Christmas in Saigon

By Andrew -

The whole 2023 Christmas season felt very weird for us, or rather, didn't feel like anything at all. We were so busy with travel prep leading up to our departure before Christmas day that we didn't have time to attend any parties, put up any decorations, or listen to any Christmas music other than what our local Fort Collins 90's station has been imposing on us since Halloween. To say that Christmas morning was anti-climactic would be an understatement. 

Luckily for us, our one family tradition on Christmas is to get Chinese take-out; that tradition was definitely available! So on Christmas day, we set off for China Town in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Our first stop was the Ni Phu Temple or Ong Bong Pagoda temple. The atmosphere in the temple was quite solemn, though we saw models and influencers having their pictures taken lighting incense and praying at the various alters. 
 
Each cone is a spiral line of burning incense



Yin
Incense burned everywhere and filled the temple with smoke.  On either side of the main alter were two Koi Fish, one light and one dark, presumably to represent yin and yang. 
Yang







Our next stop was a huge market Kim had read about. To our sensibilities, this place was NUTS.  The narrow passageways, food, clothes, household items, tchotchkes, for what seemed like miles. We walked, ambled, crawled, climbed, and shimmied our way through 100's of stalls. Most items seemed to be on sale in bulk. There were no pushy sales people trying to get us to buy anything which was a very nice change of pace form the previous markets. We didn't manage to find much to buy, but Ender and Jacob each found a good hat to keep the sun off and we each found a t-shirt or two to add to our travel wardrobe, and Jacob found a rubber duck to add to his collection (yes, he has a collection of rubber ducks). 






After the market adventure we found a good Dim Sum restaurant to celebrate Christmas.  We overindulged a little, but the food was amazing!
Cheers and Jeers

Crab Dumplings
Spring Rolls
Gold Leaf Shrimp Balls
Duck with Cinnamon Rolls



Christmas Display
Nativity
Ender was in Ho Chi Minh City on Christmas day 2011 and remembered seeing HUNDREDS of people dressed in Elf and Santa costumes riding mopeds outside the Ho Chi Minh Notre Dame cathedral.  The family was too tired to visit the cathedral so we went to a nearby, slightly smaller cathedral to see if the festivities would be the same.  We can report that we saw ZERO people dressed as Santa or his Elves.  We have no idea if this was a one-time event, a tradition that has died out, or only happens in one part of town; either way, Ender was supremely disappointed. 

All in all, our last day in Vietnam was magical enough, even if it didn't feel quite like our usual Christmas. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 in Review

By Andrew -
2018 Year in Review (and a little of 2017 for context) We’re sorry we haven’t written a proper letter for a couple of years, and it has been even longer since we’ve mailed one, but sometimes life is so good we can’t think of things to brag about. Over the past few years we have accumulated sufficient news to rub in your faces, we’re reviving the tradition.   Early in 2017 Ender applied to 13 university counseling centers and was interviewed by 12. The only site that didn’t seem interested was the University of Utah proving once and for all that God does not want us to return to the holy land. Match day came and we got our first choice: Colorado State University in Fort Collins! That Summer we said goodbye to our home in Indiana and the great friends we made over the 4 years we lived there, Ender started his clinical internship, and Jacob started 1st grade in a brand new school.   In 2018 Jacob finished 1st grade and then started 2nd grade at the SAME SCHOOL. ...
Read more

Road to Ghana

By Andrew -
Image
There were two things about leaving Cape Town that were hard: 1) Getting back to work after 8 days off is always a bit of an adjustment, and this would be no exception, and 2) We would be leaving the temperate climate of South Africa and making our way back to the equator.  This leg of the trip had plenty of fun things scheduled that made it SUPER FUN:  First, and most certainly least: a lifeboat drill. It wouldn't be ship-life without the monthly drill. We are getting faster! There was also a wedding onboard!  Okay, not really, but a funny little joke spiraled into a full blown ceremony.  You see, one of the things you can sign up for when you are a staff, faculty, or life-long-learner is to host a "ship family."  This means that college students who are looking for "ship parents" can sign up and be matched with older adults to have an occasional "family dinner" and basically have some community outside of their peers if they want.  The "bride,...
Read more

Sea Olympics

By Andrew -
Image
 A crazy thing happened on the ship between Mozambique and South Africa:  Kim and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary!   We had tentative plans to have "fancy dinner" on the ship, in which you can order an expensive meal in the Four Seasons Restaurant, but as (bad) luck would have it, the restaurant was closed for mid-term exams on our anniversary.  So, we decided to get burgers and fries in the Chappy bar instead.  Another cool thing happening on the ship was the Sea Olympics, which took place the day after our anniversary.  The Sea Olympics are a HUGE ship wide event. Every voyager on the ship is assigned into a sea when they board according to where they are staying on the ship (I think). Each sea has a Residence Director (RD) who leads occasional meetings throughout the voyage. It's virtually the dorm of each student on this floating campus.  All adults (staff, faculty and Life Long Learners, children, and companions) are part of the Aeg...
Read more