New Year's Eve

Sunday, January 22, 2012
Posted by TwoLively

We're back in My Tho. The internet is slightly better here...although we're having problems loading pictures. We are heading to The Travel Agent's family's house, where her family will teach us how to make some New Year's Vietnamese food. Then, we stay up until midnight to welcome in the New Year...complete with fireworks, etc.

LATER:
Today was "Tet"-Eve (does that holiday exist?), the Lunar New Year's Eve. We loaded into a taxi, and headed 8-miles down the road to The Travel Agent's hometown. Our taxi had a flip-down TV, and the taxi driver watched an opera-like musical as we drove. He kept turning it up louder...and louder...and louder! He corroborated my theory that horns are an integral component to driving. As he drove, he honked his horn non-stop--which made sense, and we understood when the road was thick with scooters. However, we all noticed that he would randomly honk the horn when the road became empty, without a car in sight, too. So as we drove it was: Honk! Turn up TV! Honk! Turn up TV! There were no air-conditioning vents in the back of the mini van, so Glinda thoughtfully cracked her window so we wouldn't pass out from heat exhaustion. The driver noticed that, and quickly zipped the windows up AND put the parental safety lock on, so we couldn't unroll it again!

Driver watching TV ... Dumped at side of road

After about twenty minutes, the driver pulled over to the side of the road, and motioned for us to get out of the cab. We were in front of some sort of watering hole, and a group of men came out to the front porch to stare at us. We stood for about five minutes, and had no idea what was going on! Suddenly, we saw a woman marching toward us. I thought, "Here comes the neighborhood busy-body." She waved her arms, and we started to follow her. I thought that maybe she felt pity on us, and was taking us to her shop. I wondered aloud if we should be following her (I thought we were headed to her restaurant--and then how do we politely explain thanks-but-no-thanks, we needed to leave?) MarcoPolo, my husband, answered that I should chill out; we weren't going on a death march. But who really knew? It turned out that this woman was our sister-in-law, The Travel Agent's Aunt (Monte didn't recognize her...busted!), and she was showing us the way to a side road. As we walked down the side road, a man, woman, and child on the scooter came toward us. To our surprise, it was The Travel Agent, Brother, and our little nephew (a natural-born scooter rider!)

We stopped at The Travel Agent's Grandmas home, where Grandma, Aunties, Mom, and The Travel Agent were preparing traditional Tet/Lunar New Years food: Bánh tét (mung beans/pork fat filling) and Bánh tét chuối (banana filling) These fillings are inside a layer of sweet rice, which is then wrapped in banana leaves, tied with a series of intricate knots, then steamed for 10 hours.
After discovering we don't have the knot-tying knack, we took a walk down the road to the family's farm land. The Travel Agent's Uncle owns most of the land; Brother and Sister farm a smaller section, while other sections are rented out. On their land they grow coconuts, star fruit, bananas...but their primary crop is pennywort. It's a quick-growing, versatile plant that can be juiced into a drink, added to stir-fry, etc.

Walking...Uncle's bathroom (poop drops down and feeds fish)...coconuts
Pennywort...TwoLively tastes Pennywort...ducks
Rabbit hutch...pennywort field...house

In Vietnam, it is common to bury your ancestors on your land. Here are some photos of the family's graves:

Ancestor's graves

The Grandma's yard is very beautiful. An Aunt & Uncle live with her, and Uncle does the gardening. He certainly has a green-thumb, and his bonsai trees were amazing!

Grandma's beautiful yard ... Water pots to catch rain

Back at the house, The Travel Agent broke out chocolate: M&Ms, Reeces Peanutbutter Cups, Hershey's Kisses--a heavenly taste of home! We also snacked on dried fruits, and candied roses, too.

Chocolate...Candied Roses

Then, some of us succumbed to the afternoon heat, and kicked back for an afternoon siesta.

Sleeping Beauties...

For dinner, The Travel Agent's Mom made us Pho. It was absolutely delicious--we LOVE her cooking! (We did not take pictures because we were to engrossed with devouring it!) Brother made some spicy shellfish. The Grandma's house has a secondary kitchen that is off the main kitchen, and it has wood fueled stoves. 

Wood-fueled stoves...pork and egg for tomorrow's dinner...shellfish

After dinner, an Uncle drove us to their church. Their priest is a famous singer, and he's built a very nice, modern church. For New Years, it's decorated with tons of lights.

When we returned to the house, an Aunt paid tribute to deceased relatives: their father, and his father. She lit incense for each one, then bowed to their photograph, and placed the incense next to the photo. Our little nephew copied what she did. The family is Catholic--but they have cultural Buddist traditons.

Auntie and Nephew pay their respects

At Grandma's house, the porch wraps around the front and side of the house and is pretty much an extension of the home itself. The two front doors and multiple side and back doors remain open during the day to allow air to circulate. As we were visiting in the living room, Tootsie noticed something big, black, and fuzzy fly in the side door, through the house, and out one of the front doors. She was still processing this when she looked at MarcoPolo and said "Was that a bat!?" Marco gave an immediate, "Yes, I think that was a bat." which was followed by Tootsie exclaiming: "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!..... No LITERALLY, shut the front door...and the side door....and the back door.....!!"

For the evening's entertainment, Oz wowed the crowd with a few card tricks. Then, we played Bingo with some of the Aunties and a teenage cousin. Tootsie kept on winning--but the last round was Blackout, and MarcoPolo won. Then, we played another traditional New Years game, where you place your bets on different characters, roll several dice, and the winner doubles their bet.  

We had a hard time staying awake (even with our afternoon naps!) so around 11:00 PM, Uncle drove us back to our hotel. On the way home, we passed an area a few blocks from our hotel where masses of people were gathered to party. We caught our second wind, and by the time we got to our hotel, it was close to midnight. We stood out on the balcony of our 6th floor hotel, and watched 3--possibly 4--fireworks shows. The fireworks were very impressive; so many fireworks going off simultaneously.