New Years Day; January 31st

This morning is eerily quiet. I wandered the quaint streets of the Old Town picking my way through the debris of streamers, firecrackers and good fortune wrappers. The only doors open are to temples or pagodas –(the pagodas are Buddhist places of worship, the temples are for heroes, kings, generals, etc-very confusing as to be honest I can’t tell from outside which is which)-and these were full to bursting with worshippers praying for good fortune for the new year. The signs everywhere banning firecrackers  obviously ignored given the noise last night, reminded me of Lewes on November 5th.

This afternoon my lovely friend Hanc appeared on her scooter, clutching a helmet, and took me under her wing! Hanc is a friend of a friend from the university, who hails from Hanoi but has studied at Sussex for five years, so speaks fluent English, and is home for Tet.

It’s impossible to describe how wonderful it feels to be with a ‘local’! We began by parading around the flower strewn avenues around the lake with everyone else-the sun is out and it is the equivalent of the Boxing Day stroll Vietnamese style.

Children in traditional clothes

After lunch at a street food stall where Hanc taught me once more to be proficient with chopsticks and enjoy a traditional pho sauce with rice balls –she persuaded the reluctant staff I really really didn’t want meat, it is just not done here to be vegetarian, no one understands it at all-we went into a very traditional ice cream parlour for sticky rice flavour lollies-delicious; like mini milks but ten times bigger, much harder, and very sweet, perfect for my palate.

Queue for Ice Cream - a Tet favourite

And then she invited me out to her family home an hour outside the city, where her grandparents live.  Her parents were already there, gathering with her aunts and uncles, nephews and niece (5 families from grandma and grandpa’s five children) for the Tet feast. During the week her parents live in Hanoi, unlike the other aunts and uncles who live still in the family town of Throng, and first we went there to don face masks and full covering for the scooter ride.

I now realise the alleys full of shutters are not, as I foolishly thought, garages, but homes. Hanc turned into the narrow passageway in the suburbs of Hanoi, and opened the metal grid, to reveal a door straight into her parent’s bedroom, opening onto another small bedroom, then a basic kitchen, a sink and wood fired stove. All in one long dark corridor.

In free time the families gather in the older generation’s houses away from the city, so the town houses are often just a base. The oldest generation is revered, as is old age, treated with the utmost respect, and her grandparents house was the traditional Vietnamese home.  The centrepiece is brightly lit like a temple, where the ancestors are worshipped and incense burnt for good luck, the garden full of bonsai and sculptures placed to ward off evil and protect the family. One side of the raised dais is the family table, where I was greeted with green tea and sweets, the usual etiquette to welcome an honoured guest.

Hanc’s grandparents spoke no English, neither did the many Aunts and Uncles who came in waves to join us, but Hanc translated fluently, making sure I ate enough to satisfy grandma –the more the better! Supper was served as usual here on a woven mat laid down the corridor below the dais; the men sit at one end, with rice wine, beer is normal. I declined the beer, and was offered coke, which I accepted, only to realise later that they had then gone out to buy this especially for me, bless them!

There were so many dishes, beef, pork, chicken, steamed rice meat balls, pickles, salad, beans of every description, and sugary sweet green bean paste doughnuts made in my honour, which luckily I love and did justice to! I was praised for my chopstick use, which I insisted on using as it gave me a chance to eat slowly as there was so much food I could barely move!!

Then came the lucky fruit. See pic of this sweet grapefruit, which is grown for Tet. It has an incredibly thick skin, you peel the outside and then again each segment, but it is worth the work.  Grandma insisted on giving me a bag of fruit and doughnuts to take back with me. I was even given an envelope with ‘lucky’ money in. I told them I would spend the money on a souvenir to remind me of this special evening, it moved me to tears so everyone was happy.

'Lucky' sweet Grapefruit

As we drove back to Hanoi under the stars with the wind whistling around my face, my arms wrapped tightly around Hanc, I could not believe my own good fortune. The family take a picture every New Years Day for their calendar and in 2014 it will have my face in too-I have been promised a copy which I shall treasure.