Tet a Tete

Chuc mung nam moi! (Happy New Year!)

Upon our return from Cambodia on Saturday, we were greeted by a festive Hanoian atmosphere and some serious price gouging by airport taxis.  Like double what should have been charged.  To the extent that Kyle was asking for names and procuring evidence of fraudulence while loudly threatening to complain to a higher power.  But we swiftly put this negativity behind us and set out Sunday morning-ish for the Museum of Ethnology, which was holding a Tet celebration with traditional games and ethnic minority food.

Solid effort, Kyle.

The point is to try to swing as high as possible. It's traditionally done by a couple as a means to get to know one another while being chaperoned by the whole community.

These American guys really showed what's what.

This kid scored the only hole-in-one I witnessed. Kyle and I both sucked. :/

Making rice flour flowers.

This kid kicked ass at "stick-butting," an inverse of tug-o-war where you try to push the other person out of the circle.

Calligraphy.

Ink blocks. Kyle got one of a baby with a lobster because he says it's adorable...I'm still not convinced.

We didn't actually make it inside the building, which means I've been to the Museum three times, including volunteering, and still haven't managed to catch a single glimpse of their renowned exhibits.  But the museum grounds are filled with reproductions of ethnic houses from various groups, furnished with traditional housewares, at which mouth-watering snacks awaited us.  There were tonnnns of people there, so the pictures of the houses are generally from a week before when I went exploring one day after volunteering.

This one's my favorite. It's got its own aqueduct--swanky.

Entrance into the long house, over one hundred feet long. Yes, I used the right ladder, but I was very careful about my hand placement. ;)

Tall communal house.

This house was huge! Climbing twenty feet up the rustic ladder was fine, but figuring out how to make my way back down proved a bit trickier. I waited to watch how someone else fared then followed in suit when they made it safely down.

Parental discretion advised. This is an ethnic minority tomb. The sexual scenes aren't pornographic but rather represent the cycle of life.

These tombs also have carved weeping statues. This people comes from central Vietnam and have been highly influenced by Indonesia.

Stilt house, where the best food was served. :)

No food yet, but Kyle and I are enjoying our chopstick party.

Awesome! (Sorry, my vegetarian friends, but this smelled gooood.)

Delicious sausage. It went superbly with purple sticky rice.

The Ethnology Museum is one of the few places in Hanoi where you can take in a water puppet show.  We were fortunate enough to catch one today.  My favorites were the Dragons and Wizard Afraid of Ghost.  Check it out.

Dragons!

Monday morning was still a holiday, according to the U.S. embassy, so in continuance of our Tet-cation Kyle, Roman and I visited a supposedly haunted battlefield, now in the middle of Hanoi, on the anniversary of Vietnam's defeat of a Chinese army.  Alas, there were no Chinese ghosts in sight, but thousands of people in their Tet best came out to watch parades and dances, to eat sweets and snacks, and to buy balloons and rice flour figures.  I received a lovely purple rose molded from rice flour that has proceeded to harden to concrete.

The Vietnamese general who defeated the Chinese. He looks pretty hardcore.

Baby-sized balloons.

Rice flour figures! There were flowers, dragons and Power-Ranger-looking ninjas.

We finished up the day by visiting a nearby dinh (communal house) and pagoda to take part in some traditional ancestor worship and Buddhist ritual.  Burning fake money and papers with coins printed on them while thinking of your ancestors aids their prosperity in heaven and, hopefully, yours on Earth.  You then burn incense (in odd numbers and NEVER in fours, since that's the number of DEATH) and place the sticks in the incense holder before the pagoda entrance and at the stupas (small structures usually containing the remains of important Buddhist monks) while praying.

Burning fake money.

The stupas on which you place your incense...mine almost refused to light, but I managed to take part after some fire finagling.

It's been wonderful to see all of Hanoi in such high spirits with everyone smiling in their "Sunday best."  I'm very grateful I've been in Vietnam during the Tet season and have been able to have two New Years this time around.  Surely that's providential for next year.  So far my resolution of being stalwart and fearless in 2011 has been upheld more often than not.  Buddha willing, I'll keep it up. :)