CHUC MUNG NAM MOI!!!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Chuc Mung Nam Moi means Happy New Year in Vietnamese!

Today is Tet, which is the Vietnamese New Year, and welcomes in the year of the tiger. It is the lunar new year and marks the first day of spring. Tet is celebrated for 3 days and is the most celebrated holiday in Vietnam. It's like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and birthdays all rolled into one huge holiday. It came from China and has many similarity's to the Chinese new year. Tet takes place every year sometime between January 21 and February 19 on the first night of the first moon after the sun enters Aquarius. The celebration begins a couple weeks before when people paint and deep clean their houses as well as buy new clothes to get rid of any bad fortune from the previous year. This was really obvious in Hoi An where I saw people out everyday repainting houses and gates all over the city and stores were seen taking displays apart and deep cleaning everything. It is also custom to pay back any debts and try to resolve any differences. People return to their families to celebrate and also visit graves of loved ones to invite their spirit to the home for Tet. Children are given money by their elders. They believe that what they do and how they act on new year's day will determine their luck and fortune for the year to come. People decorate their homes with flowers, miniature orange trees or peach trees and branches with yellow flowers....cards and lights are hung on them like Christmas trees. Everyone visits friends and family and it is believed at the first visitor of the new year can bring either good luck or bad luck with them...you never show up uninvited to someone's home on new years day and first guests are chosen carefully.

Last night in Hue things started to shut down...stores and restaurants closed and there was a huge fireworks show at midnight by the river. I flew to Hanoi this morning and this normally crazy city of 7 million people was a ghost town... hardly anyone on the roads and all the shops and restaurants were closed up tight! My hotel scared me a little by telling me that everything would be closed for 3 days and no restaurants would be open at all. I knew I would be here during Tet but kinda assumed that it was a one day shut down, like our Christmas, and everything would be business as usual tomorrow...I planned for 3 days here to see all the sights and take a day tour out of town but it turns out I now have 3 days in a closed down city. All the tourist sights are closed and no tours will run until the day I leave. Poor planning on my part...and unfortunately, being in Northern Vietnam, the weather is way cooler with average daytime temperatures only in the mid-teens...I can't even sun myself. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have planned to spend Tet in Hoi An. Anyway, after watching 2 movies on HBO my growling stomach and low blood sugar finally forced me to venture out from the hotel this afternoon to forage for anything at all to eat and I discovered it isn't as bad as I was told. Most things are closed, but quite a few people were out and about. Lots of family's are out taking photos by the lake and I'm estimating about 5% of everything is open, which isn't lots, but enough to find a handful of good restaurants and cafes to eat and hang out in...I was so relieved! I am staying in the old historic center of town that surrounds a really beautiful lake. It's nice to enjoy it at it's least chaotic! There was definitely a festive atmosphere in the air today with people selling balloons, popcorn and cotton candy and little kids running around in their Sunday best with their family's by the lake. I am predicting more and more things will open over the next couple days, probably not any of the sights, but I still have a full day here next week after my Sapa trek so I can pack them in then. I will take it as forced relaxation! I found a movie theatre nearby that shows current Hollywood movies so I will try to catch a flick tomorrow I think...they have the 3D Avatar that I hear is so good.

PRETTY VIEWS OF HOAN KIEM LAKE

I had a good last day in Hue yesterday. I went on a tour of the Demilitarized zone with my guide Bill! He is a Vietnam war veteran and worked as a translator with the US military from 1966-1973. He was right out of university, in his early 20's and lucky enough to very well educated so wasn't sent to the front lines to be killed...he said that involved lots of convincing on his part as well to convince the US military that he was of benefit to them and it would be a waste to send him into the fighting. He was very funny and full of stories. It was great to hear first hand accounts from someone who lived it. He took me all over the area showing me everything from cemeteries to bombed out churches with shells still cemented in the ground. He even stopped at a cafe along the way and insisted we do a shot of whiskey in celebration of the new year...at 9am....ha ha, funny though. We went to another set of underground tunnels called the Vinh Moc tunnels and they were far superior to the Cu Chi ones...these were WAY less touristy, in fact, we were the only one's there and all of the tunnels are still intact and quite extensive. You are free to roam them freely. Bill brought a flashlight, thank god, and we spent about 15 minutes exploring them...some went 3 stories down and 30 meters deep! There were lots of rooms, water wells, and stairs....they were larger than the Cu Chi tunnels, so not as claustrophobic, and lots of fun. During the war 60 families lived here and 17 babies were born during their use...they did their job as not a single villager lost their lives and the only bomb that hit the tunnels didn't kill anyone and ended up making for an excellent ventilation shaft!

ME AND BILL