Tourism inspiration from strangers
Dang Nguyen Dang Duong (Poohs Dang) is 28 years old but has 12 years of experience using Couchsurfing (a global accommodation sharing network for tourists). Duong is very curious about foreigners riding bicycles and motorbikes through the house along his national highway. Since he was a 10th grade student, the young man had learned Couchsurfing and was ready to open his door for strangers to sleep with.
Duong is so engrossed in traveling that after graduating from university in Hanoi in 2019, a young friend fled his family and did not return to his hometown in Son La but took a bus to the South to go to... Cambodia for Tet. This country does not celebrate Lunar New Year like Vietnam, so Duong experienced for the first time eating a peaceful Tet in a tent on Koh Rong Island.
Sharing about old memories, "Because I really get bored with Vietnamese Tet and think that if I celebrate Tet alone on the island like this, it would be a relaxation, without having to work around eating, without having to eat at a table, and clean like every year".
That journey accidentally started Duong's further journeys. In 2020, he went to Taiwan (China) to study at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic started. For two consecutive years 2021 and 2022, having to stay in Taiwan, Duong missed his home very much. From there on, young people are determined to plan when the epidemic ends, which will definitely balance outings and Tet in Vietnam as well as other countries.
The " memorable" New Year's greetings
Originally a student majoring in Dong Phuong Hoc, Duong is not only passionate about traveling, he is also very eager to learn about the cultures of Eastern countries near Vietnam such as China, Korea, and Japan.
In 2024, Duong suddenly booked a ticket to Jeju Island to celebrate New Year's Day with a kind Korean host he met through Couchsurfing. In the first days of 2025, he was excited to go to the Japanese capital to celebrate New Year's Eve with another friend living here. Not only that, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, before flying back to Vietnam to celebrate Tet with his family, Duong spent a whole week traveling to the "scented port city" of Hong Kong (China), experiencing the cultural differences of Tet.
Determining to travel during the Tet holiday, at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year, there will be many expensive tickets, trains and buses are difficult to book, Duong is still excited to set off because "at the end of the year, I will experience the Tet atmosphere in new lands".
The first time he came to Jeju Island to celebrate New Year's Eve here, he not only found a place to live by "having fun" but was also introduced by a kind host to shops and locations that only local people know about. After two days of staying at a Korean house, Duong took a close friend from Beijing to travel and celebrate New Year's Eve together.
However, that evening, no taxi driver took to transport during rush hour, two young men walked for an hour in the cold wind, on the left side was a steady wave coast, on the right side were cliffs and street lights. The cozy New Year's Eve under the lights of fireworks has become a night to remember life because of the cold weather.
Unlike Vietnam, New Year's Day in Japan, people have a weekly holiday. On the occasion of the New Year 2025 in Tokyo, Duong and his best friend took a train and walked for 2 hours to get to the fireworks display location but the scale was not as large as summer festivals. The shock of holiday traffic in Jeju repeated in Tokyo, before midnight all types of Japanese public transport stopped running. Two young people wandering around without catching a car had to sleep at the train station all night in the weather of nearly 0 degrees Celsius. It was almost the end of the night, but the next day, the couple was still strong enough to experience a Japanese Tet with activities such as going to the temple, taking a basket for the New Year, renting kimos to take photos, bathing in hot springs, eating sashimi, soba noodles...
However, when looking back at the difficulties on the road, Duong shared: Hen met a friend who had not traveled together for a long time, went to explore a new piece of land, enjoyed the ferry while recounting old stories, or met and made friends with local friends, learned their language, listened to them introduce their hometown culture. Such experiences only happen once, not twice.
