New Year countdown is always one of the most awaited events in a year for everyone. But this year, it’s quite different when Coronavirus still exists and people could not be allowed to gather with a big size of a crowd to prevent a significant spread of Covid-19 in many countries. So, let’s see how the atmosphere of countdown to 2021 in Ho Chi Minh city was.
Fireworks display in Ho Chi Minh
Finding parking on New Year’s Eve
Generally, finding a parking on New Year’s Eve is quite difficult for most local people in Ho Chi Minh where most people drive motorbikes as their main transportation. However, if you go out very early at 7:00pm to join countdown events, it’s sure you can find a place to park your motorbike. I often park my motorbike at Parkson building. This is a very popular motorbike parking at Parkson shopping center in district 1. Luckily, it still had many available spaces for many vehicles when I arrived at around 9:30pm. I was a little bit surprised. I was worried that I could not find any places to park my lovely old motorbike and have to run around and around just to find another place to accept to keep it as usual. That time is considered to be late to go out when the schedule of music performances would start at 8:00pm until midnight.
Ahead to music stage
Some motorbike parkings were just open to keep motorbikes for this event with too much expensive. From your parking time till before midnight, it costs 20,000 vnd and after midnight, they didn’t tell the parking fee when I asked before parking. That’s my experience when going out to join such an interesting, big event. We should ask the price before using the service because they always increase the price when the demand is higher than the supply 😊. Parking in Parkson mall belongs to a public supplier with a fixed, affordable fee. Parking a motorbike costs 9,000 vnd for the first 4 hours. But it’s often full because it’s cheaper and convenient than other parking areas. I was so happy to find a place to park my motorbike finally. 😊
Music performance on New Year countdown event
Music performance in Nguyen Hue street. district 1
Music performances on New Year’s Eve were organized on Nguyen Hue walking street, in district 1, surrounded by five-stars hotels and some famous tourist spots such as Opera House, City Hall, Ho Chi Minh president statue at the top of Nguyen Hue walking street.
Nguyen Hue walking street and City Hall
I went ahead to the walking street Nguyen Hue which is not far from the parking, around 2 minutes. This is a large and main area to organize countdown 2021 in Ho Chi Minh city. There were music performances commencing at 8:00pm at the middle of the street and fireworks display at midnight here.
A crowd gather around a music stage
There was fireworks display in other spots such as Landmark 81, the highest tower in Ho Chi Minh city at Vinhomes Center Park in district Binh Thanh, Dam Sen Water Park, Thu Duc city. Walking near the music stage, I could feel noisy music from there and most of teenagers and young people were gathering around the stage.
A very nice view to see fireworks display
If you choose the music stage to watch fireworks display from here, it’s not a good idea because many higher buildings around hide your view. That’s why I try to pass these crowds to go further to the end of the walking street where has a nice view to see fireworks. It took me around half hour to cross the crowd. Unlike many other nations, Vietnam has beaten back the coronavirus, so this event was allowed to organize.
A nice view to see fireworks display at the corner of Ton Duc Thang street and Nguyen Hue street. People were leaving after the end of firework performance
When escaping the crowd, I can breathe fresh air and I was glad that there were not much people sitting on the street Ton Duc Thang, crossing Nguyen Hue street where I can have a large and nice view to watch fireworks display. Usually, local people bring large papers to sit and they often gather on the street 2 or 3 hours before crossing into a New Year. At that time, it was extremely hard to walk just 100 meters because of no space or very narrow space between each group. This year, our holidays last 3 continuous days including 2 days of weekend. So many people chose to be back their hometown to visit their family, some traveled to many attracting tourist cities such as Da Lat city, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc island, Sapa…
Local people were enjoying splendid fireworks display.
Finally, the most awaited event was coming. Fireworks performance lighted the sky with familiar loud noise but splendid when the clock struck midnight. It seems that fireworks this year were much more beautiful than last year. Hoping a new year to be much better than last year and this pandemic would disappear soon.
Fireworks lighted the sky in Ho Chi Minh
Colorful fireworks lighted the sky in Ho Chi Minh
Happy New Year 2021! 😊
