It’s been awhile since my last post. My apologies! I’ve been rather busy since I last updated, as Tet holiday ended and I started up work again. I also moved! I’ll post pictures as soon as I have everything unpacked and looking nice!
The day after Tet, I visited two temples with my friend’s family. It was a fascinating, but overstimulating day with what seemed like thousands of people, motorbikes, sights, sounds and smells.
This picture really doesn’t do give the true feeling of the number of people at the temple. Lots and lots of activity!
An altar filled with gifts of paper hats and shoes, fruit, sweets and fake money, with maybe some real money mixed in as well.
Gives you a better idea of the vast number of people.
Burning joss paper to send gifts to the gods. Gifts include paper money, shoes, hats, coins and flowers. Read more about this custom here.
On to the next temple! This man is writing down the family’s wishes in the new year in ancient Vietnamese (using Chinese characters).
Heading into the temple. So many people!
Food picture:
Bánh đúc lạc. So far my least favorite. The pancake/patty itself isn’t too bad; it’s made up of rice flour and tapioca (and I read somewhere lime…as in the mineral) and has peanuts inside. The sauce, made of fermented soy bean paste, is what really gets me. Perhaps my tastebuds aren’t sophisticated enough, but it just tastes rotten to me!
The Foreign Traveler 
Looks like you are having fun and taking everything in! Love it!