Simon & Rosie's Travel Journal: New Year Two Point Oh

Having been part of Imperial China until 938 CE, Vietnam's culture and traditions are steeped in Chinese heritage. Known here as Tet, Vietnam's celebration of the lunar new year is the biggest event on the calendar.

2015 marks the year of the goat in Vietnam. In other cultures, owing to a translation issue
with an ancient Chinese symbol, rams and sheep may also symbolise the new year.

For the past few weeks, the shops have been packed, the city has been decked in Tet trees, lights and flags, and the excitement has been building in the run up to the 18th of February, New Year's Eve. The giving of gifts and food hampers has seen every spare inch of our local Co-Op supermarket piled with elaborately stacked baskets of chocolates, biscuits, cakes, nuts and fruit, and the loading of motorbikes has become even more ridiculous...

With traditional Tet flowers between his legs, this chap's passenger precariously balances
a kumquat tree on each thigh, completely obscuring her from view

A balloon seller sails his bike down the road as the wind catches his colourful wares.

In the run up to the big day, Vietnamese people clean their homes, cars, scooters and business from top to bottom, clearing the bad luck in time for the new year, and display colourful selections of fruit whose names, when placed in certain orders, sound similar to traditional Tet greetings.

Word Magazine published a helpful guide for anyone who wants to know more about this massive event and the various customs surrounding it. Unlike the western version, there's a bit more to it than ill-fated New Year's resolutions and Nicorette adverts.

The nine day national holiday began last Saturday and slowly the city started to drain of its inhabitants as people returned to their home towns and villages. They say that as the holiday approaches, every bus, car, van, lorry, train and plane leaving town will be rammed, exodus style.

Yesterday, New Year's eve, and Saigon was like a ghost town. All shops, restaurants, cafes and offices closed and shuttered, the streets eerily quiet. With Rosie's mum visiting for half-term, we headed out in search of one of the handful of eateries still operating. Rosie's mum achieved a level one mastery of the chopsticks and got stuck in to the Asian way of dining...

Omelette, tofu, squid and noodles in one of our favourite restaurants in Saigon

With a bit of research, visitors can still find things to keep themselves occupied. It's not that hard to find a decent meal and several tourist attractions like the Reunification Palace are open as usual. One Tet tradition is to visit Saigon's famous flower street and pose in your 'Sunday finest' for family photographs. A block west of its usual home (owing to the construction of a metro system), a kilometre long stretch of one of District One's busiest avenues is turned into a pedestrianised floral wonderland, with raised ponds, gardens and 3D constructions spread out right there on the tarmac to the sound of piped in birdsong mixed with Kenny G.

A living reconstruction of a rice paddy expertly demonstrated

Despite the city's apparent emptiness, it was obvious that come nightfall on the eighteenth, anyone who was still here would assemble in the streets downtown for the annual firework celebration at midnight. With the apartment building to ourselves (all but a handful of our neighbours have also abandoned the city), we decided that along with a few select friends we would take to the rooftop terrace in the hope of spotting the pyrotechnics and see in the New Year (again) with a few drinks. It was also the day after Rosie's birthday, so there was double cause for celebration.

We borrowed some fairy lights, gathered tables and chairs, plumbed in the sound system and had ourselves a pocket party beneath the stars. It was one of the best New Year's Eves ever...and in the middle of February! A kicking playlist of soul music pumped out over the rooftops, we made a drunken "Happy New Year" call to a friend in New York City (result, much confusion her end, zero credit my end) and danced barefoot until almost three AM when our legs could take no more.