Tigers on Stage

My favorite picture from Tet 2010, the Year of the Tiger. The Mickey Mouse balloon and pink-and-yellow laser lights to add glitz, the massive theatrical 'happening' (which you can only see a little piece of) on stage with huge cartoon tigers looking on in the background, all of this hubbub going on and stopping traffic in front of the normally rather staid, solemn and thoroughly colonial Hanoi Opera House.

My Tet

The day before Tet, the Lunar New Year, I was drinking coffee as usual and started talking with an Irish guy who was just in town for a few days. We spent the evening walking around town, elbowing through crowds, watching the acrobatics and fireworks shows, and of course at bia hoi. Talking with tourists can be fun for a couple of reasons, you meet fascinating people from all over the world, and you can sound like somebody who actually knows something about Vietnam based on having been here for longer than a week...

Welcoming the New Year of the Rat

And somebody in my house is awfully cagey with all this talk about a rat!

Tết Fireworks on Hồ Hoàn Kiếm

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Happy Lunar New Year to everybody – today is New Year’s Eve on that calendar. So the whole country has off for a week, or two or three… I personally have off one week, which is cool.

The florid red Buddhist flag at Ngọc Sơn Temple on Hoàn Kiếm Lake, a wee bit dwarfed by the bank and insurance company building in the background.



And the red as in “The East is Red”





Random shot of Mr. Lenin, yes that Lenin, but it’s the New Wave Lenin…

Here's a link to a video of some of the Tet decorations at West Lake.