photos - walk through dist 1, Sai Gon - police to dog meat

Sai Gon is  so interesting, so many things going on, like an onion you peel back one layer and you find another view.  It is the kind of place, let your senses guide you and you won't be disappointed.

ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress) clad young women

vanishing french agriculture

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we got donuts

roundabout dist 1

push cart recycler

push cart recycler

we got wires -  Pham Nhu Loa backpackers area

hem (alley) dining and street vendors

dist 1 street side vendor serving  rush hour traffic

flower on my balcony 

chop stick dryer

Hem (alley) eatery specializing in  omlets

Team - mobile fruit vendors

omnipresent police

Ben Thanh market flower sellers 

recognise this

pagoda

another night motorbiking in Saigon

yup, got a hunger for dog - here you are

20 years - curb side fixing 

polices prisoner transport truck - ref. no ac in the back

Bin Tham Market

shoe shine boys - strategy session

xe om driver looking for a fare

old and new dist 1

thanks for stopping by - Doug

tet ramp up 2014, 23-9 park The Year Of The Horse

                                          

women in tradition Vietnamese silk ao dai's

The ramp up to Tet has begun, stores are crowded with shoppers buying that last special thing that will make their Tet perfect. Streets which are normally overflowing with motorbike, bicycles, buses, taxis when the unthinkable happens, ka-wam, the frenzy of Tet hits. So now you have the normal crush of daily traffic plus

Chinese built motorcycle trucks

people out and about getting ready for the holiday.  Then, mix in a few of those little Chinese manufactured motorcycle trucks and a sprinkle of jumbo transports hauling the traditional plants,

motorbike with plant hauler

flowering shrubs and trees from the countryside to places like 23-9 park in

HCMC where they will be sold.

Whoops, so as I storm on about Tet and you my reader are wondering and so what is it.  Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is called Tet in Vietnam.   So not to be redundant and because I'm lazy and don't want to redo my old post, I'll toss in a link to what I wrote last year  commemorating 2013 the year of the snake, this year, 2014 it's the horse. I'll have new photos of this years decorations on Nguyen Hue street in a few days.

Meanwhile the temporary markets with all this beautiful plants are like a remake of the countryside in the middle of the city while

waiting for buyers to haul these beauties home for Tet decorations and as gifts for friends and family. Some of the newly purchased plants can be carried on the family motorbike while larger ones need to draw from a bevy of  motorbike transporters with converted seats to a haul the plants behind the driver, then always, if there is a buck to be made, you have the enterprising cyclo drivers and then for the really large trees and shrubs commercials delivery trucks.  Interesting, though today I was over there and didn't see hide nor hair of any cyclo drivers.  Maybe the $12.00 government Tet bonus sent them all into retirement.

This is a bit strange for me as in the past the Tet period in Sai Gon has always

it must be Tet, sausages anyone  

been really kicked back as many business close and many folks leave the city to travel, either back to their homes or take a trip somewhere.  You see other than the Tet period most Vietnamese work 6 days a week, with a few government holidays  but no vacation time until Tet.  However, so far this Tet has been crazy and the crowds on the street and in the parks are gigantic. 

  

no forklifts - all loaded and moved by hand 

                                                Thanks for coming along -  Doug