Halloween, Ho Chi Minh City, Arisu
Saturday night in front of the People’s Committee Building in District 1, downtown Ho Chi Minh City. For the first weekend in months, lockdown restrictions had been mostly lifted, with public spaces and restaurants open to the public. This is one of the most popular pre-lockdown walkways in the city, with hundreds of people gathering at night to walk the streets downtown and visit the many restaurants and shops. Street vendors were also very much back, so advertisements for their toys in the form of bubbles and glowing lights in the air were also back. This is such an emblematic walkway in HCMC, so seeing it go from taped off and abandoned to full of people (young and old, Vietnamese and foreigners alike) felt like a promise of a better post-Covid Ho Chi Minh. Plus, lots of small children in costumes who just couldn’t wait one more day! (Arisu Fashawe/YJI)
