In recent years, instead of staying home to celebrate the traditional Lunar New Year, many families have chosen to travel and explore new places during their extended holiday.

VietNamNet presents an article by Ms. Hang Bui (Hanoi) sharing her memorable journey - 13 days exploring India during a Tet holiday.

We deeply love and cherish our traditional Lunar New Year. But in my opinion, wherever there is family, there is the New Year. We worship our ancestors, visit relatives and loved ones... we do these things all year round, not just during the New Year.

In addition, my parents are getting older, and my two children, Huy and May, are growing up. I want our three-generation family to spend more time together, experiencing the beauty of our country and learning about different cultures. My children can take advantage of the long Tet holiday to explore the world and grow.

The most memorable trip during the Lunar New Year holiday for us and our children was our journey to India during the Year of the Rabbit 2023.

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A Hanoi family in India during the Lunar New Year holiday in 2023.

On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, my family set off for India. During our 13 days in the country, my wife and I took our two children along the Thar Desert route: New Delhi - Mandawa - Bikaner - Jodhpur - Udaipur - Pushkar - Jaipur - Arga - Varanasi.

India is a place where you have to cast aside many prejudices. On their first day, the two children saw Aram Bagh pedestrian street – a place teeming with beggars… – an environment completely different from where they lived or the countries they had previously explored.

We visited Karni Mata – a Hindu temple located in Deshnoke, Rajasthan, about 30km from Bikaner. Karni Mata is famous as the "rat temple," a paradise for these rodents. It is home to over 25,000 rats.

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Mice can unexpectedly appear from the walls or crawl up through cracks in the floor.

The rats here are fed grains, milk, and coconut in large metal bowls. The water they drink is considered holy, and the food they taste is sacred.

As soon as she entered the temple, May trembled with fear upon seeing the rats.

Our tour guide gently introduced me and my children to the history of the temple, the legend of the sacred rat at Karni Mata Temple... These stories captivated the two children.

Interestingly, despite thousands of rats living freely in the temple, no cases of plague have ever been reported. If a rat is killed in the Karni Mata temple, it must be replaced with a golden rat of the same weight and size as the dead rat.

I encouraged my child to try touching the sacred mice and feeding them. May and I sat down, relaxed our bodies, gently extended our hands, fingers straight and motionless, calmly and quietly waiting for the mouse to approach.

Mây was still a little scared, but she didn't scream. She calmly felt the movement of the tiny creature in the palm of her hand for those brief seconds. Her initial fear gradually faded away.

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A family in Hanoi overcame their fear to feed rats directly.

While my relatives in Vietnam were celebrating Tet (Vietnamese New Year), I was holding the hands of two children and walking around Manikarnika Ghat – where hundreds of bodies are cremated every day.

Manikarnika Ghat is one of the oldest and most sacred places in Hindu religion and legend. It is believed that funeral rituals at Manikarnika Ghat help people escape the endless cycle of reincarnation.

Images at Manikarnika Ghat

For the first time in our lives, the children and I experienced what a raging fire could be like, capable of sweeping away all the joys and sorrows, happiness and suffering in life. I led the children along the riverbank, around towering staircases, and through dark, narrow alleyways…

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, day or night, winter or summer, weekdays or holidays… the fire here never goes out.

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The fire never goes out here.

Locals often fetch water from this river for their daily needs. Not far from there, a long stretch of the river is bustling with people of all ages bathing and performing baptismal rituals.

We observed, without fear or contempt. I always tell my children: "Prejudice is like a net that catches you and throws you into a small basin, depriving you of the opportunity to immerse yourself in the ocean of culture, where valuable things from millennia ago are waiting to be touched."

That day, we were so fortunate to witness a sacred custom of the Indian people.

India not only has mysteries but also "open-air art galleries" that captivated us, making it hard to leave.

In Mandawa, many buildings are adorned with meticulously hand-painted murals, reflecting legends, beliefs, religions, and rich cultural heritage. Sadly, many places are abandoned and in serious disrepair.

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The family ate for free at the world's largest public kitchen for the poor.

To be honest, in the early days of the journey, the two children weren't very enthusiastic. They didn't understand why they had to come here with their parents. I didn't explain, but I wanted them to go, experience, and feel the diversity of the world.

On the day we said goodbye to India, the two children didn't share many feelings about the trip, but they showed interest when I suggested exploring Africa.

Reader Hang Bui

Readers are invited to share their memorable experiences and travel tips by emailing Bandoisong@vietnamnet.vn. Suitable articles will be published in the Travel section. Thank you!
Vietnamese tourists take their whole family to 'escape Tet' and recharge at a resort . About a month before the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, Ms. Hoang Lien (Hanoi) researched and booked rooms at a high-end resort in Phu Tho for her family.