Midnight

Sudang comes to our hotel and we set off for Hoan Kiem lake for fireworks. Its a crush!!! People and scooters jammed together in an immobile mass like sticky rice. Little kids being dragged along or more safely on dad's shoulders, compete with young men in a mash pit, shoving their way forward into no space.



it would have been smart to have come early and staked out a place in a restaurant on an upper floor.


I sit on a parked scooter to rescue my feet from being trampled.
Balloon sales flourish.


All this for 15 minutes of fireworks , which I don't see directly but via a reflection on a building across the lake. Finally the crowd shifts and I get a glimpse higher up in the sky.
Altars abound in the neighborhood.









The headgear and boots of the kitchen god will be burned to welcome him back for another year. Notice the fruit offering and the square sticky rice cakes wrapped in leaves. When the incense has burned (about an hour) the altar can be disassembled, burned and eaten by the household.
-On the road with Kathryn

Location:Hanoi