Christmas

I don't go seeking the "picturesque poverty" shots.  I usually avoid them. I don't want to invade the privacy of people who have so little of it to start with.  This was an accidental picture, I was trying to capture only the line of Christmas tat on sale but sometimes life just jumps up and slaps you in the face.

Santa Time

The streets are full again of children of all ages posing in front of the Tax Centre Christmas displays. This year the photographers are liveried up in Noel 2010 shirts.

Red velvet ropes are set up to help keep people from climbing on the polystyrene displays which have an international theme courtesy of Hitachi.

Most of the Santa Babies have already learned the art of photo posing but you have to start somewhere.

There are new Santa fashions, the halter neck tiered dress...

and more and more fairies.

The decorations are up.

The Santas on sticks have arrived.

The balloons have been modeled

and Mickey and Minnie are available for you in their Military Fighter helicopter.

Merry Christmas from Ho Chi Minh City.

Dalat Christmas Break

A four night trip to Dalat for Christmas in the well posh Sofitel Dalat Palace was a nice break from Saigon. Vietnamese people tell me it's very romantic, certainly unheated rooms do encourage cuddling up, but I enjoy it for the cool air during the day and the kitschness.

First, here's a picture of the cool air:

And now some of the kitsch:

Dalat makes a wine, and from the bottles they have also made a Christmas tree which will also double as a general purpose tree for the upcoming flower festival.

One of the "romantic" attractions of Dalat is to take a swan pedalo onto the lake.

You can take your swan for a tour past the potato crisp heart:

Or gaze at the Dalat Eiffel Tower courtesy of the Post Office:

Pony rides are popular, so is taking pictures of people taking pony rides. Look carefully (you might want to click on the picture for the full size on flickr) you should be able to see the best combination of hats in any one picture ever.

A stetson, a non la or cone hat, a sun hat complete with face protector if the hat doesn't provide enough coverage and, being Christmas, a santa hat. There's also a hat on the guy on the pony that I don't know the name for.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Cheer

As once again Saigon gears up to celebrate all things Santa and Baby Jesus related I find myself hanging outside places making "oooh" sounds and pointing stupidly at things. If I have a camera handy to point stupidly with I'll take a picture.

Last year the May Hotel went all out for a tin foil theme but this year not a scrap of it in sight. A mistake as far as I am concerned but still, they did provide us with a Baby Jesus in a sequined play suit nestled in a huge twinkling star.



Nice.

Kentucky Fried Welcome

KFC on Hai Bai Trung are gearing up for Christmas by making one of their employees dress in a Colonel Saunders outfit and hand out treats to children.



I've never eaten in KFC and oddly even this didn't tempt me in.

Nothing says Christmas like pumpkins

Dong Khoi is already gearing up for Christmas but initially I was confused.



Pumpkins? What's that all about, leftover Thanksgiving or Halloween decorations?
Still, they were popular with the "pick up the props for a photo opportunity crowd".



A little further along the frontage of this high end outlet and everything became clear.

Cinderella, I should have guessed and yes, the manequins rotate.

There's a pumpkin coach too but I am going to wait to post pictures of that when I have pictures of it at night in all it's twinkling beauty.

Deck the hotels with miles of tin foil

I found a place that was just too awsome to capture in a single shot. The My Hotel, on or near Cao Ba Quat.

I'd passed it a week ago near the end of the work night out which included Karaoke in a fried chicken shop. I was mesmerised by the sheer shininess of it and had to be dragged away. I'd had several lemonades so was pretty impressed that I managed to find it again. No small thanks to Stephen who responded swiftly to my squeals of "Shit stop the bike, there it is". I jumped off and ran down the street Anneka Rice style while he had to find a way back down a one way system to pick me up once I satiated myself.



One third of the frontage, here you can see the compulsory Creepy Santa, this one gets extra points for having no hands, just streams of tinsel spewing from his cuffs.



Inflatable snowman atop the stairs covered in aluminium foil, visitors can still get into the hotel but no more than two abreast. Even the entry and exit to the underground parking is lined in tin foil.



Finally, Baby Jesus in tinfoil nestled in a manger lined with tinsel. It doesn't get any more Christmassy than this.

You better watch out

Santa Claus has hit town in a big way.


It's "Dress your child like Santa and take pictures of them in front of the Christmas displays around town month". This is outside the Tax Shopping Centre at the top of Le Loi. Benches are set up and photo opportunities abound to capture your family in front of a seasonal backdrop.


But to some nothing says "Christmas" quite as well as a backdrop of a projected new high rise development.


The developers also seem to be sponsoring the not very realistic log fire inside the shopping centre, also a popular photo spot but you can have enough of a good thing so I haven't posted any here.

Meanwhile other attractions have not been left behind. Gucci does it with stylish blue lights and nodding white reindeer.





And in Dam Sen park the Santas travel in packs.



Or languish forgotten from previous displays.