YEAR OF THE BUFFALO ( Ox)

For those of you who don't know, on Monday we start the Chinese Lunar New Year. This year is the year of the buffalo. This is a really BIG event in Vietnam. They have been decorating for weeks and everything is closed for at least three days. Many are leaving the city to go back to their provinces to visit family. I was told to stock up on food as even the markets will be closed. I went yesterday and boy it was worse than after an earthquake in Calif. Most people here have little or no refrigeration so they go to the market daily. I am not sure what they will do next week but they are buying like there is no tomorrow. I have also been told that prices will go up after the New Year so on Sunday everything goes on sale, kind of like Black Friday in the states. Mark and I decided to go to District 1, the tourist district to see how they had decorated. They go all out. They had blocked off many streets and decorated down the middle of the street with flowers, waterfalls, music and many scenes from China. It reminded me of the New Years parade in Pasadena. It was great fun. We ended our evening at I Love Burgers, Mark found it and had to check it out. We had been to a friend's for a really big Vietnamese New Years lunch so I was not really hungry, but the fries were good. For lunch we were treated to wonderful spring rolls, a huge fish with his head still on and large shrimp, still in there shells and those sad eyes saying do you really want to eat me ? I still have a hard time eating them, even though I do love them. We ended the meal with watermelon. These people eat such healthy foods.

Well Happy New Year, again and Blessings to you all.