There is a very different Saigon in the first days of the year. Saigon on Tet holiday has spacious streets, the pace of life suddenly slows down.
Before that, I took a bus down to Ben Tre. The bus swayed until it reached Rach Mieu Bridge and then... stopped, because of traffic jam. Looking at the other lane, it felt like the whole bridge was made of Tet flowers. Cho Lach - Ben Tre flower village is one of the two largest flower farms in the West, from which, buses full of bougainvillea, colorful chrysanthemums, or pots of yellow apricot blossoms spread throughout the region.
Stop at a roadside restaurant, try a cup of fatty, chewy coconut milk, nibble on a coconut candy, or enjoy a meal of braised pork in coconut milk served with bright red sour shrimp paste mixed with crispy papaya stalks.
A winding road through the green coconut trees, then a ferry across the Hau River, listening to the river wind blowing. The whole Western dialect is filled with laughter, asking each other what they bought for Tet, whether they will roast a pig this year, and whether they will have time to dry the dried fish to serve guests who come to the house?
At noon, stop by Soc Trang to try fragrant sticky rice made from ST25 rice with crispy and fatty dried pineapple fish, some cool sour fish soup, or a plate of fragrant and sweet braised rat meat with lemongrass, then stop in Bac Lieu in the evening - the land of traditional music.
A long journey took me to Mui Cay - a place that overwhelms people with the beauty of the forest and the pristine nature. The boat took me deep into U Minh Ha, through a dense system of canals, admiring the mangrove trees that are hundreds of years old and have stood firm for thousands of years.
It feels like there are no seasons here, spring, summer, autumn and winter follow each other in endless green. At night in the middle of the forest, you can hear the rustling of mangrove trees telling stories, a few birds calling to each other in the night, occasionally a bird startled and flapping its wings to fly away amid the buzzing sound of motorboats of people visiting the forest.
Here, the sunrise comes from the sea and the sunset also comes from the sea. The sun sows life into the green forest canopy, gentle and peaceful. Under the forest canopy, in the soft mud, crabs, shrimps, mudskippers, wild clams… thrive naturally like a gift from Mother Earth.
The trip changed from the forest to the city, to Rach Gia to see the calm sea with the coastal road full of flowers, then went around the country roads to spend a night in the flower village of Sa Dec - Dong Thap.
In the midst of the bustling spring, everyone’s eyes sparkled with joy. Westerners love warm colors, and the flowers are therefore more vibrant. The long road from Dong Thap to Ben Tre is like a winding silk strip dyed with a thousand shades of pink and purple.
My spring trip ended with a journey through the red soil of the East, passing by the immense Dau Tieng Lake with rows of trees reflecting their shadows. There, there were spring buds sprouting new leaves.
Because spring is the beginning of the earth and sky growing...
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nang-vang-mua-xuan-phuong-nam-3150389.html
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