The festive four-day Reunification and Labor Day holiday has come and gone, with fireworks, traffic jams and crowded beaches.
Vietnam is going back to business on Wednesday after a four-day break with a lot of fun, and at the same time, exhaustion.
The holiday, as expected, started with crazy traffic scenes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as people fled the urban heat and dust for a vacation by the beach or to visit their families.
The escape was a real struggle, with buses packed like cans of sardines in Hanoi. Many people literally had to run to catch their flight at Tan Son Nhat airport when taxis stood hopelessly in the crazy traffic.
For travel destinations across Vietnam, from beach towns Vung Tau and Nha Trang to highland favorites Da Lat and Sa Pa, the holiday brought in overwhelming waves of visitors.
The crowd in Nha Trang beach town in central Vietnam on Sunday. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc
Da Lat does not look very appealing in this picture taken on Sunday. Hotels said they were fully booked two weeks in advance. Photo by VnExpress/Khanh Huong
A family had to take a break on a Da Lat sidewalk. Photo by VnExpress/Khanh Huong
Back in Ho Chi Minh City, the downtown party attracted massive crowds to Nguyen Hue walking street even though there were no fireworks shows as usual. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen
Hospitals were busier than normal receiving people injured from road crashes and drunk party fights. Cho Ray, the leading trauma hospital in HCMC, was overwhelmed. Photo by VnExpress/Le Phuong
But the holiday was not all just chaotic. Locals and visitors in Da Nang had a great time with the fireworks festival, which began its two-month run on Sunday.
The central city indeed had a great holiday this year, pulling in nearly 84,600 foreign tourists, nearly twice the number seen during last year’s holiday, according to official data.
As the four-day break came to an end on Tuesday, many city streets were jammed again. Thousands of people rushed back to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to make sure they wouldn’t miss school and work the next day.
The next big holiday is in early September.
A family returned to Hanoi after spending the long weekend in Nghe An Province. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
Travelers made their way back to Hanoi on Tuesday night. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
An ambulance got stuck on a highway leading to Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday afternoon. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen
Hot, crowded and loud: Images that perfectly sum up the holiday in Vietnam Related image(s)
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