New Year's Day Tradition

They have a great tradition here in Vietnam. They spend three days or more visiting friends and family and celebrating the New Year. We were invited to travel with our friends around the city to visit the families that they worship with weekly. Since so many people had left Ho Chi Minh City the roads were a lot less crowded so Mark asked if he could try out our friends motor bike. I did not want to make him nervous, ha, so I opted to let one of our friends drive with him, besides he is younger and if the bike goes down he can jump off faster and heal quicker than myself !! He started off a little shaky, almost ran up the curve and scared the security guard of our building but after two times around the building he decided he was ready to try the big streets.
The first family we visited was only about 5 minutes from us and he did pretty well, a few challenges, turning left into a slew of motor bikes and then the great circles where many often get hit. Everyone congratulated him on making it there safely. I could not believe that our friend was actually talking on the phone as Mark drove, only the young can take such stress !!
It was a great visit, we gave them a scripture for the year for their family and then said a prayer of blessing. Oh did I mention the Asian hospitality? They always serve you something to drink, water, juice, for the holidays soda and sometimes fruit, nuts candy. I did not need dinner last night.
The second family was across town and this time Mark had a taxi make a U turn in front of him, he handled it like a pro. After driving back across town he decided to let our friend take the wheel or handle bars again. We have decided that a car is preferable but unrealistic because of the cost so I guess we will have to continue with the taxi's. All in all it was a fun day of seeing how these folks live and being able to spend some individaul time with them.