Back from the Mekong Delta

Kane and I have been in Vietnam since Sunday morning now and we have done and seen so much and we both feel so tired. After walking around on Sunday and eating great food, we booked a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta. We saw a massive river system, with lots of arms and many boats and people who depend wholly on the river. We got to see coconut candy, rice paper, fruit orchards and many, many boats.It is TET here at the moment which means the Vietnamese are celebrating the Chinese New Year. They even hand out the same envelopes with money in them as in China. We saw a Chinese Dragon trying to scare bad spirits away yesterday. The actual CNY day was on Wednesday past, but Kane and I went to bed at about 10pm (we couldn't keep our eyes open), and I think I heard some fireworks go off at some stage. So with this being their big celebration, most shops are closed!!!!!!! Every second shop is open in our area which is better than other areas. It makes being a tourist frustrating though. So we've walked around for a few days and after getting quite bored with what is around we went on a walking city tour. We went to see a few statues, the old hotel (can't remember it's name), but you can't get in because it is Communist headquarters in Saigon and viewings are refused. We went to the Ho Chim Minh Museum which was also closed (a pattern happening here!) and then to the Independence Palace - closed! So we finally found the War Remnants Museum which was open.We were told this was quite graphic with descriptions of torture by US and South Viet troops during the war, but we found it not too bad - perhaps because we were warned. After that we were walking home and went past a big building that tourist were walking into. It was the Independence Palace. (The place we thought was the Palace was actually on the same grounds but the old Governors residence) So we did get to see the Palace. It was were the South Viet government were until liberation in April 1975. It is still very much like how the North found it when the South surrendered, with the same tables, chairs, telephones and many reception rooms. We got to see a helicopter and the basement where the war control rooms were.

Today we went to the Cu Chi tunnels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu_Chi_Tunnels) which were used during the war by VC troops for guerrilla warfare. Kane fit into the tunnel entrance which was 30cm wide by 15 or 20cm. I don't think my hips would have fit! I got a photo of him doing it though, (above is not Kane!) We saw many booby traps used by the VC and I thank god I didn't step on any of them - horrid! There was a 100m tunnel you could crawl through. It wasn't so bad at the beginning but by 40m I had to get out. The heat and stuffiness and crampedness really got to you. And these things were everywhere in the Central and Southern areas. They even opened up into rivers and US base camps. The War Remnants Museum we visited the other day wasn't really against the US, but this place was really against the US, plus our tour guide fought in the war. Did you know they gave out medals for killing many US troops, the medal is named as such!


Tomorrow we go to Siem Reap at 4.30pm and will spend 2-3 days at the temples at Ankor Wat.

I will post an email from my Chinese friend and mandarin tutor Qinqin that describes the Chinese New Year celebration back in Suzhou - I found it really interesting.

Dear All

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the Chinese New Year Eve, everyone traveled all the way back home to have a Spring festival feast, a family get-together, more accurate. Home is the whole idea for everything, where is home? For Chinese where your grandparents on your father's side are living or used to live is home.

In English, grandparents on both sides share the same word GRANDFATHERS, I'm not sure if there is any difference between these two sides in western culture. But in Chinese, grandparents on father's side are respectively called Ye Ye , Nai Nai While grandparents on mother's side are called Wai Gong for grandpa which literally means outsider male, Wai Po for grandma, guess what does it mean? Outsider female! Yes, I'm afraid the Chinese culture is male-centered. Grandparents on mother's side are considered as outsiders. Once a woman marries a man, she belongs to the man and the man's family, his parents becomes her parents immediately, she has to obey he and his parents. We have a saying in Chinese which says married daughter is like poured out water, you gave her away and you could never get her back. I remember very clearly when my cousin-in-law married to my oldest cousin, I had a meal with her parents, they told me that they would take care of their son-in-law's offspring to help the Huang family. I felt so sorry for hearing that. Marrying a girl means giving away part of the family's property while marrying a boy means gaining. I think it's the reason most of the Chinese still prefer having a boy to a girl. My father used to be sad at the fact that I'm a girl.

Back to our Chinese new year Eve feast, we used to live with my father's parents, so all the family members come to our place to eat. But as I can remember my Aunt and her family never come to my home on New Year's Eve. Since she's married, she has to go to her husband's parents' place together with all her off-springs. My American friends asked me what would be special for the feast, I can't think of anything. The feast used to be a big treat for everyone as we can eat everything which we are not allowed to eat during rest of the year since we were poor. So anything which is fatty would be put on table. But we do have some traditional food, in the northern part of China, dumpling is a must while in the Southern part Tang Yuan(soupy sticky rice ball with sesame or meat in the middle). Suzhou is in the south we eat the sticky rice thing since Yuan means Round in Chinese which stands for get-together, we eat them with the wishes that our family would always be together. These little balls come at the end of the meal as a kind of dessert. a sweet ending. The elders in the family give red evenlop with money in it to the kids. After the feast everyone goes back to their own home and watch this big annual TV gala. And we wait until 12 in the midnight to welcome the new year, when it's 12 o'clock, fireworks are sounded everywhere. We exchange words to wish each others in the family, the wishes are customized but you are not suppose to use any negative words like break, sweep, change which related to unstable or losing of property. My father is very strick with the words I use while my mum doesn't care that much. After that we wobble to sleep with the heavy stomach.

There are certain things you have to do after the New Year Eve feast when you are a child, I used to jump behind the bedroom door three times to get the help from out space power to grow taller, you have to do it secretly or it won't help. I think I didn't do it properly so I have to stand all the time trying to grow taller now. I used to put on new clothes and new shoes to wait for the new year so that I could have a total NEW year. The oldest male at home lights the firework as soon as it's 12 o'clock to frighten the Nian which now means year in Chinese, its original meaning is a imaginary monster. When my grandpa on my father's side was still alive, it was his job but now my father takes care of it, sadly I'll never get the chance to do this. My father's family back in Yancheng(a city to the north of Suzhou) has a strange tradition on New Year's Eve, they leave all the lights on till the next day. My mum never did this before she married him, now, all the lights at home are on, bright enough to prevent their only daughter being dim.

Tomorrow all the families will visit the grandparents' family on the female side. We have different tradtions of the each following day. I'll give you a full report. More in a while.

May the year of rat bring you and your family health, luck and happiness!

Cheers

Qinqin