Tet Celebrations

Just recovering from the excesses of the Christmas decorations the city fathers have gone all out to provide more lights for Tet. It doesn't have the same kitsch factor that Christmas has but it's worth the extra long power cuts we get on Tuesday to power the lights.Le Loi and Dong Khoi are both fully illuminated but Nguyen Hue is still under construction, it looks like it's going to be a pretty spectacular floral arrangement the entire length of the street. I'll try to get back during the day but we're off to Singapore then Cambodia on Sunday so I might miss it. Meanwhile, here are some pretty pictures of pretty lights.



Le Loi is in the same colour scheme as Christmas but with the seasonal addition of yellow blossoms and full moon balloons. This is the car lane, it's odd to see cars that aren't partially marrooned amongst motorbikes.



A closeup of the aforementioned moon balloons.



The bike lane and the pavement beside it were awash with people on bikes out doing their pre Tet business. We parked up in a school that was being used as an overflow bike park and walked but even that was a bit hairy at times.

Dong Khoi, once called Rue Catanat, is all red lanterns and dangly lights.





What's new year without a sale?

The Caravelle has my favourite lights, the Vietnamese Flag rendered in strings of fairy lights.



Its gearing up to get even more crazy at Tet approaches. In a way it's a pity we'll miss it but for the actual Lunar New Year celebrations most things close down and people spend the time with their families. Anyway, have holidays must travel.

Guitars, Motorbikes and Vietnamese Music

We've been shopping, mainly for guitars. Saigon has a convenient system where specialist retailers set up together on one street so obviously if your looking for a guitar Guitar Street is the place to go "Nguyen Thein Thuat" to give it it's official name. Just off the big roundabout where Districts 1,3 and 5 converge.



It's a nice street, lots of clothing shops which will dig out some XXL tshirts if you have the time for them to search. I try to remind myself that Vietnamese XXL is European M but it doesn't really help. I particularly liked the dummy outside the shop below.



But this is what we came for, guitars.



And more guitars.



We bought two.

At £20 and £40 respectively they're hardly going to be world beaters but they both play well and have a nice tone, the one on the right is fitted with pickups and is steel strung hence it's higher price.