LUNAR NEW YEAR IN VIETNAM
This year we celebrated Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year to countries in Asia that are not China) in Vietnam. Vietnamese call it Tết. This year it is not the year of the rabbit like in China. It is the year of the cat!
Year of the Cat
It was so much fun to experience this with our diaspora of Shanghai friends. As always, we are up for adventure exploring Vietnam. As we walked around, I saw so many pictures depicting a cat zodiac. I found out the reason why the Vietnamese have a cat in their zodiac calendar versus rabbit. The cat is much more important animal to Vietnamese farmers, and they are relied on to help take care of the harvest.
Photos always
Our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City (by the way it was once called Saigon) encouraged us to borrow these traditional cone hats. They are called Nón Lá. This hat is quite possibly the best iconic travel photo prop ever. So we took a walk looking around looking at the gorgeous architecture and drink delicious cà phê đá (vietnamese ice coffee). You can see in several traces of Ho Chi Minh and communism throughout the city. His statue is proudly in the square. Flags are all red with either a star or sickle.
We fell in love with Ho Chi Minh’s food, drink and scenery!
