As soon as I saw pictures from this village, I knew I had to see it if I was ever close by. Turns out I was closer than I thought! A quick Grab ride and I was in the beautiful Hue incense village of Thuy Xuan and was it ever amazing!
Thuy Xuan
This was once a quiet little village, now a tourist hot spot. Unfortunately, there is very little authenticity here, especially on the biggest street. What most visitors will see are the row of shops on either side of the main street, plying people to enter and take pictures in exchange for a purchase.
Many vehicles and bus loads of people are coming, some dressed in local traditional costume, to take Instagram-esque pictures. The stores have set up photo booths, places for people to sit in amongst the incense with a pretty backdrop.
While this is very beautiful and colourful for sure, it was not really what I was after.
The Back Streets
Yes, I was of course drawn to the bright colours, for who would not be? But I wanted more. Trying to find how the incense was actually made is more my style.
I wandered into some of the smaller, jungle lined streets, where locals reside and watched them quietly and with respect.
One older lady was burning the old incense sticks, the ones that have faded in the sunlight and are no longer pretty enough to adorn the store fronts.
Another property had buckets of the dye used to colour the wooden sticks and I could see them being dipped and set out to dry.
A local rustic farm of sorts had not only the incense sticks drying in the sun on metal roofing, but shallow baskets of the cone style incense, also set out into the heat of the mid day sun. Chickens run amok here and I had to be careful not to step into the huge piles of cow dung. 😂💩
Making Incense
Two shops that I entered, actually showed older methods of making the incense. One used a machine with a foot medal to push the thick scented mud through a hole and onto the stick. The other method was even older and perhaps more traditional. A woman uses a wooden card to roll the mud flat and then onto the stick.
I would suggest visiting this village to anyone in the area. The colours alone are amazing. If you are a user of incense and lover of this product, it is a fascinating stop on the itinerary. Please do feel free however, to wander off the beaten track and see what you can find behind the scenes.
