Hanoi Flower Market

Vietnamese women with typical pointy bamboo hats at the nocturnal and early morning flower market of Quang Ba in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Vietnamese are big producers of flowers and by visiting this market which starts in the middle of the night one will get an idea of how popular they are. At that time of night only wholesalers who have to distribute the flowers to shops throughout the city are seen.
Early morning more local people come to buy and can pick and choose from a huge selection of cut flowers including about a dozen varieties of roses. The fragrance in the air is overpowering as these flowers are the freshest in Hanoi and are rushed from outlying rural areas to Quang Ba on a daily basis. On special occasions such as Tet 'Lunar New Year Festival', business is at its peak and the market is a mass of seething bodies and flowers. It could be termed a floral paradise.