Tet in Vietnam

Lunar new year, aka Chinese new year, but in Vietnam it's called Tet, is the biggest celebration of the year.  In the south it means yellow flowers, fruit trays, dragon dances, and impossible crowds at transport since everyone goes to their home towns. In the north it's red flowers, but we always go south as that's where my wife is from, so never mind that.

If you're a tourist thinking of visiting Vietnam, as interesting as the new year might be, I would recommend against going at that time. Mostly because it's impossible to get anywhere, and especially in the big cities, almost everything is closed. So instead I'll tell you here what you'll miss. And things you can find other times of the year when it's a much better idea to visit.

 

One such thing would be the flower markets. And since the south is sparkled with rivers going everywhere (I'm talking about the Mekong delta here), a lot of these are on boats. The flower markets get very crowded but they're definitely worth seeing with all the colours and variety.

In every household in the front they'll have a fruit tray, with all sorts of fruits gathered up and often drink cans behind them. There's also assorted nuts and other such snacks, and tea may be served. The first visitor of the year should be someone successful though, as it sets the luck for the rest of the year.

Another thing you'll find are flower trees, they try to make sure the bloom at the right time. There's likely some at the gate outside, and another indoors. The indoor one is decorated like a Christmas tree.

The cities tend to also have fireworks and other such things during new year. And dragon dancers go around doing their thing in front of houses. If you have family there, you'll need a lot of money in red envelopes to give away.

The breakfast in Vietnam tends to be either noodles or bread filled with all sorts of things. This stall in Long Xuyen kind of combines the two in a dish called súp bánh mì, you get both the soup and the bread. It's right at the central market in Long Xuyen, on one of the side streets. Look around of that dish name and of course "chay", which means vegetarian, and the most important word to recognise in Vietnam as most of the vegetarian eateries don't have any English labelling. So with that you should be able to find other food. Use Happy Cow to find the restaurants.

This time we went to Ben Tre, a province known for its coconuts, just south of Sai Gon (Ho Chi Minh city). Over there you can kayak along the river and see many blue birds, cycle on little roads surrounded and shaded by coconut trees, and of course buy coconut candies. They tend to be vegan (do check though, you never know!).

 Cempedak Private Island

As a surprise to my wife, we spent the weekend in the autumn on Cempedak island. It's in Indonesia, quite near to Bintan, 2.5 hours from Singapore. As a private island, the resort is the only thing on the island, so you rely on them for food and everything else. This turned out to be a great thing because we could just forget about everything for a while and not be constantly happycow'ing where to eat next like we usually do on travels.

The surprise worked perfectly, even at the Indonesian customs she still had no idea where we're going, but at that stage I had to bring up the name as the customs officer was asking. Nonetheless, it was perfectly smooth -- you arrive at Bintan, go to the lounge at the port and the Cempedak people pick you up from there and drive you to the other side of the island where they have their own speedboat for the rest of the trip.

The arrival was perfect, the place in the darkness of the night had a bit of a magical feel to it. I had told them several times we're vegan since we would be relying on them, but was positively surprised when the guest relations manager upon giving us our welcome drinks was saying they know we're vegan, clearly knew what it meant, and was asking about which kind of vegan breakfast we'd like.



Cempedak is surprisingly eco-friendly. The whole place is built of bamboo, they don't allow any plastic on the island, compost the waste, use water sparingly etc. All this is really nice to see in a luxury resort, and it really doesn't appear to take anything out of the luxury either. The place was much nicer than any 5 star hotel we've been to (and we've been to many!), particularly when it comes to service level.


We chose the seaview villa, which is higher on the hill than the beach villas. Since we didn't try the beach villas it's hard to compare, but the villa on the hill was wonderful, and the wind blowing through made sure we didn't miss having an aircon at any time of the day.



The villas are huge, two floors, really specious, and with a private pool for that morning swim. The water in that pool was quite chilly in the mornings though. The bed has mosquito netting, which is good, although we didn't see too many mosquitos around. Might be just luck.



As for things to do, the resort has kayaks, sailboats, paddle-boards, windsurfing, etc, all free of charge. I even got a free windsurfing lesson since it wasn't busy. They do an eco-tour of the resort area in the mornings, and one extra free activity each day. You can also go snorkeling or diving nearby, or of course relax by the pool or at the villa, or go for the spa treatments. The spa is not cheap, pretty much at Singapore prices, but has a great view.



We also brought our musical instruments along (my wife plays the guzheng and I play the dizi, Chinese bamboo flute). Magnificent environment to be playing music in. At night the sky was so full of stars we were totally amazed, never seen such a rich night sky!

The best part of the wonderful stay was still the food though, I think. Every time at the end of a meal they would suggest and ask things they would do for the next meal, and since they were totally attentive to feedback, the food kept getting better and better throughout the stay! And we never had to wonder about things being vegan as they clearly knew what it is and how to make great vegan food, which is truly a rare treat in a non-veg place.