded for anyone who's ever left Thổ Hà this way.