Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of the Lunar Year and Tet (the "Chinese" New Year) is being frantically celebrated all over Vietnam. Here it will be the year of the cat, while in China and Japan the year of the rabbit is coming up. I dont know anything about the difference but am sure that either will be exciting.
The best thing about Tet is that everyone gets a week off work, including Keisuke, and for the first time since we moved to Hanoi, we are on vacation without travelling. Tet is also the only time a year that the city actually shuts down, as everyone is busy visiting relatives and eating special food - or going to the pagoda to wish for a prosperous, healthy and happy new year. We took the opportunity and went for a bicycle ride into town. Almost empty the old quarters looked lovely.

Happy New Year! - or Chúc Mừng Năm Mới as they say here.