ooH I just wanted to share. Today I went to a World Cultures festival and it was awesome. I stopped in at the Vietnamese booth thing, and I bought a cool hat, can't remember the proper name for it, but you know the slanty triangular hats. Anyway it has hand woven designs on it and it says Viet on one side and Nam on the other in small letters. Its really pretty. And I spoke a little Vietnamese, and then the girl I bought it from laughed at me I was like wtf? Then I looked at my fiance and he said I said it right, the girl just thought it was cute to see me trying i was like great lol.
Anyway, so then I bought this smoothie. They had something called Bobo Tea and they made Bobo smoothies. It was really good, but OMG I don't know what the hell those squishy little gummy things that looked like berries but weren't berries at the bottom of the smoothie were. Someone help me out here. They were really good but the texture was like little eyeballs lol.
Anyway just wanted to share.
Jenny

it's called typica or something like that

lol thanks. I am often full of "something like thats" lol

it's made from flour so don't worry lol

LOL it's bubble tea.....

It's tapioca balls.

What?

The "flour balls" are called zhenzhu (pearl) in Chinese but here in the U.S. they are called either boba (which originated from boba naicha [milktea]) or tapioca (I have no idea where this name came from ). It's not Vietnamese, but Taiwanese.

Cone hats, aren't they used everywhere in Asia?

This?

Yes. Well, not everywhere in Asia, but mostly Vietnam, China, Laos, Cambodia, and countries around that area.

Maybe nowadays. But that hat was once worn by farmers throughout Asia from Japan to Thailand.

However, today, you can only really see those farmer hats in southern China and Southeast Asia.

It's actually a very good design. It's easy to make, effective when protecting the farmer from heat exhaustion from the sun, and it keeps the farmers' necks from turning red

Well the 'non la' Jenny refers to is characteristic of the Vietnamese farmer. If you notice, the conical hat throughout Asia in ancient times vary in shape and sizes. Only in VN do you find the hat short and straight.
The picture Kulong posted doesn't look like a typical 'non la', looks like it could be somewhere in Indonesia but very different from a Vietnamese Non La.
Anyhoo, Kulong's right, it's an effective way to battle the sun.
Glad you had fun at the fair Jenny, thank you for sharing!
Gonna go make some boba tea now...

Let me find a real Vietnamese cone hat, AKA "nốn lá."

Hope these pictures are good enough.

Yes yes and Yes! hehe.
Yes it is a cone hat. and yes they were tapioca balls cause that picture is exactly what I drank LOL.
hehe I drank balls.

Jenny

So I was right! I didn't know what those guys were talking about all those wierd names, so I thought why don't we just call it cone hats. Heheheh...

How is this



Any different from

It's different, check out the weaving pattern and the rim in the Indonesian hat.
Vietnamese hats are a lot lighter which is another unique aspect of the 'non la'.

Unless you're blind, obviously the weaving style and thickness is different, which brings to the conclusion that the materials are different.

I guess if you want to get picky about it -shurg

Well I can't tell the difference
The weaving is very light. the hat itself does not have a tight weave, and it has a bow thing that comes down and ties around the chin
Jenny

Oh yeah. I also got a really cool umbrella thingy from the China booth. Don't know what thats called either lol. but they had really cool stuff i wanted it all. but the little Chinese lady was scaring me she kept following me around holding everything up in front of me telling me i should by it cause it was a realy good deal. so i bought the umbrella thing and ran away lol.
Jenny

Does it look like this?



It's called "san" in Chinese or "tán" in Vietnamese

Yeah thats it!!! hehe. man you got pictures of everything dude lol
Jenny

Jenny, did you take any pictures while you was there?

Not really. I voluteered at the festival to work, so i only had a few breaks to get around and see things. But I really should have

Oh, I see.

sorry now you make me feel bad

i'm glad u have a great time Jenny!!

btw, it's spelled "no'n la'" Tuan...

Are you sure?
May be it's how Nha Trangian write it, but Da Nangian write "nốn lá." Hehehhe...

I remember someone said their accent is crystal clear *ahem*.
It's no'n la'. BK rules.

Nha Trangian kicks Da Nangian's butt!!

Oh Da Nang, the land of the free, the land of heroes.
Without Da Nang, there wouldn't be Saigon, there wouldn't be Nha Trang. We opened the south for you people. Shame on you... tsk tsk tsk...

I speak Vietnamese with a crystal clear accent. Hehehehe...

Without Nha Trang, Da Nang can't spell !!

Without Ha Noi, Nha Trang and Da Nang wouldn't be here.

How does that work? Are you and Trang smoking again? Didn't I tell both of you to stop?

u guys r makin' me feel sad ... all Nha Trang has that historical is the pagoda that even me 4get the name

Chu`a Thie^n Mu. is that the right one Hy?

Yes, Tuan, Hy and I are smoking "thuo^'c la`o", pure stuff right there.

lol.. that's from Hue... who's smoking here o.O?

Come on Trang, chùa Thiên Mụ is in Huế, and I've been there before, pretty fatastic scene! You got to visit Hue if you ever visit Da Nang, because it's just 1 hour north!

Ohhh that's right, that's what I thought. Well, Nha Trang has the beaches, can't compete with that.

yup!

Gio' lay ca`nh tru'c la da`
Tie^'ng chuo^ng Thie^n Mu. canh ga` tho. xuong..

translated... gotta read this !!
Gio' nhe. lay ca`nh tru'c ro*'t xuo^'ng ta` va.t dduo`ng
Vo*. tro*`i dda'nh mo^.t ho^`i chuo^ng canh ga` hu'p vo^.i ma('t xuo*ng ma^'y la^``n

there's a story behind Chua Thien Mu.. want 2 tell us Tuan??

Hmmm... I guess it's around the early 17th century, Chúa Nguyễn Hoàng wanted to get away from Chúa Trịnh in the north, so he went to Trạng Nguyên Nguyễn Bĩnh Khiêm and asked where to go, Nguyen Binh Khiem told him to go south and made Hue the capital of his land. So Chua Nguyen chose Hue to be his capital and he dreamt of a fairy lady in Ao Dai, and told him to do something, and when he woke up, he ordered the completion of Chua Thien Mu.

Something like that... hehehehe...

According to legend, the people around this area [Hue] used to see a vision of an old lady appearing on the hill where the pagoda now sits. Upon seeing people, she always said that someday a great leader would build a pagoda at this site to bring peace to the country. One day, when Lord Nguyen Hoang passed by this area, upon hearing the story, he ordered the construction of the pagoda in 1601. He named it Chua Thien Mu - Heavenly Lady Pagoda.

Trang's is more like what my dad told me.

http://www.vietscape.com/travel/hue/thienmu.html

Chua Mot Cot was constructed based on a dream too. How funny.

Chua Mot Cot is like 1000 years old.