New Year 2013

I spent all last week in Saigon celebrating the lunar new year - known as Tet in Vietnam - with Diep and Megan.  We had a pretty good time and I took lots of photos.  Diep definitely stayed busier that I did traveling back and forth from Saigon proper to her family's house in 12th District.

I did go to visit some of Diep's relatives, two of her closest aunts and uncles, but mostly just relaxed in and around the hotel.  We stayed in a small hotel in the area of the Ben Thanh Market, so there was always something to do nearby.  Next to visiting the family, the two most interesting things I did was walk into Cho Lon (Chinatown) and visited Tet Flower Street.

Chinatown is a pretty interesting place that still has buildings that date back to the early 1900s. I guess I appreciated the huge trees that lined some of the main thoroughfares through the area the most.  They appear to all be at least 100 years old, towering about 120 feet into the air.  I like trees a lot, and especially old trees. They have a special place in my heart because they are so often the memory markers for our witnesses who remember the old trees where they buried our mssing soldiers.  If only the trees could talk, I am sure they could tell some fascinating stories, especially in Chinatown.  I also, quite by chance, came upon a Chinese Temple dedicated to the deity Thien Hau.  Apparently Thien Hau is the Chinese deity who watches over and protects sailors and passengers at sea.  The two things that struck me most about the Thien Hau Temple was the fragrant incense the worshippers were burning in abundance and the beautfiul and very old porcelain statues in these very elaborate dioramas located both in and out of the temple.

Saigon has organized flower displays on Nguyen Hue Street for ten years now.  The displays are elaborate and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous.  I enjoyed watching the young girls in their traditional dress - the ao dai - pose alongside the beautiful flowers, as if to compare their beauty with that of the flowers.  The flower displays remained up for the four days of Tet and seemed to be just as fresh on the last day as the first.  That in itself was quite a feat comsidering the temperatures soared into the high 90s the whole time I was there.  I even broke down and bought a hat, partly because Diep was badgering me to get one and partly because the sun was just that extreme. 

All in all, it was a good trip, though I never feel that relaxed after returning from a trip with the family.   The saving grace of the whole holiday was I got President's Day off on Monday. That extra day made all the difference in how I felt coming back to work.

Though I haven't labeled them yet, my photos of my trip to Saigon can be viewed at the following address:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117376873662186980648/Tet2013InSaigon916Feb2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink