Lunar New Year Festival (Cho Tet), Fairfield

I don't know why I go to big, crowded public events anynore.
I am invariably disappointed.
I feel bored and tired before an hour is up, and in this instance my partner was part of the VIP party, so was trapped listening to interminable speeches for two hours or more while I paced around in the mud, increasingly bored.
The once great Cho Tet, the big festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year for the Vietnamese community, has become something of a shambles. The food is ghastly and it's always held too late to be of any truly festive significance. I mean, we know when the Lunar New Year is going to fall for the next 100 years or so. Can the organisers not book ahead to ensure they get the venue at the desired time?
I don't mean to grumble.
The dragon and lion dances were spectacular, really wonderful. They seemed to be the only properly organised parts of the whole event.

Here's some free advice to bring some heart back to this important event:

- Get some good food. Take a look at the much smaller Thai New Year celebrations at Wat Pa Buddharangsee in Minto. They manage to attract an array of truly fantastic food vendors, many of them representatives of iconic restaurants.

- Provide more seating. For some reason the entire under-cover area of the showground was roped off, including the toilet. This could have been hired as an area for people to sit and eat, with tables and chairs. And by the way, the five sad portaloos provided were a disgrace - they were already full at 6.30pm. There are many older people present who would hang around longer and spend more money if they could relax. As it is they couldn't get away quickly enough - the whole thing is dreadfully uncomfortable and physically taxing.

- Bring the community back. Allow the festival to reflect some of the colour and diversity of the Vietnamese community. The Buddhist temples, the Cao Dai groups - all should have some sort of presence there. Perhaps a tent for talks, lectures and cultural displays? People come for this sort of thing, not kiosks promoting the local clubs. In fact, why don't the local clubs sponsor such a tent rather than just handing out balloons and cardboard visors?

- Do something about the ghastly opening ceremony. Two hours + of speeches by dubious VIPs is simply unforgiveable in the 21st century. A neat half-hour of ceremonies is ample (indeed, generous), and then bring on the singing and dancing that people really enjoy. NO MORE SPEECHES.

With a bit of imagination and energy this yearly event has enormous potential to become a truly important part of the Australian cultural calendar. As it is, it's a disaster.

Tet! Lunar New Year decorations at our local temple

Our nearby temple is Chua Minh Giac, and one of the resident monks is a dab hand at decoration.

Every year he goes all out to create some elaborate themed gardens and displays for visitors who come over the Lunar New Year period.

He has excelled himself this year.

Details:

Minh Giac Vietnamese Buddhist Temple
42 St. John's Rd
Cabramatta
(The temple is about a 15 minute walk from Cabramatta station)
Open 7am - 8.30pm
All welcome - enter the main hall via the driveway to the left of the house. If the roller-doors of the main temple aren't up,  you can gain access via the doorway at the left of the complex at the back.
Shoes need to be removed before entering.

Walter Mason's book Destination Saigon: Adventures in Vietnam (Allen & Unwin) was voted one of the 10 best travel books of 2010 by The Sydney Morning Herald.
It is available as a paperback and e-book from all good booksellers and on-line.

Tan Dinh Church, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City

News about Vietnam rarely includes mention of the numerous sleepy, crumbling French Colonial churches that are to be found in every city and large town. Tourists mostly just drive by them, and to the local Vietnamese (unless they are parishioners) they are exotic remnants of a largely unknown past. I took my friend Kien - a Saigon native -  with me when I visited Tan Dinh church recently, and it was the first time he'd ever been inside a Catholic church.

In Ho Chi Minh City there are only a couple of these French Colonial beauties left - most of the really big Catholic churches were built in the 60s and 70s, and have a distinctive and quite groovy architecture all of their own.

Tan Dinh Church in District 3 is probably my favourite of the French churches.
It is always painted a vibrant and unexpected colour - at the moment it is a gorgeous salmon pink, but in the past it has been orange, a kind of biscuit-colour, baby blue and mint green. The aesthetic eye overseeing this church's exterior is distinctly camp.

Inside it is largely untouched. Lots of faux-baroque statuary, a shrine to Saint Therese of Lisieux (the only one I know of in Vietnam), a shrine to St. Martin de Porres (there is one of these in every second church) and one to the Vietnamese martyrs (also reasonably common).

Unlikely the infuriatingly chained-up Nha Tho Duc Ba in central Saigon, Tan Dinh church is always open, and is well worth checking out.
It is also situated right near Tan Dinh market, which is THE place to buy fabrics in Ho Chi Minh City. If you are searching for linens and cottons (reasonably rare at other markets), then this is the place to go (heads up - I always go to ABC Fabric).
There is also a doughnut shop just before the church called The Gioi Donut, and I have been known to drop by there ;-)

Buddhist Prayer Guide at Cabramatta Vegetarian Restaurant

The vegetarian restaurants and supermarkets in Cabramatta, and many of the herbalists, all feature a little stand that gives out free Buddhist media - books, pictures, CDs, DVDs etc. The things are almost always in Vietnamese, but sometimes there is material in English, so they are always worth checking out.
This material is there for free distribution, so help yourself, if you are interested.
This is a laminated A4 poster which offers a program of chanting for the lay Buddhist.



