Celebrating Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) at the ends of the earth.

I love the traditional Lunar New Year. In my childhood memories, it was a time when all business activities stopped, every household cleaned up, and decorated with flowers to welcome the holiday. Urban life has somewhat altered these old traditions: the streets are more crowded, shops and restaurants don't close for Tet as often, and from elevators to televisions, you're bombarded with countless commercials and posters with similar messages. As someone from Saigon, I often choose to "escape" Tet to find a moment of peace and quiet.

A week of slow living in Lofoten

I've been to Norway many times, and this time I decided to visit the Lofoten Islands, located near the Arctic Circle, in February. This is a relatively quiet time for Lofoten, as the peak tourist season is July and August. Most visitors during this time are aurora borealis enthusiasts who want to witness or capture these magical images.

I love the tranquility here. Every day I wake up in this peaceful setting, slowly brew a cup of coffee, and wait for the sunrise (during this season, the sun usually rises around 8 am and sets around 4 pm). Putting on three layers of clothing, I grab my camera and wander to the harbor, watching the fishing boats return, followed by noisy flocks of seagulls hoping to find some food.

Every year, in addition to tourism revenue, these islands earn a significant income from cod fishing. Cod migrate south from the Barents Sea, converging in Lofoten to spawn, and the fishing industry has flourished ever since. For centuries, Norway has been a major exporter of cod to Nordic countries and even to the heart of the "old continent." I was fortunate to have a local friend who took me to the port where the boats had just docked so I could buy fresh cod to prepare myself.

Norwegian cooking is quite simple; they just put the fish in a pot to boil or steam it with potatoes and eat it with a little salt and pepper, because they believe that fresh ingredients shouldn't be overcooked. Another way to prepare cod is to dry it for a while and then bake it. Restaurant food in Norway is quite expensive, so I usually buy groceries from the supermarket and cook at home. Norwegians also rarely eat out, except for important occasions. Cod is one of the most delicious and expensive types of fish, but I often joke that it's one of the things that's cheaper to eat in Norway than in Vietnam.

Beyond the vast ocean that surrounds it on all sides, Lofoten also boasts sheep and goat farms, and towering mountain ranges that create a majestic landscape constantly changing with the light of day.

One of the iconic sights here is the red-painted wooden houses with distinctive Nordic architecture situated by the sea. Once sailors' homes, they've now been converted into hotels for tourists. In the evenings, I often go to the beaches with my friend Aleksander to photograph the Northern Lights. Even though he's Norwegian and has seen these dancing lights countless times, for him, it's still one of the most magical sights on Earth. Capturing images of the Northern Lights isn't easy, especially when operating the camera while wearing gloves and the outside temperature drops to -10 degrees Celsius.^oC. But once those ribbons of light appeared and fluttered, Aleksander and I suddenly forgot about the cold, standing there taking pictures, finding angles, and adjusting our shots for hours.

Days spent living… in the forest

After a week of leisurely living in Lofoten, I boarded a train to Tromso, the largest city in northern Norway. From there, I flew further north to Alta, where I met up with some friends from Vietnam to join the next leg of our journey. Alta is special because it's home to the world's first Northern Lights Observatory and is even nicknamed "the town of the Northern Lights." Another interesting reason to visit is the famous Alta rock carvings – Norway's only prehistoric World Heritage site, made up of around 6,000 carvings. However, the biggest reason we made the trip was that Nils, a Sami (the northernmost ethnic group in Europe) reindeer herder, would welcome us into the forest to experience what it's like to be... in the middle of the forest.

The Sami people number just over 80,000, living primarily in the remote plains of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. They are striving to preserve the land—the grasslands, streams, valleys, and rivers where they have grazed their reindeer for hundreds of years—from corporations and governments seeking to reclaim it for mining and mineral exploitation. Reindeer herding is not just a profession for the Sami; it is their very life. Despite this, for the past 20 years, alongside changes in their lifestyle, climate change has also severely impacted their lives.

