Vietnamese Thoughts and Facts

I felt extremely sad to be leaving Vietnam after nearly five weeks. I had been ignorant of much of Vietnam's history and unsure about what I'd find from this country when I included it in my initial travel plans, but it certainly exceeded any expectations I might have had. The week's 'holiday' in Phu Quoc was the icing on the cake for a country I feel I really got to know and love.

Ha Long Bay feels like something I did months ago, and I still see flashback images in my mind from the stunning scenery there. My road trip south from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh was an epic adventure in it's own right and one of which I am proud to have completed. Better still it gave me the chance to meet people in places Westerners seldom tread, finding friendship and help when I needed it, whilst learning something of the remarkable history of this country as I went.

     

I've enjoyed the food, the prices, the people, the smiles, the landscape, the coast, the mountains, the temperature (sorry to all those in the wintry UK!), the diving, the exploration and the discovery.

Thank you Vietnam. I do not know how you manage to be so happy, positive and welcoming when I consider your bloody history. Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian and French attempts to subjugate you, the immense consequences of a superpower conflict fought on Vietnamese soil (as communist Russia battled with Capitalist America) interefering with and fuelling a North/South civil war in the process.

             

    

You are a young nation with a young people, but I pray that you do not grow old and cynical. Resist  and challenge corruption wherever you find it, be it in the rapidly growing tourist industry or in the workings of the government. And make sure that all the lessons you have learned from centuries of conflict help you to continually strive for peace within your own borders and with your neighbours.

      

                                                                         A Huey stationed on top of the palace in Saigon

On Phu Quoc I was abe to dive for fun after completing my Rescue Diver training and I loved the abundance of coral and aquatic life I encountered at Turtle Island and Nail Island in the south. Better still was the fact that I made new friends in the process. I met Jana-Maria diving and was able to visit her when I returned to HCM the day she flew back to Germany (a timely date as she had been ill with food poisoning from a dodgy tuna sandwich and I was able to deliver a supply of rehyrdation sachets, Imodium, a plain breadroll and some lemonade.) Meanwhile, Karene, who I met during my last day diving, has offered to be my guide for a day when I reach her home city of Melbourne next week. 

I was also able to put to bed my motorcycle anxiety which had developed in HCM, by hiring a moped for a day's riding (I paid $10 to the hotel manager and borrowed his!) and proceeded to ride the length of the island. Phu Quoc is only 55kms long, but I managed to clock up 130kms and rode some interesting jungle and coastal roads in the process.

    

  

                                                

                                        A short video from my day riding on Phu Quoc

Vietnamese Factoids:-

#  85% of the people are Buddhist

    

#  8% are Catholic

                    

#  Vietnam is a Communist country (with a one-sided account of the 'American War" as a result!)

#  It is a nation of coffee drinkers (though they like it with sugar and condensed milk - either hot or iced)

#  Vietnam is filled with Russian tourists

#  Agent Orange victims are evident everywhere (a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by US military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them)

#  Motorbikes are everywhere (eg Ho Chi Minh population 11 million people - number of motorbikes in HCM 7.5 million)

     

#  Many Southerners still refer to HCM as Saigon (the name of the river which flows through the centre) but the Northerners never do

#  The signs of French colonial presence is everywhere - from the architecture to the bakeries, street names to ice cream

#  The language is a bitch - a single word can be spelt the same, but pronounced in 6 different ways to mean 6 different things depending on the stress and accent placed on key letters

#  Vietnamese are a very capitalist people with regards to industry and private entrepreneurs 

#  The poorest people live rurally (and they certainly work the hardest)

    

#  Men and women work equally hard at all jobs (and you will often see women labouring on building sites and in road construction)

#  The classic Vietnamese hats are still worn, but predominantly by older women

#  Crossing the road is an art

#  Old people who predate the war are rare, particularly those who fought against the communists, only 4% of them remain to make up the current population still living in Vietnam - the others died in the conflict or left the country to live in other parts of SE Asia or the US when the South 'lost'

Cheers Vietnam - you were great!

Paul