All Settled in at An Bang Beach, Hoi An, Vietnam

Today is Saturday. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon and after a couple of days settling in we feel very much at home at An Bang beach, our "other" home.

This year we are staying in a nice little house right next door to our Vietnamese family. Quyen put in a lot of effort to make our place comfortable and cosy.

About one hundred yards away, over a sand dune, the ocean crashes ashore. Sand is drifting into the lane outside our gate. It is unusually windy, cool, cloudy and occasionally rainy; so unlike our stay here in September and October when the heat and humidity almost knocked us over.

We have a place to sleep, a place to cook, a place to shower and even a washing machine..how civilized.

Tet, the celebration of Lunar New Year is two days away so there are busy frantic crowds at all the markets. Motor bikes are zooming to and fro, laden with families, pigs, vegetables, kumquat trees and big bags of paper clothing to be burned at the ancestral alter. The banks are closed, many restaurants and shops have shut for the holiday and food is being prepared in advance. This morning while we visited over freshly ground and brewed coffee, Quyen prepared a savoury pate, which will be refrigerated for two days, then sliced with other delicacies.

Breakfast this morning in the village was bun tau (we think!)....vermicelli noodles in a steaming broth with beef and greens, flavoured with limes, peppers, garlic and vinegar ( these you add yourself so the heat is just right!)

Every year it gets harder and harder to get down onto and up from the little plastic stools which are ubiquitous. We are often the entertainment, but our hosts are kind and solicitous. We are taught through charades how to season and eat their offerings. The best part though is that now we are beginning to be treated like "locals" and sometimes left to our own devices....but it means that we get local prices, as little as two dollars for BOTH of us!!

Marketing can still be a challenge; a challenge that I love but which Bruce finds difficult. I love the theatre of the hunt, the bargaining and the elation when it all comes together. If one vendor does not have what we are looking for, she will run off to a neighbouring stall for you and there is great celebration when we finally understand each other and agree on a price. Deals on small things like light bulbs, tea towels and hangers can take a good 20 minutes to finalize. We have the time!!!

Tet rituals are numerous and often have to do with ensuring luck and good fortune for the coming year. So far we are on tap to bring "double lucky" to the home and prospects for Ly, a young woman whom we met in the neighbourhood on our last two visits. Bruce is mad about her daughter Su My who is two and a real sweetie. Ly sells trinkets at the beach during the warmer weather when tourists abound. However in this stormy cool weather Ly realizes that her chances are slim making a sale on the first day of the year, before 7am. So guess who will be cycling over to her house first thing Tet morning. The belief is that the two hours between 5 and 7am are auspicious. 

After that we will head into town so that we can be the first customers at Reaching Out when they open at 9am.

My job now is to fill envelopes with "lucky money" for little children. The money has to be crisp and new. Thank goodness I remembered to ask Quyen to get me the 20,000 VDN notes before the banks closed for the holiday.

Sweet moments follow one after the other. We are happy!