Chúc Mừng Năm Mới
Our arrival in Vietnam was perfectly timed for Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Tet (see link). Even after repeatedly receiving advice to avoid Vietnam during Tet, we managed to arrive two days before the country’s biggest annual celebration. You might be thinking to yourself - everyone loves parties, why would people recommend missing a country-wide party? One simple answer, NOTHING IS OPEN DURING TET!
Discovering our misjudgement and error in timing, we frantically tried to book flights and hotels to the prime sun spots - such as the beautiful beaches, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc. However, all flights were booked and all hotels were booked.
Tet is a very special time of year in Vietnam. In brief, it is the celebration of the Lunar New Year – this year, it was the year of the Dragon. The locals leave the big cities and go home to relax with family and friends to carry on traditions and bring/attract ‘luck’ for New Year. With everyone hanging out with their families, all stores, businesses and services are closed. However, Tet isn’t for one day, it is a week long celebration… therefore, instead of soaking the rays of Nha Trang, we ended up in a “beach” town call Vung Tau for 6 days before our Yoga Teacher Training.
Vung Tau is to Nha Trang, as Edmonton is to Calgary, Albany is to New York or Brisbane is to Sydney. The City of Champions is not a city at all, Albany is not New York and Brisbane does not know fashion – Vung Tau is NOT a beach town. Louisa and I found a great hotel on the port side of Vang Tau – great sunsets. However, on the other side of town, the “beach” side, it was a completely different story. Only pictures can describe the chaos and craziness this beach experiences during Tet – thousands of Vietnamese, fully clothed, frolicking in the dirtiest oil polluted water reminiscent of the BP oil spill.
Despite our misjudgement and lack of planning, Tet was an amazing experience. Vung Tau showed us the local experiences that we would not have seen if we were in the touristy areas. The most amazing thing we saw was locals stopping in the middle of a crazy busy highway at midnight to give money to an elderly homeless man – this wasn’t only for their own luck, but to give wealth and prosperity to him, as it's said that the first thing you do in the New Year is what you will be doing for the next 365 days. We followed suit and ran after him to give him money ourselves as our first deed of the New Year with hope that we will cultivate more generosity towards everyone around us.
In true Tet fashion, Louisa and I decided to start fresh for the New Year and put the past behind us… some of us were more drastic then others ;)
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! (Happy New Year!)
PS. This is the song we still find ourselves singing daily – sooooo good, but sooooo bad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxlQ8kodBU
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