Tet holidays - Buffalo year

The week before Tet I was really unsure what to do with the time off (which had suddenly expanded because of a decision to close ILA Vung Tau centre a day earlier). Most of the teachers seemed to be leaving Vietnam and the general advice from most who had been here for more than 12 months was to go out of the country. Well, I thought it through as an option but I didn't really want to spend half the time travelling. The dilemma was more whether I would find myself stranded or alone because most businesses close and people travel back to their hometowns - which for a larger proportion of Vietnamese people is the countryside.

Bao had suggested that I come to HCM city. I liked the idea but I still had the same concerns - amplified by being in a hotel rather than at home. In the end though I was persuaded by Bao and Thanh assuring me that they had very few commitments over the holidays. Rather that for them like all Vietnamese the ideal Tet holiday is to have fun and relax.

So I gave up the concerns and instead planned a trip to HCM city. And it has been a fantastic time for me thanks to the generosity of these friends, and Bao's family.

I arrived in HCM city around midday on Friday (3rd last day of the Rat Year) by boat and was straight away whisked away by Bao to have lunch at his family's home in Binh Thanh district. His niece and nephew were particularly excited to see me and spent this and every subsequent visit testing my knowledge of English! They would ask me what something/a colour was. If I got it right they would tell me!! That afternoon Bao and I went shopping for sandals, then met up with Thanh for dinner. Later joined by Hiep (Bao's friend) for coffee.

The next morning Bao was busy with an old friend so Thanh and I took pho for breakfast then walked through the flower market and around the city centre before lunch. In the afternoon Bao and I had our first viewing of the flower show in Nguyen Hue street. That night I was able to catch up with Sharon and Irene, as well as 2 of Sharon's colleagues from the Vietnam Idol production, for dinner. This was their 2nd last night in Vietnam before Sharon returned to Singapore.

Sunday morning brought another invitation to lunch with Bao's family. Because it was the last day of the old year we had a number of special dishes, all delicious. Rest in the afternoon in preparation for a very late night then off to Nguyen Hue street again for the flowers and fireworks. Afterwards Bao, Hiep and I went for huu tieu in Cong Quynh street (at about 1.30am) along with many many other revellers, before crashing at the hotel.

The special event for first day of the Buffalo Year was to accompany Bao and his family to 6 different pagodas around HCM city. There aim is to visit 10 pagodas during Tet. This is also one of the days in the year when they all eat vegetarian food. So the day was spent partly tootling around the city on the back of motor bikes and partly visiting and praying at the pagodas. We started at 2 pagodas close to home but progressively roamed further afield. Here is a selection of photos from the day.













The last pagoda for the day was also the poorest one we visited - one monk with a great sense of humour. One of his stories was about the impracticality of some people. He regularly visits disadvantaged communities in the countryside, and had managed to secure the interest of a celebrity and a TV station in helping a community of blind people. But their proposal was to donate a whole lot of televisions!

On Tuesday (second day) Bao, Thanh and I headed off to Dam Sen water park for some wet fun on the slides. There were some truly scary ones and I have the bumps and bruises to attest for how fast and exciting they were!

On Wednesday (third day) we made a day trip by motor bike to David's home town of My Tho. Here we hired a boat and went out on the Mekong to visit some islands, taste the honey and the fruit, see the coconut candy factory and have lunch. We also got to visit Phoenix Island, which had been the home of a monk known as the Coconut Monk, and who started a sect with a vision for world peace. When David and I did a similar tour 10 years ago Phoenix Island couldn't be visited but there is now a hotel there, as well as an exhibition of photos about the life of the Coconut Monk.

I've included a photo of a bridge that the Sydney-siders reading this blog may think is closer to home! This is the new bridge connecting My Tho and Tien Giang province with Ben Tre province. Yes, it does look like the Anzac Bridge because like a number of bridges in south Vietnam it has been built to the same design. This one has only just opened and is a tourist destination in its own right as we discovered later in the day.

On Thursday I took a minibus back to Vung Tau, the first time that I've used this form of transport between VT and HCM City. It's a lot cheaper and not much slower when you factor out the time you have to wait for a bus load of people to gather (and the time spent establishing precedence in boarding - possible only because tickets are numbered as they are sold each day. There is no such thing as a queue in Vietnam.)