National Day- and Full Moon Festival in Hoi An

Although I had planned to spend a day in Hoi An at the beautiful beaches, the weather has not been very cooperative. Yesterday it started monsooning like CRAAAAZY, and hasn't stopped since. It put a bit of a damper on the Full Moon festivities for National Day, but I think everyone managed to have a good time anyway- I know I did!

I've made friends with some of the local girls who work at the hotel I'm staying at. They are so cute. Everytime I come or go from my room I'm greeted with a "HELLO CHRISTY! HOW YOU TODAY?!" I sat around with one of the girls for over an hour yesterday talking about all sorts of things. She told me she works here 12 hours/day 7 days a week- I suggested she move to Canada... I cannot imagine how she has any time to herself!! The girls even sleep here, on the floor behind the front desk with a blanket and a mosquito net. She said she was grateful for the job because she used to work in a tailor here, and that was even worse... Thank goodness I was born in Canada, doesn't seem like much fun to have to work so hard everyday...

I wondered around downtown for a while yesterday afternoon and when I got back to the hotel I noticed there was a table set up outside with a bunch of soups, fruit, and other things. Now, it's normal here to offer food to Budda everyday, but never so elaborate as this spread was. I asked the girls if this was special for full moon, and apparently it was. They said that they offer the food to Budda, and also to the spirits who roam the earth (in case the spirits are hungry, and also so that they don't haunt them) and once the food has been offered to and blessed by Budda, then they collect it and eat it.

I was pretty touched cause later on, I was going up to my room and they insisted I take some of the squid soup (made from beans and sugar, not squid) up to my room with me to eat. I dunno how many foreigners get to eat food blessed by Budda himself, so I felt pretty honoured! I had to calm my OCD a little to force myself to eat a few mouthfulls (knowing that it had sat outside with bugs crawling all over it all afternoon) so that I woudn't offend anyone- especially Budda!

I brought it up to my room and decided to take a break from the soup while I got ready to go out for the full moon festival.... While I was getting ready, an army of ants smelled my squid soup and next thing I knew there were THOUSANDS of them swarming about in my good karma! I had a minor panic attack trying to pick up the bowl and put it in the sink to drown the little bastards, but I did it! (I'm getting much better at dealing with some of SE Asia's finer points these days). I eventually flushed the rest down the toilet, but now I'm afraid that Budda will be mad at me... fingers crossed, he'll understand.

After that escapade, I walked down the street towards town, and on the way there I ran into a big circle of locals laughing and cheering at something that was going on inside the circle... Naturally, I had to stop and see what all the fuss was about, so I watched for a while, and eventually worked my way through to the front of the circle where I saw a guy standing with a painted mask made from what looked like a woven basket. It had hair coming out of the top of it, and a big fu-man-chu beard thing going on at the bottom... super awesome! The guy obviously couldn't see through the mask, and he had a club in his hand... At first I was looking for some kind of piniatta- but then I realized it's "same same, but different." What they do here is spin the guy around with the mask on, and then he has to walk forward towards a drum and try and line himself up in the right spot to strike the drum with his club. I'm not sure if it was the traditional Dong Son bronze drum (that leaves an impact on those around) or not, but I felt some pretty sweet energy coming from there, so either way, I'm happy!

From there I walked across the Japanese bridge, which is a major historical site here, and went into some kind of pagoda that I'm pretty sure I'd normally have to pay for... but it was packed with locals, so I figured it was probably free for the night. I walked around there and watched people pray, while I breathed in the spicy incense that was burning EVERYWHERE.

Then I continued on towards the river and walked along the riverfront until a little lady with a bunch of tiny paper boats holding candles asked me if I would like to buy one (in Vietnamese, so, at first I didn't understand a thing). I asked a young local girl beside me to translate, and told her that I'd like to buy one of the lanterns and go for a boat ride. She told me that for $5000 dong (about 30 cents) I get a paper boat, candle, and a boat ride! SOLD! To thank her I bought her a boat also, and she and her three friends and I all ventured out to the river to release our paper lantern boats. IT WAS AMAZING... Not only were there dozens of candle boats flickering along the water, but there are several permanent lantern statues scattered about the river as well that were obviously lit up. It was definitely one of the most beautiful things ever... I don't even know how to describe it, but the closest thing I imagine would be maybe going through the canals in Italy-- only this was waaay less touristy, and much more authentic. The three kids I were with were all 17, and were so excited to be in the boat with me... They wanted me to have the best experience ever, and so after I released my boat, they kept leaning over and catching new ones to give me to re-release into the water. They tried taking a few videos and photos of me, but apparently even though my Olympus was made in Vietnam- the Vietnamese do not understand how to use it! hahaha It's okay though, they ended up getting a few seconds of good stuff, and one good picture.

After that I couldn't wipe the smile off my face to save my LIFE, and this ended up attracting even more good things. Everyone I passed reflected my happiness right back at me, and I ended up meeting a group of English tourists who took a picture for me, gave me the name of a good cooking class here, and then invited me to join them in Sapa next week. I have their email address in case I end up there around the same time.

By the time I finished things with them I realized it was like 9, and I still hadn't eaten anything, so I walked to a small cafe alongside the river, got some food, and people-watched.

Pretty stellar night eh! Anyway, I think I'm just going to have a quiet night tonight, and maybe watch some TV in my room or something. With any luck I can find something in English!

OH! And one more thing... I finally set a time to stop being a gypsy and head home: Thanksgiving! I figure it'll be symbolic since this trip has made me realize how INCREDIBLY much I have to be thankful for in my life... Plus all of youl can thank your lucky stars that your best peep in the universe is back in town! ;-) HOLLA!