Nils, 40, has been herding reindeer since he was 16. He proudly says that reindeer herding is the best job he's ever had. Life there has been tough days, sometimes working up to 16 hours a day, but it's free from stress and competition. Nils told me he wants to use tourism to encourage the world to "help" his people preserve their unique culture with its own clothing, language, writing system, and religion.

I became friends with the Nils family, enjoying watching them herd reindeer, living in a place where daily life is heavily influenced by the weather. Here, I felt a very strong connection to the world. Having to chop wood, fetch water from the stream, or butcher the animals showed me the clear and tangible impact of my life on nature: electricity, warmth, air conditioning, and clean water don't come naturally; we are using natural resources. Every action, like forgetting to turn off the stove, wasting water, polluting water sources, cutting down too many trees, or improper waste disposal, affects life right there in the camp. Even the butchering of reindeer shows their responsibility for what they eat, because it is a living being. In Norway, they do it as gently as possible so the animal can die peacefully, then they salt and smoke the carcasses for preservation. The internal organs will be left outside for the foxes (as a way of returning them to nature), while the skin and fur will be processed to be used as rugs inside the tents.

Nils' cabin was located in the middle of the forest, a place without electricity or phone signal. Our daily routine consisted of fetching water from the stream (so clean it was drinkable and delicious), setting bird traps, and drilling through ice for fishing. We also had to gather firewood from the forest for boiling water, smoking meat, and sharpening knives, axes, and ice drills, and repairing our belongings. Modern life for visitors like me was more convenient with gas stoves (some houses still used wood), generators, and chainsaws instead of axes. Even basic tasks like washing dishes or fetching water were difficult when the surrounding temperature was around -10 degrees Celsius.^oC to -40^oC.

The feeling of being in a vast area, hundreds of kilometers wide, free from the noise of engines or the hustle and bustle of people, surrounded only by nature, water, fresh air, and scenery like something out of a wilderness survival film, is truly special. Sunsets, sunrises, starry skies, and the aurora borealis are the most beautiful and pristine things. Even the snowflakes falling gently in the air are breathtakingly beautiful, stirring my emotions.

I still vividly remember Nils taking us to visit the reindeer herd. We sat right on the snow, built a fire, melted the snow to make tea and coffee, and had breakfast with bread his wife made herself while watching the reindeer frolic in the fading afternoon light. The feeling of working with our hands, chopping wood for warmth, or sitting peacefully fishing was strangely comforting. In the evening, Nils simmered the reindeer bones he had butchered that afternoon over the fire in the middle of the tent. Reindeer bone stew (similar to pork bones) is an indispensable dish on the day of reindeer slaughter. And so, that Tet (Vietnamese New Year), instead of gathering around a pot of sticky rice cakes like Vietnamese families, we sat around the fire, around the pot of stewed meat, and experienced Tet in a different way.

Additional information

• Visa: You can use a Schengen visa to enter Norway or apply for a visa at the VFS Visa Application Centre (with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City). VFS will accept applications up to 90 days before your intended departure date, and applications will be processed within approximately 15 days.
• The journey: From Vietnam, you can fly to Oslo (Norway) with Turkish Airlines, then fly with SAS to Alta to begin your journey.
• Transportation: To get to Lofoten, the two most popular options are flying from Oslo to one of the three airports around the archipelago: Svolvaer, Narvik, or Leknes, and then renting a car or taking a bus. Narvik is the only one of the three options with direct flights from Oslo, but it is the furthest from Lofoten. The other two airports are close to Lofoten, but you will need a connecting flight in Bodo. From Narvik, you can also take a bus to Lofoten.
• Weather: If you choose to spend Lunar New Year in Norway, be aware that this is a very cold time in Northern Europe, with temperatures often ranging from -10°C.^oC to -40^oC.
• Cost: If you book a tour with the Sami people, you will have to pay 1,600 euros for 4 days, which includes airport transfers, meals, accommodation, fishing, aurora photography, camping, and barbecues.

Hoang Le Giang