Stuck in the lion island nation because of Covid-19, Hoai Thuong welcomes Tet in a tourist area with a set of photos with ao dai and peach branches.
Pham Hoai Thuong, 27 years old, is a Master in Applied Linguistics at Nanyang University of Technology. Due to Covid-19, she was unable to return to Vietnam to celebrate Tet with her family. So, she decided to take a photo shoot with red ao dai and peach branches at famous destinations here.
Currently, tourist areas in the island nation are quite deserted, even near the Lunar New Year. Above is the Marina Bay Sands hotel, one of the tourist symbols of the lion island nation.
Having been away from home for Tet for 4 years but this is the first time the girl has taken a “special” photo shoot. Due to the stressful epidemic situation and the sadness of not being able to go home, she looked for the Tet atmosphere by herself, and showed off her national dress to her international friends.
She went out into the street at noon, when the streets were the quietest, to take pictures. Above is a corner of a Chinese street (China Town). She shared that in previous years, the shopping atmosphere on Tet days here was very bustling, but this year there were no passersby.
When there are no people around, Hoai Thuong can take off his mask to take pictures. Chinatown attracts visitors for its beauty that blends modernity and antiquity, with many old temples and diverse food stalls.
Hoai Thuong shared: “As a Vietnamese girl, I have a lot of ao dai to wear when meeting the country council and to wear it when I have the opportunity to introduce it to foreign friends”.
The photo above was taken at the Buddha Tooth Relic temple. The pagoda was built in 2007, with architecture inspired by the temples under the Tang Dynasty (China). Here, the Buddha Tooth relic is housed in a stupa weighing 3,500 kg and made of 320 kg of gold. Of which 234 kg of gold was donated by Buddhists.
The most difficult props to find are the peach branches. Hoai Thuong could not find real cherry blossoms in the island country, so she bought a fake flower at the Chinese market for SGD 5 (about VND 85,000). She said that the set of photos taken to commemorate the Tet holiday would be lacking without cherry blossoms or apricot blossoms.
The red ao dai brings bold traditional New Year atmosphere of Hoai Thuong flying across the island. She shared that many passersby found it strange and curious to follow her. Despite wearing a mask, the girl always bowed her head, waved goodbye when someone looked and asked.
The subway, one of the symbols of Singapore, also has no passersby. Currently, the Singapore government is putting restrictions on people, such as a maximum of 8 people.
“The train station I took was the last one, so it was quite empty. I chose a vacant place so that I wouldn’t mind if I took off my photo mask,” she said.
After sharing on social networks, Hoai Thuong’s photo set attracted more than 5,000 favorites, and many comments encouraged the girl to welcome Tet away from home.
vnexpress
Photo: Hoai Thuong