Day 4

6 am and the alarm clock is ringing. Time to get out of bed as today’s the 1st day of Chinese New Year and we’re going to Xuan’s family temple.

Since I’m here, my nose haven’t stop dripping and my cold is getting worst. Guess I’m starting to be known as the long red nose. =)

We go for breakfast at Mr. Lam’s house and all the family is there. On the 1st day of New Year, grown-ups offer money to children as there’s no celebrating birthdays. I’m no child but I’m a guest and everyone also offers me money, so I could experience everything. I don’t even know how much money I have in my hands but I seem the Monopoly lady...

Chicken noodle soup is in order and I see neck, liver and stomach chicken in my soup bowel... I tried... but I couldn’t eat it. I ate the noodles, the soybeans, the vegetables and the chicken leg and that’s it... all the other stuff stayed in the bowl looking at me!

We have a two hour and a half drive till the temple and in one car goes Mr. Truong’s family and in the Ribeiro’s car goes the Ribeiro family (Carlos, Xuan, Thach Thao and Phuc), me, Xuan’s mum, Xuan’s sister in law, Thoa, and her son, Xuan’s brother, Mr.Giang and his daughter – the car has 8 seats... got it?

Mr.Giang and his daughter

Anyway, the view is just amazing! Rice fields and rice fields, there’s green everywhere and we’re start entering Mekong Delta river! Vietnamese people believe in life after death so it’s really common to bring the dead to the place they loved the most. There are graves in the middle of rice fields or even in the garden of their houses.

We arrive to Xuan’s family temple and it’s a bright and airy place, with beautiful stones and colors.

Devoted people pray in front of the Buddha outside and to the King Buddha and son Buddha inside the temple.

This is a female monk temple, so there’s lots of shaved head females. They’re preparing the temple for the festivities and while this is happening, Xuan tells me the story of this temple.

It’s time for lunch and I’m feeling sicker than before. The smell of the vegetarian lunch is making me nauseated. I try to eat the soup but it’s too much so Xuan take’s me to her sister’s monk bed, a wooden one without mattress and with a pillow. I stay there and fall asleep, guess I had the siesta before lunch instead of after... anyway, when I wake up I’m felling much better and Thoa makes me milk with sugar as I have my stomach empty. It’s too hot and everyone is in the floor resting.

Around 3 pm we start hearing drums, when I go out there’s the dragon dance starting. Well, here they’re not called dragons but unicorns and there’s 2 of them, a red and a yellow. They’re dancing through the temple and around the Buddha outside, there’s also a monkey and a blue face kid. They jump and move and move and jump. Kids go next to the unicorn’s mouth to give money with the hope this year will be better than the one before.

The unicorn dance has finished and me, Xuan and Carlos go to visit another Xuan’s next of kind.

At his house he has an amazing garden with lots of fruit trees and flowers: banana palm trees, coconut trees and other fruits I don’t know the name.

This house is really next to the river and the view is beautiful!

They offer me a bread similar to pappadamus but made of rice and coconut water. It’s really good and I don’t want to stop eating!

Kids’ faces don’t stop amazing me and I don’t get tired of taking their pictures... I guess their eyes say everything...

For the first time I go and try coconut water and after there’s a guy who has snakes at home. Of course this guy is from Xuan’s family as well. Big family and so hard to keep with the names of everyone! =) these snakes seem like eels and it’s so gummy...

And like this the day goes by and we’re heading back to HCMC, we stop at Mr. Lam’s house and eat dinner, which means rice soup with crab, shrimps, mushrooms and vegetables. Too good! It really makes me want to learn how to cook and I hate to cook!

We arrive home around 7.30/8.00 pm and after taking some bomb pills for my cold I fall asleep as a baby in my bed but the day is not over until the fat lady sings... around midnight I wake up and manage to Skype with my parents. They had a surprise for me, my mum’s parents, were lunching with them and it was really nice to see both of them as I know how much they support my craziness and me. 80’s aren’t peanuts but my grandparents are rocknrollers! =)

Time to go back to bed... night night everyone!