And the flowers and the vegetable displays...! The main street by the waterfront in Saigon was closed to traffic and thousands, literally thousands, of people came to admire and have their photos taken by the wonderful flower displays from every corner of Vietnam.
And dragons lining up in the side streets for the kids
The big party is on the eve of Tet, and thousands of people gathered along the street of flowers and thronged to the waterfront for the midnight firework display. I was with two of the girls, and we got parted in the crush, and what a crush it was, with no option but to keep moving pushed on by the people behind. Luckily we did manage to find each other again by the waterfront where is was less busy.... It was very noticeable that everyone was in happy spirits, but there was no sign of alcohol anywhere, and no rowdy behaviour.
The next day being Tet it was very quiet, as traditionally people visit family, and some go to the pagoda. We caught the local bus to Cholon, the Chinatown of Saigon, and went to a couple of pagodas to see the celebrations there.
They write messages and secret wishes on pieces of paper which are tied to conical shaped incense sticks, and they are then hung from the ceiling, the air thick with the smell of the burning incense. It was a very moving experience....
The next day after the girls had left I decided to get a moto, a bike taxi, to the botanical gardens and zoo for a quiet hour or two... Or so I thought! There was a party going on!
There were lots of people looking at the animals in the rather uninspiring old fashioned zoo, and I felt very sorry for the animals.
Someone had thrown a bag of bananas to the monkeys who were having a feast of a time....
And were watched in awe by the crowd...
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