2014 Tet, the flower street (Nguyen Hue Street) Sai Gon

this can tire a kid out

remembering above, along with all the landscaping is man made, just for this event 

                 

Le Loi Street on my way back tonight (30/1)

Le Loi Street on my way back tonight (30/1)

                             
Today is the eve of Tet or the start of the lunar New Year celebration, the year of the horse.   Okay, now it is starting to quiet down in Sai Gon except for the area around Le Loi and Nguyen Hue street.

Le Loi is the main drag in the center of the city and Nguyen Hue is a wide blvd off of leading off of it. Le Loi is capped off with lite decorations forming a canopy of lights and colored Tet decorations leading up to Nguyen Hue.  Nguyen Hue has been blocked off to all except foot traffic and transformed into this fantastic display of flowers, trees, art and sculptures to commemorate the holiday.

I'm not an easy guy to impress and this years Tet presentation blew my socks off.  As you look through the photos I took this afternoon, keep in mind this is a blvd with 3 lanes on each side of a grassy divider that stretches a half mile or so.  Everything you see was brought in and fabricated just for this event and shortly after the Tet holiday it will be pulled down and hauled away and the street will look like it never happened.

Speaking of pulling things down so it looks like it never happened, on my way back to my room I walked by the park and all the flowering trees, plants and the people are gone. acres and acres of park land has been put back to its original use with out a sign of what went on.

On a personal note three of my favorite restaurants and three of my favorite bars, plus the place where I take my laundry are closed for the holiday and will reopen next week sometime.

Not having very good luck with adding photos into my copy, so the photos are following - everywhere, sorry.

entrance to Nguyen Hue off of Le Loi 

                                                             

what's a celebration without the balloon guys

Sai Gon gives a new meaning to crowds

              

all this is man made and will be removed in a few days

enterprising beverage sales lady

Once again, I want to thank you for coming along -  Doug

    

when news is news or is it

News from newspapers is 

in short supply here in Vietnam, anyway in English, can't read Vietnamese so don't know about that.  The one English newspaper, aptly named Vietnam News, originates from Ha Noi and is published by the Vietnam News Agency.  
However, it does contain interesting copy. 

Not too long ago when John Kerry, made a state visit to Ha Noi. An article regarding the discussion he and Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trang - amounted to pressing Kerry in obtaining "multiple faceted cooperation with Vietnam including search for missing Vietnamese soldiers and strengthening ties with trade and investments, science, health and climate change." 

Gave some highway statics on the road outside of Quan Nai 80 % of the accidents involved minibuses.  For the first 6 months of this year - 75 accidents, 77 dead and 42 injured.  My thinking is I'm staying away from minibuses, no only in Quan Nai but everywhere. Oh ya, a minibus is a small van with multiple seating, referred to in the USA as a soccer mom's vehicle. 

       
 Another article titled "Poor Workers can go home for Tet".  

Tet (Lunar New Year) is the biggest of biggie's here, a holiday of gigantic proportions.  A big part of it is vacation time, no vacation time in Vietnam only break is at Tet where the whole country pretty much shuts down for a week or so.  The other part of Tet is that it needs to be celebrated with family and for many family is in the countryside somewhere and it takes money to get there.

So this article is about how the state is compassionately addressing the plight of the workers.  A national fund has been established of

US$ 33,300.00 for bus tickets and gifts "for migrant workers to return home for the Tet holiday".  Just for reference there are somewhere between 24 - 48 million unskilled workers in the country which I would consider poor because of earnings between US$ 160 and 190.00 a month.  With all that in mind cyclo drivers are getting US$ 12.00, which isn't bad.

So busy here, everyone racing around getting ready for Tet.  Not me I'm recovering from some sort of crude thing, cough, stuffed up head and just so tired.  Though all is good, Thailand around the middle of next month and back to the states towards the end of February.. Tomorrow more on me, where I'm staying and all that.