February 6, 2008written by: Brian
Chinese New Year and the Tet
Chinese New Year or Tet (as it is called in Vietnam) is celebrated between January 19 and February 20 each year depending on the lunar cycle. We were lucky enough on our trip to be with Susan's family during this exciting festival. We have experienced many festivals in many countries but as we came to find out, we had yet to experience anything like Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year (Tet) can be easily described as, every holiday in America wrapped into ONE. It is Christmas, New Years, Valentines day, Easter, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving all at once. All the businesses attempt to finish their orders and work by the last few days leading up to New Years Eve. New Year is a time of New beginnings and time spent with the family. All the family members make a pilgrimage home to spend the week with their families.
There are lots of flowers, just like Valentines day. People purchase trees called Cay Neu trees that have yellow flowers on them to ward off the evil sprits. The house we are staying in spent 3,000 USD on their tree and each year a nursery comes and gets the potted tree after the New Year and cares for the tree until the following year, so I guess it is an investment, especially considering all those evil sprits that are after you. One of the funny things to note is that the trees and flowers that you bring into your house cannot bloom until New Years Eve and New Years day or it is considered bad luck. So the plants are deprived of water just enough so that there blooming holds off, then you spray the hell out of them come New Years morning so by the afternoon you have a fully bloomed tree. I would not have believed it unless I had seen it. We now have a beautifully bloomed tree in the entry way to the house that started blooming today. Guess it is going to be a lucky year.
The New Year is also a time to pay respect to the dead and to Buddha. People put food out every morning so the spirits have a chance to eat. They also hang 8x11 red sheets of paper with Chinese writing on them so that it will guide the spirits to the food and house. We had to wait a few hours before we were allowed to eat our afternoon meal as they believed the food needed to be eaten by the spirits first and then we got the leftovers. They were the best Chinese leftovers I ever had. We had rice, chicken, roasted pork, sweet and sour pork (my favorite), mushroom soup and noodles. It was a great meal.
The Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycle compared to our Gregorian calendar that follows the sun. The two calendars are very similar as they account for the seasons and were created for agricultural reasons. There are 12 zodiac animals in the Chinese culture, each one representing a year in a 12-year cycle. This year happens to be the Year of the RAT. To check your zodiac animal click here (My Zodiac Sign) http://www.rainfall.com/horoscop/chinese.htm
Now I did some thinking and reading, then some more reading and thinking. The correct translation for this New Year is the Year of the RAT or MOUSE as it can be described either way. Now I know it would make a big difference to me whether I was a rat or a mouse, but then again I am a tiger so it doesn't really matter but I was still thinking about it. I mean a rat is smelly, dirty and likes garbage. A mouse at least likes to eat cheese. Well Vietnam has changed the year of the rat into the year of the mouse. You know those painted cows that traveled around the country in the USA well they have cute, plump painted mice here. And for the Year of the Mouse, what company do you think capitalized and marketed the Chinese New Year to their advantage? That’s right folks, downtown is the year of the Mickey Mouse. Disney didn't miss an opportunity here. The mall downtown is decked out with Mickey and Minnie dressed in their finest Vietnamese clothing and wishing you a Chuc Mung Nam Moi ! ! (happy new year in Vietnamese)
Downtown the streets are blocked off and sparkling lights are everywhere. A huge stage was also constructed in the middle of the street for concerts. If you had any doubt that this was a big celebration it would soon diminish after partaking in the festivities downtown.
At midnight on New Years Eve there were plenty of fireworks to see. We sat up on Susan's cousins roof top and watched the display around us. I have to admit that the fireworks were some of the best I had seen. They were making all sorts of designs as they shot into the air. We saw hearts, flowers , and even rainbows. It was a pretty spectacular performance. When the fireworks were finished it was time to head off to the temple, kind of like a midnight mass.
Susan and I got on a moped and headed of with her cousin and his friend to the temple to watch him pay respects to Buddha and pray for luck in the new year. We were herded through a large crowd and into a 200 year old temple. We followed her cousin to three different areas in the temple to watch him pay his respects and then we headed back outside where it was time to purchase a 5 foot long incense stick. I am not sure the reasoning behind the incense stick but after lighting the incense stick and saying a few words in front of the temple, Susan and I were handed the large flaming sticks and told to hold on to them as we drove home. What’s funnier then a 6ft tall white guy at an all Asian wedding? How about a 5 ft 11 and ¾ white guy on the back of a moped, in a pink barbie helmet, carrying a 5 foot long flaming incense stick. Needless to say I got a few looks on the way home.
We awoke at 6:30 am New Years day, a little tired and crabby from the lack of sleep. We headed down stairs for a traditional breakfast which was vegetarian. Chinese do not believe in eating meat on the first day of the new year as it will ensure longevity of life. So we had a delicious vegetarian meal and headed over to the oldest Aunt’s house to watch the children wish everyone a Gung Hay Faut Choy, by doing so they receive little red envelopes with money in them that their parents store away for future use.
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A Day in VietnamFebruary 7, 2007Written by: Susan
Admittedly, we haven’t done very many tourist things here in Ho Chi Minh City given that we’ve been here for almost a month. We usually head into the city a few times a week and try to see at least one site. There’s not that much to see though in HCMC and we usually end up in some air-conditioned café surfing the web or reading. So on any typical day we take the bus from my cousin’s house into the city, which takes 20 minutes. The current exchange rate is 16,000 dong = $1US
Bus ride: 3,000 Dong per person – approx. 19 cents
We could take a taxi but that would cost at least 50,000 Dong ($3) and half the time we sit in the taxi watching the meter like a hawk and wondering if the taxi driver is going to give us courtesy tour of the city and take us on the “alternative” route because there is too much “traffic”. It happens all the time when we have to take a cab home at night. Frustrating but when you don’t speak the language and don't know where you’re going, they kind of got you. We realize though that it is taxi cabs worldwide that do this. What is it about taxi drivers that make them so dodgy?
