NEW YEAR 2008 IN VIET NAM

I wanted to blog about my Vietnam trip once I came back here, but there are a lot of things I needed to do so I didn't have much time. But here you go!

This photo I took on the way from Malaysia to Vietnam. The weather was just pretty good, the clouds look pretty and clear.

During the first 2 weeks, most of the time I stayed at home and cooked lot of food. 2 meals a day for 8 people, you believe? This is my food, I cooked. Delicious? Tasted good too!

Then only the day before New Year, I went out shopping with my brother, my father, my mom (different people, different day). This is how the night market in Vietnam was during New Year.
  The world of handbags and hats. I bought 2 hats and 1 handbag home. Unfortunately, I left it in Vietnam. My mom was so happy because she got a free new hat.

  The crowded street with thousands of people, a lot of goodies, accessories for New Year. Especially, this one is so unique...

 
And then, we went back to our hometown to pay a respect to our ancestor. Every time I went back to my grandmother's house, I would go to visit my grandfather as well. He is "resting" here.

 
Then we went to the farm to buy a New Year tree, I don't know how you guys call this, but the Vietnamese name of this sounds similar to Mandarin. We call it "Dao hoa"

 
Then, I went to meet up some of my high school friends. It's has been such a long time we haven't seen each other...

They are so funny.

That's all we did before New Year. After the New Year? Morning, eat! Lunch, eat! Evening, eat! It was repeated the same from the 1st day until the 7th day. I felt like I couldn't breathe and I thought I was putting on weight at least 2kg.

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to this famous temple which is a Bronze temple (fully made of bronze). That temple was so powerful that so many people who died on the way back home after they had offended this temple. I have never been there before until last new year. Many people said that you wish could become true if you pray to the Buddha with sincerity. The other special thing about this temple is it's located on the top of the mountain which is higher than the ground 2000meters and almost vertical mountain, not the type of diagonal way that is easy for you to climb. However, every New Year, there are more than a few thousand people from all over the country came here. You can see how crowded it was with a narrow staircase.


It looks simple, but it's actually not. All made of real bronze which is very high value. It's said that there was a thief who came to this temple before and he tried to steal the Buddha statue to sell. But he was unlucky because he slipped on the stone staircase and fell down into the chasm, then died immediately.

Here, there is 1 very big bell which, if someone rings the bell, it will rain later 15 minutes. Perhaps, it's too near to the sky.

  I don't know about others, but to me, after visiting this temple, I felt so peaceful. I could forget all the bad things happen and obviously, I felt much better, happier, more optimistic like some intangible spirit pushed me up. And I could get ready to come back Malaysia for the next 2 days and could be stronger to face a lot of new things. End of the trip is the photo taken on the cloudy sky in Vietnam


Hanging up in the sky and below is the forest! The feeling was so nice but also so.....scared :D
  Introduce to you, this is my beloved God-son.  I want to blog more, it's already too late, 2.02am now and tomorrow I have to go to work early. So next time then.