The Lunar New Year festivities in Vietnam won’t be complete without the Flower Festival all-over the country.  Of course, I just had to share what we saw on the second day of the holiday.  We decided to go very early in the morning.

Imagine waking up at 5 am ON A HOLIDAY just to set out and get unencumbered shots of the beautiful flower displays along Nguyen Hue?  We arrived at a little past 7 am but maaaan, we weren’t the only ones who had the same idea.

Yellow of course is the dominant color all throughout the Lunar New Year.

There was just too much pretty things to capture!

As usual, every year, the orchids has its own place.

We were also amazed by lots of Vietnamese women in their national dress to have their photos taken.  I swear, if I get my pre-pre-preg weight back, I’ll wear an ao dai next year!

There were Vietnamese mannequins in their flowery garb —

Don’t you just love this small roses?

A rice paddy in the middle of Nguyen Hue —

Harvest!

The designers placed a fountain too!  Will truly hate to see this go by the end of the week!

Lovely green pearls —

Flowers on the boats —

I love this display —

The dragonfly idea is great but I couldn’t get a decent shot with so many people milling around!

The flower tower —

Three-headed dragon —

The crowd was picking up by 8:18 AM. And we thought it was early!

This peacock is amazing!

And this one too!

But the best one of ’em all is the giant dragon designed by painter, Nguyen Minh Phuong.  It’s 12 meters long and 5 meters high made from sponge and dried water hyacinth!  Read more about it here.

It was a really, really tiring morning BUT I wouldn’t have missed this year’s flower festival!  The exhibit will be on till Thursday so do visit now before all the flowers wilt! 😀