The three main characters of the MINH and PING series - 73-year-old Vũ Thúy Minh, 37-year-old Nguyễn Vũ Quỳnh Châu and their cat Ping. Photo MINH and PING Facebook

HÀ NỘI — The 1,590km journey from HCM City to Hà Nội to welcome Tết (Lunar New Year) of a 73-year-old lecturer, her niece and a cat is recorded in the MINH and PING project. During their journey, they will stop at renown tourist attractions of Việt Nam to drink tea, contemplate the natural beauty and talk.

The main character of the series is Vũ Thúy Minh who teaches American Studies and is also dean of the General Culture Department, HCM City University of Culture. She will tell many interesting stories and offer useful advice in life to viewers along the way.

Ping has suffered from temporomandibular joint (TMJ) luxation since it was one year old. Photo MINH and PING Facebook

Next is Ping, a cat that has unfortunately suffered from temporomandibular joint (TMJ) luxation since it was one year old. The condition makes it unable to eat nuts or paté like other cats. Instead, it can only lick ground paté. Taking care of Ping is quite arduous work so its owners have to take it along whenever they travel.

The third main character is 37-year-old Nguyễn Vũ Quỳnh Châu, Minh’s niece. Minh and Châu live together and are so close they consider each other mother and daughter. Châu works in the entertainment industry and is also the host of the MINH and PING series. Châu is also the driver of the 1,590km journey.

Minh, Ping and Châu are also accompanied with three other companions who are in charge of capturing photos and recording videos of the journey – 31-year-old Tidus Fair Supertramp, a freelance filmmaker, cine-photographer, illustrator and also an active animal rescuer and vegan for nearly 20 years; 26-year-old Tiểu Chí, a freelance photographer, videographer and editor and 22-year-old Ngọc Diệu, caretaker of Ping.

The production team of MINH and PING project. Photo MINH and PING Facebook

The five of them and the handicapped cat will travel by road across Việt Nam in a seven-seat car.

Minh and Ping’s journey will be divided into two phases. The first phase is their trip home to welcome Tết, departing on January 5 at Con Rùa (Turtle) Lake in HCM City and finishing on January 12 at Hoàn Kiếm (Sword) Lake. Along the way, they stopped for one or two days in the city of Buôn Ma Thuột in the Central Highland province of Đắk Lắk and other central provinces, including Kon Tum, Quảng Nam and Quảng Bình. At each stop, the group spent time exploring interesting things of the new land.

Minh and Châu have breakfast in Buôn Mê Thuột. Photo thethaovanhoa.vn

The second phase is the spring trip of Minh and Châu’s extended family, consisting of three generations with 50 members, most of whom are working in the field of arts. They will embark on a trip together to several northern provinces to enjoy the beautiful scenery and experience the local cuisine.

Talking about the inspiration for this project, Châu said: “In an evening without the sun, mother Minh whispered to me a few heartfelt sentences that I can recall as follows, 'I love splendid Sài Gòn but I could not forget the slight coldness but warmth of Hà Nội’s Tết. I miss Hà Nội already. I want to return to the ancient capital and reminisce about my childhood memories.’ And that is how the journey was born.”

Aunt and niece stop at renowned landscapes along their 1,590km journey to enjoy the scenery. Photo thethaovanhoa.vn

The 73-year-old lecturer is the elder sister of Châu’s mother. Having never gotten married, she considers the children of her younger sister as her own and has helped to take care of them since birth. Châu also considers her aunt as her mother. Châu’s family is in Hà Nội but when she entered college, she moved to HCM City to live with Minh and work until now.

Châu also revealed that the MINH and PING Journey is also her 10-year dream of driving from HCM City to Hà Nội to experience life and be able to bring her loved ones along.

Vietnamese stars such as Hà Lê, Phạm Quỳnh Anh, Đông Nhi and Trang Pháp will also appear in the MINH and PING series.

Their journey can be followed at MINH and PING Facebook. VNS