On this particular day we were headed to the Reunification Palace, which is where the South Vietnamese President lived but is probably more infamous for the North Vietnamese tanks rolling in to claim their power at the end of the war. We had decided to eat lunch at this place that Lonely Planet had recommend that was a few blocks away from the palace. Unfortunately, the place was mislabeled and we ended up eating at a street stall café a few blocks away.
2 orders of Bun Bo Xao (rice noodles with sautéed beef)
2 iced teasTotal: 28,000 Dong or $1.75
We took our short walk to the Reunification Palace and found our missing restaurant. The location had been mislabeled in the guidebook. Bummed since it looked like a super tasty place, we decided to sit down for a drink since the Palace was closed for lunch. The day here works very much like a European day. Most people awaken early to start their day before the hot afternoon sun reaches its peak. Everybody goes home from noon – 2pm to eat lunch with the family and take a nap. Then everybody is back to work for the rest of the afternoon into the evening.
The restaurant was a bit pricey and we weren’t willing to pay $2 for a coffee when we could get the 50-cent tea. You know prices are going to be high when you go into a restaurant and the menu is priced in US dollars.
2 iced teas
1 order of spring rollsTotal: $2.50
Off to the Reunification Palace we went. To be quite honest, we weren’t that interested in seeing the palace but were starting to feel a bit guilty that we hadn’t seen much of historical Vietnam. So the palace was as interesting as a palace could be especially after seeing probably a dozen palaces on our trip. Big rooms, over the top furniture, although in this case it was in a very modern, 60’s style architecture that was probably very hip and forward in its heyday but really looked like a mansion fit for the Brady Bunch.
Reunification Palace entry: 15,000 dong each ($1.87)
Since it is so hot here in the middle of the afternoon, the only thing to possibly do was sit in a very cold air-conditioned café. We have been in HCMC so long now that we actually have a favorite. I’m not sure if that’s good or just plain scary. It’s called Highland’s Coffee and Vietnam’s answer to Starbucks.
2 Ca Phe Sua Da (iced coffee – French style – with condensed milk) – it’s super tasty and Brian says it taste like chocolate milk.
1 yogurt with fresh fruitFree wi-fiTotal: 87,000 dong ($5.45)
We must have sat in the café for a really long time because by the time we emerged we were as cold as icicles and it was time to eat dinner. Eating is one of the greatest and most stressful things about traveling. There are days when it’s exciting to try new things or to hunt for the little restaurant that only locals eat at and other days all you want is to go to a place where you know the menu, price, and what you’re gonna get. It was one of those latter days. Since we hadn’t been in the downtown area very much for meals, we didn’t know our way around the restaurants so we ended up at this Pho place right across from the café. The food was ok but we just weren’t in the mood to walk around the streets hunting for food.
2 bowls of Pho (noodle soup with beef)
1 order of spring rolls2 iced teasTotal: 87,000 dong ($5.45)
The tricky thing about restaurants in Vietnam is that they charge for everything. Literally everything. They’ll set napkins on your table (more like large moist towelettes) and if you use one, you pay for it. They’ll even set little treats in front of you that you think are complimentary. On the contrary, it’s just a tricky way to up your bill. At this particular place, they placed a plate of fried dough (kind of looks like churros) in front of us. We didn’t touch them but noticed all the other tourists who probably wouldn’t even look over their bill getting charged for these treats.
Actually, I’m going to go off on a little tangent now. This kind of stuff happens everywhere in Vietnam. For some reason, we haven’t seen this type of sneaky behavior anywhere on our trip. In Egypt, they were just plain aggressive, Thailand they were just plain jerks, here in Vietnam they’re tricky. I bought spring rolls from a street vendor and had put up 6 fingers and confirmed my order 3 times. You have to do that here or else somehow there is a “misunderstanding”. And we always try to pay with exact change when it comes to vendors because they don’t seem to like to part with the change or somehow think you owe them more. So I gave the lady 12,000 dong for 6 spring rolls. She holds up the bag that is tightly wrapped with a little bag of fish sauce and says but there are 7 in there. I know I asked for 6. So the question is do I engage in battle? Normally I would throw a fit. Just because of the principle and it just pisses me off when people look at tourists and deliberately try to get them to pay more for something. On this particular day though, I had no fight in me and reluctantly gave her an additional 2,000 and grudgingly walked away. I believe though that even if I had a contract signed by Ho Chi Minh himself stating that I only ordered 6 spring rolls, somehow I’d have still gotten that 7th spring roll.
Back to our day in Vietnam. Since we were days away from the Lunar New Year, there were tons of street vendors out in full force selling new clothes, toys, food, and basically a bunch of crap to locals and tourists alike near the Ben Thanh market. We walked around and it was cool to feel the excitement and buzz of the upcoming New Year. Of course we got suckered into buying some cute beaded purses for kids that costs us a $1 each. The deal started out at $2 and I didn’t even have the chance to ask them to bargain when it went down to a $1! I didn’t realize my ESP bargaining skills were so good.
Purses at the Ben Thanh market: $13
Since buses stop running at 8pm, we usually have to take the taxi home.
Taxi ride: 50,000 dong ($3)
This was a cheap taxi ride and he actually went the direct way. We have also taken 100,000 dong taxi rides but alas, that is the life of a traveler and tired after a long day, we just give in.
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