After dinner at Cafe de Paris where we realised just how tall Matthew Dobson is, we settle in a wee roof top bar only to be told that it was a pub with no beer and so we leave to go find something else.
Thee were so many people on the ocr err of the night market street that I decided people watching would be more fun than another beer and so I bade my goodnights and took my things back to the hotel safe and embarked in an amazing journey.
I watched many people crouched onto what we would use as plastic stools for kids around wee tables enjoying a drink or a meal. Everyone so happy amd friendly and mainly locals enjoying their night out.
My stroll took me, initially, through the night market. The usual street with many stalls of product for sale, generally of inferior quality but never the kess fun to watch the hustle and bustle. I wander down to the end of the street where I encounter total unadulterated madness. A huge roundabout surrounded by so many motor cycles (or motorbikles as they are called in HCMC) that I literally could not cross the street. I detour a bit and eventually make it across the road to the footpath around the lake where I join thiusands of people all walking in the same direction on their way to do a loop,of he lake. The motorcycles were all going in the same direction and people, bikes, cycles, push chairs were all adorned with various Christmassy decorations, street vendors were selling all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable foods. Bands played. Youth sat in circles singing, little kids were carried by their parents clapping as they went. The cars and cycles tooted, the buildings around the lake were all lit up and the wee islands in the middle of the lake looked truly magical. Groups of people on roller blades, wearing in santa hats were joined in a line, skating along the street.
As I was going towards the candy floss and popcorn vendor with money at the ready he suddenly packed up and rushed off. I turn around and there was a group of policemen rounding up one of the other vendors and they had confiscated her fry pan. An argument followed and the frypan wasn't going back to the vendor, but in the time that the argument was happening the other vendors had time to pack up and scarper. Dozens of them. Ten minutes later and they started coming back again.
As I am heading back towards home I feel someone lightly tugging my hair. I turn and it was a young lady. She was checking to see if it was real and kept giving tiny tugs. Once she realised that I had sussed what she was doing she stroked a small part and then stroked her own. Guess white wiry hair is a bit of a novelty to a young asian girl with smooth, black, glossy and gorgeous hair.
I walk for a way with a young couple who explained that when the weather is fine it is not unusual,to have crowds walking round the lake over the weekend nights, but they had never seen so many people before. On a normal weekend night it can take a motorcycle about 45 minutes to do the circuit of the lake. During the day in rush traffic about 30 minutes but apparently tonight it was taking people around 2 hours for the complete loop. Total bedlam but everyone was happy.
By the time I got back to my room it was nearly Christmas day. An early start for me so I can ring the family before they head off for their lunch at my nephews.
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