Kates Payground Gallery

a visit to Bat Trang for Tet Tet

Since we are based in Hanoi, I rarely had occasion to cross the Red River to go into the eastern outskirts of the city (the name Hanoi means " below River "). But I love the view which was en route to the Long Bien railway bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel in the early twentieth century ^e . This does not fail to remember each After my very first contact with the city, twelve years ago now, when knocked about a brave little backpacker, I arrived in the opposite direction from China.

short, the opportunity to span the river was presented yesterday, Hadrian and I expected at the third day of Tet in Bat Trang, the birthplace of Lien, some 20 km southeast of Hanoi.

I will not hide a slight apprehension at the thought of spending a whole day in "guest star" in the midst of strangers - except for Link and his son of course - but the opportunity was too good to live inside of Tet, in a representative family of a good part of Vietnamese society.

Alas, in the preparations for our mini-expedition, I thought of anything but to recharge the battery of my camera, why I can serve you a few lousy shots as iPhone3 ...

Link, his son and my little Ha Trung (Drien)

Family visit to the village pagoda

The altar with its many offerings of food, beer, money, false ingots, ...

The back side altar, with a few ceramic vases that are the hallmarks of the village of Bat Trang

Back to the house and shoot along the Red River

Exchange "lucky money" in * the watchful eye the paternal grandmother Link

What's good with the dong, is that we are millionaires soon ...

A bit of pocket money for the ancestors also provide a history of their little comfort in the afterlife ...

A table! A cold sweat the idea that someone could slip into my bowl one of the two legs of the chicken dish in the middle (a piece of straight choice designated for guests, if it is ...)

Whew, I escaped!

Cheers papaya salad and the traditional cake banh chung , which I use very generously!

And a little bit of snaps for the road ...

Nobody seems to have decided to return my baby love ...

... until the last goodbye ...

* As a sign of good luck, it is customary to children and seniors red envelopes containing small bills of money new known as "Lucky Money". As far as we have children (or whether you are advanced in age), it leads mostly to a pure and simple exchange of money (for example, I distributed yesterday 200,000 dong - about $ 10 - and I have "collected" so to speak, 190,000 ...). That said, as banks, to approach of Tet, are often out of stock of tickets printed out, this tradition has resulted businness where they do not hesitate to ask up to 30% commission ... This is not an old dog that learns new tricks, as they say!