Well its that time of year again: Tet! Or for those of you who may not know what it means, it's the lunar New Year. Tet is a very big deal here in Vietnam, aa it’s their major holiday for the year. One of the better descriptions I’ve heard of it is “it’s like Christmas, New Years and Fourth of July all wrapped into one!” And it really is, they take it very seriously here. Many people had this entire week off to go and visit family out in the countryside (the blog for my countryside adventure will come soon), so Hanoi was much less crowded this week (of course to the untrained eye it would still look like a chaotic mess). Now Tet is well known to most Americans because of the infamous Tet Offensive of '68, but I can assure you that it is now strictly peaceful and non-violent, as long as you count massive amounts of explosives as non-violent...
On Monday at exactly 12 am, a fireworks show began all around the country. My host family took me to one of the many fireworks locations around the city to watch the show. Now the Vietnamese know how to put on a good ol’ heavy ordnance show! There was a sustained 15 minute long, full-scale bombing operation going on! And with the “relaxed” safety regulations here, it was pretty much ‘anything goes’ in regards to where you could stand. I was almost directly beneath them! Check out the video below!
Stay tuned for more stories!
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