Dan in Vietnam: Week 20 - Mid-Autum Festival

Hi Everybody,

This week in Hoi An has been a very unique week for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, there has been more rain than sunshine, (this is normal for me back home in Manchester of course) but a very unusual experience here - until rainy season starts in October! Secondly, because it has been 4-5 days of constant drumming in the streets, this drumming has a purpose, it is linked to the Mid-Autum festival, a national celebration in Vietnam, where kids spend 2-3 weeks, making dragon costumes, practicing drumming, and creating dance routines in for their Dragon. It's almost like Dragon Cheer leading at times, as they stand on each others shoulders, climb 15foot high poles and any near by balcony where tourists may then feel obliged to give money!

The entire weekend, kids troop around the place dancing through restaurants, hotels, bars, (anywhere that hasn't had the foresight to close the doors!) and get money for their efforts... here in Hoi An, the town does come to a stand still, as traffic builds up at major junctions to watch passing Dragons, big carts with drums are more common on the roads than cars, and where there is no escape day or night from these festivities. Any tourists here for a quiet weekend would have been sadly disappointed!

We were lucky enough to have a private showing from the kids at the children's home my flatmate works at... they actually came into our house, dancing and climbed up to the first floor balcony in costume... it's pretty dangerous watching these kids stand on a board held up by their friends, and then stand on each other to climb into first floor windows, but nobody seems to be worried... and hey, considering that these kids spend weeks preparing, a few broken limbs seems to be small price to pay for such enjoyment! ( i have to say i did not see any injuries, and that includes watching 2 kids in full dragon costume climb up a self-made 20ft high pole!) I also noticed a second fashion of sorts occur here this weekend... where the dragon goes, so too does a masked child who collects the money, and many of the boys, opted to dress as women, with rather large false breast (this is Asia after all) , and hey people seemed to enjoy watching these 'boys' in action!

Despite the constant noise, I have to say it was a really impressive sight seeing all these young people getting involved in such an event and spending time preparing for it. I can not imagine teenagers on mass back home (in UK) putting so much time, effort and planning into something public like this, unless it involved getting drunk in the park, being abusive to the public, or playing hide and seek with the local police! (That could just be my negativity! sorry if you don't agree!)

Of course those of you that know me well, may already be surprised that I have yet to mention the biggest event of the week, indeed one of the biggest events in the football calender! Yeah that's right! In the midst of the dragon dancing and madness there was the matter of Liverpool vs Manchester United on Saturday! I watched the game and as I'm sure most of you will know Liverpool beat Man Utd for the first time in 5 years in the league! Well done Lads, and Rafa! This has certainly added to the magic events of this week!

I also took yet another trip to Da Nang, (on motorbike) with my neighbour Yen. The reason I mention this is because we did this after getting caught in some fairly heavy rain, and I assure you this was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done, bungy jumping included! Driving in the rain here, means almost no visibility, (without a visor) and people still whizz past like they were trying to reach the bar before last orders! Having survived the experience I have to say I feel more confident on a bike, but would prefer to walk in the approaching rainy season!