«Festival Hoa – Kiểng Sa Đéc»

   In the Mekong Delta, where the province of Đồng Tháp lives by water and sunshine all year round, an entire city of living colour comes into bloom once a year. The nurseries of the hundred-year-old Sa Đéc flower village turn every lane into an endless flowerbed, and visitors walk through a sea of blossoms as if across a soft living carpet that stretches from canal to canal and wraps even the yards along the road.

   In brief — what awaits across the venues:

• blooming streets and open-air nursery gardens;
• an international flower and bonsai exhibition;
• "garden city" installations (Đô thị hoa);
• boat rides along the canals between the beds;
• art programmes and the flavours of Mekong cuisine.

   The village is more than a century old: generation after generation has grown flowers and ornamental plants sold across the whole country, and once a year this quiet craft turns into a shared celebration. Growers display bonsai and rare varieties, designers build whole garden quarters out of thousands of pots, and stages with music and dance run right among the beds. Take a boat through the narrow channels between the rows, taste the dishes of the river Mekong kitchen, and catch that one perfect frame in the boundless blooming expanse.

   The festival falls on the eve of Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, when flowers stand for luck and renewal and homes are dressed with fresh bouquets. That is why it means as much to local families, who come for seedlings and holiday spirit, as to travellers after a living tradition rather than a display staged for tourists. Last time around 590,000 guests passed through the village — and nearly everyone left with dozens of photographs.

   Come to Sa Đéc for the flowers, the tastes of the Mekong, and a spring mood that stays with you long after the road home.