Thanh Ha Pottery Village

Thanh Ha is definitely worth a visit, especially on your way to My Son if you're going under your own steam.

Head west out of town on Tran Hung Dao and then turn right onto Hung Vuong. The road forks after 3km — for Da Nang (and My Son) take the right fork and for the pottery village take the left fork along the water. There are several pottery outfits operating in the area, but we found the easiest to reach on your own was right at the end of that road, about a kilometre from the fork.

The potters here have a reputation for being welcoming and friendly, which, we discovered on our visit, is well-deserved. They were very happy to offer us a seat so we could watch as an old woman pounded up some clay into a long slug and then coiled it into a pot shape atop a stone kick wheel mounted on the ground. Then another woman started kicking the wheel, the old woman threw some water on it, stuck her hands in, and like magic, a perfectly-formed pot emerged, identical to the stack of unfired pots that sat drying in the sun. The huge, old kiln in the back was half-filled with unfired goods — they only light it up once a month so count yourself lucky if you get there on a firing day.

There are also a number of fired goods for sale that they keep on site rather than unloading them on retailers in town. Of course they want you to buy something, and as there's no admission we just bought one of the clay whistles and paid too much for it, as a thank you for the visit.

If you turn left just before this place and follow the road round, there's another pottery on the right. It's hard to miss and you will probably be accosted by the daughter on her bicycle before you get there anyway. It's not as impressive as the other joint but they have a wider range of goods on offer. That visit cost us more than just a whistle.