Chinese New Year

We survived Chinese New Year in China! This was the loudest, longest holiday I have ever participated in. The Chinese celebrate this holiday by spending a lot of time with family, eating tons of food, and fireworks.

The holiday is celebrated for two weeks in China. This means that most people get two weeks off work to travel to their hometown to visit family. This also meant that most grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. were closed. So we had to stock up on a lot of food before the holiday started.

 To celebrate the actual night of the Chinese New Year the Chinese will eat dinner with the husbands’ family. They also spend the next day with his family, but after those two days they can visit the wife’s family or go on vacation.

Dinner is a big deal for the Chinese. My friends and their moms spent days cooking special dishes. They all ate fish, which signifies prosperity. They only ate half of the fish because if you eat the whole thing it means that there isn’t enough to go around and the next year will not be bountiful. They also serve a lot of other dishes that sound similar to the words lucky, prosperity, etc. When each dish is placed on the table people will often cheer with joy and appreciation.

After dinner, people will visit and children are given red envelopes filled with money. People will then spend the next few days watching a telethon of performances by famous actors, singers, etc. that is sponsored by the government.

When visiting family and friends it is customary to take mandarin oranges as a gift and in return they give some back to you. The oranges signify wealth and good will.

The Chinese New Year decorations were beautiful! The people put red banners on the outside and tops of their doorways. These banners have lucky sayings on them and keep bad luck and evil spirits away. These banners will stay up all year. Stores, light poles, bridges and even personal residences put up red lanterns that were lit at night.

We went to the Xi’an city wall to see a  display of lanterns. They were beautiful. A lot of children were carrying lanterns as they walked along the wall.

Fireworks were constantly going off for the two weeks of Chinese New Year. When I say constant, I mean they started daily at 6 am and would go off all hours of the day until 2 am most nights. While some fireworks fly into the sky like American fireworks, many of the fireworks here are like our firecrackers. Loud!

The last night of the festival, people gathered in local parks to light of fireworks, firecrackers and lit off floating lanterns. It was a spectacular sight.

Xi'an city wall

View of Xi'an from the city wall

Floating lanterns

Vietnam

Vietnam had never been on my radar to visit, but it looked interesting and was affordable to go so we decided to go We visited Ho Chi Minh, formerly known as Saigon. The name of the city was changed at the Vietnam War and was named after the general of North Vietnam when the Vietnam War broke out.

The city itself was beautiful, busy, colorful and friendly.  

Ho Chi Minh sits along the Mekong River delta and the Saigon river. The river was beautiful and calming. The city has 9 million people and I am not joking when I say at least half ride motor scooters. There were tons of traffic jams filled with scooters.

We loved the food there. Even daughter #2 who only eats bread, bananas and rice after her obligatory 5 bites of dinner loved the food. We could eat fresh coconuts, mangos and seafood cheaply by US standards. 

While in Vietnam we went to the Reunification Palace, say the post office and Cathedral of Notre Dame. We also went fishing and took a day tour on the Mekong River. The day started with a two hour bus ride through rice fields. We then got to the Mekong River and took a boat to a bee farm and had amazing honey tea, local fruits like wax and water apples and listened to local music. We then took a boat ride through some canals. We took another motor boat to another island and got on a horse (we'd call it a pony in Idaho) cart and ate lunch. After lunch we took another boat down another canal and saw a live crocodile. Oldest child now claims that we survived a crocodile attack although it didn't move when we passed by. We then went back to our hotel, exhausted and ready to sleep. 

I really liked Vietnam. The people were so nice. Many came up to me and said they thought it was cool that we had three girls.  The food was delicious as well.

Water apple

You can kind of see on the bottom that this

man is carrying a live chicken attached to his 

scooter.

Rice field and graves. It is common for 

people to be buried on their land.

Horse cart.

Buddhist temple

Ayutthaya, Thailand

Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 AD and became the capital of the second kingdom of Siam by a king who went to the city to escape a smallpox outbreak in the city Lop Buri. The city was a large city, estimated to have 1 million people by the year 1700 and was a trade hub in southeast Asia. In 1767, the city and kingdom were destroyed by the Burmese.
People fled the city and formed Bangkok as the capital. Today, the Aytthaya ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.

Thailand

It has been a dream of mine to visit Thailand. The beauty and culture of the country intrigues me.
Buddhism is the dominant religion and influential in every day life. 95% of the population is Buddhist and signs around Bangkok said "for King, country and religion".  Many people and businesses installed spirit houses, miniature houses where they believe the spirits of the deceased live. The people offer food and drink every day to these spirits to keep them happy.
To greet a person you put your hands together and in front of your mouth and slightly bow while saying: "sawat di khu" if you are a woman and "sawat di khap" if you are a man.
Most boys will enter monkhood once in their lifetime to learn Buddhist teachings and to practice abstinence. They would usually enter the monkhood for three months. Prior to entering monkhood the boy is escorted by a procession of family and friends to the temple where his head is shaved. I took this video of a monk ceremony at a cultural show.
Sword fighting has been important in fighting wars. We learned that men and women were expert swordsman and fought side by side in battle.
A Thai wedding starts at sunrise where the groom and his friends and family parade to the brides family. The procession bears gifts and dowry which is usually gold. At the brides house the groom must pass gates of chains set up by her relatives to gain access to their house. Once there, the elders discuss the dowry with the brides family and the gifts are brought. The wedding ceremony is simple with the bride and groom bound by a simple, light thread which is placed on the heads of the couple. Then all of their relatives and friends bless their union by pouring holy water over their hands.

Wat Arun

Wat Arun is a Buddhist temple on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. It is the temple of the god Arun, who is personified by the rising sun.
The temple is 282 feet tall and is covered withe porcelain and seashells.
The temple was being restored so we didn't get the full scope of it's beauty, but the craftsmanship was beautiful.

Wat Pho, Bangkok, Thailand

Wat Pho, better known as the Temple of the reclining Buddha is a temple complex in Bangkok, close to the Grand Palace.
The temple was first built by King Rama I in 1788 and expanded by his grandson Rama III. Rama I had many Buddha images from delapidated temples throughout Thailand brought to the complex where they have been preserved and are on display. The temple complex has 1,000 Buddhas and is home of one of the largest Buddhas, the reclining Buddha which is 150 feet tall.

Floating Market, Bangkok, Thailand

I love going to local markets. I love the business, the sound of deals being struck, the smell of local foods and looking through the many goods for sale.
The floating market two hours outside of Bangkok was not a disappointment. We hired a boat to drive us along the many canals.
We tried some amazing food which included: coconut pancakes, mango with rice and cream, coconut ice cream, egg rolls and pad thai.
If we found something we wanted to buy the boat captain took us over to the side where we would sit in the boat and haggle a price.

Small family Buddhist shrine.

This lady made and sold coconut pancakes

from her boat. They were delicious!

We passed many salt fields like this on the 

way to the floating market.