Where?
Happy Vegan
Shop 11, Belvedere Arcade
66-68 John St
Cabramatta NSW

The Teo Chiew Centre in Cabramatta

An under-utilised but wonderfully picturesque piece of orientalist architecture in Cabramatta, stuck between the Baptist and Catholic churches.
As viewed from Cabra-Vale Park.
I have written about the ubiquity of the Teo Chiew elsewhere.

Vietnam Books - Something to Read Before You Go

If you're anything like me, reading books about a place is one of the most pleasurable parts of preparing for a holiday abroad. A book is the perfect companion in Vietnam, especially, which has such a rich and complex culture, and where books in English are still reasonably difficult to come by. Here is my reading list for Vietnam:

Walter Mason's Destination Saigon - Ok, ok, so I wrote it. But honestly, if you want an intimate view of contemporary Vietnamese religion, culture and sexual mores, and a bit of a giggle, then this is where you should start. So many books about Vietnam are about the war or about colonial history. I set about writing a book that was telling stories of Vietnam now, and I really think I succeeded!












Andrew X Pham's Catfish & Mandala - Quite a superbly written book that is about so much more than Vietnam, this is a unique and compulsive read that offers a great deal of insight into what it's like to be an overseas Vietnamese returning home as a stranger. Books about Vietnam are normally told from the perspective of a foreigner, or are translated works by people living in Vietnam. This is a specific point of view of the person who exists at some in-between point.








Gontran de Poncins' From a Chinese City - A French Count goes to spend a few months in Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown, in the 1950s. This is such a gorgeous book, and absolutely fascinating. There are very few books on Vietnam that deal with the Chinese community in any detail, so this is a real rarity.






Norman Lewis' A Dragon Apparent - More Indochina in the 50s, Lewis' quiet British fortitude makes him an excellent observer, and his love of the Vietnamese comes seeping through. Vietnam travel books are surprisingly rare, and really good ones rarer still. Lewis' is the best.









Graham Greene's The Quiet American - Yeah, yeah, I know it's on every list, but really it is quite perfect, and you can still visit all the places he mentions in the book. If you're going to Vietnam, do make sure you read this book first.











Marguerite Duras' The Lover - Especially if you are planning on having an affair with a Vietnamese guy (though the lover is actually Chinese). Sensuous, historically fascinating and quite dazzlingly accurate. Not really full of Vietnam tips, but it creates the most wonderful mood, and evokes an incredible era that is only now beginning to be romanticised and even celebrated in Vietnam.









Thich Nhat Hanh's Zen Keys - A unique insight into Vietnamese Buddhist monasticism. As well as information about the philosophy of Buddhism, it provides a great story to read about the life of a young monk, and how they were once expected to behave inside the Chua (Pagoda).












Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted - Absolutely the best account of what Vietnam was like in the years immediately following the end of the war. This book is a masterpiece and deserves to be better known. Don't wait to buy this one - it is one of the really good Vietnam books, and one of the most unique perspectives.











Duy Long Nguyen's The Dragon's Journey - A memoir about a Vietnamese refugee's journey to Australia, where he becomes a famous healer. A book about Vietnam and about the journey of the Vietnamese dispora.










Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History - Pretty solid going, but once you've finished it you will be entirely informed about the complex and long-lasting Vietnam war.











Ma Van Khang's Against the Flood - A little-known but fascinating fictional peek into the ghastly bureaucracy and stifling conservatism of Vietnamese life in the 80s and 90s.

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda is one of the Chinese clan temples (belonging to the Fujianese) in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown. District 5 is the old Cholon, once one of the most tremendous Chinese cities in the world - to read about it in its heyday you can't do better than Gontran de Poncins' wonderful book From A Chinese City. If you are lucky enough to travel to Ho Chi Minh City, you should really put aside a morning or afternoon to visit the colourful temples of Cholon.
The Phuoc An Hoi Quan is just two minutes walk from the Quan Am pagoda (that's not counting the ten minutes you will spend drumming up the courage to cross the truly terrifying Hung Vuong Rd.), so you should really plan to do both at once. Both temples are shown on maps in any of the guide books to Ho Chi Minh City.
There are reasonably concealed benches in the temple courtyard so it makes a nice place to sit and people watch without being hassled. Bring a fan.




The statue of Kwan Yin to the left of the courtyard as you enter is a very popular and lucky statue in this part of town.




And interestingly the robes for Kwan Yin that are donated by people who have had their prayers answered are embroidered with the names of the donors or the people they want blessed.




This is the first time I have seen this. I wonder if it's new or old?





There is also a lucky horse to your left as you enter the temple - it is meant to be lucky for travellers to stroke its mane.

Details:

Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda is at 184 D. Hung Vuong, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City.
It is meant to stay open till 6pm, but they normally won't let you in after 5.30.
It's a 10-15 minute taxi ride from downtown Saigon.
Photography is allowed, and you don't have to take your shoes off to enter this temple.
You can purchase incense and offerings inside the temple, where you will be charged the true local price.