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IntroductionThe Vietnamese people had many years of war in the twentieth century: the Japanese, then the French, then the 'American War' (they call it that, to Australians like me it was the Vietnam War, to the USians it was the Vietnam Conflict). War was followed by years of corrupt and repressive communist maladministration. However, since the 1980s Vietnam has been economically advancing as private enterprise was first grudgingly tolerated, then allowed, later encouraged. In the 1990s the country started opening up to foreign visitors from the relatively wealthy West; in the first decade of the twenty-first century the stream became a flood.But Vietnam has not (yet) been spoiled by all the attention, and for those who want to get away from the foreign tourists there are many places that are well worth visiting and where 'white' faces, if not rare, are out of the ordinary and where the local kids treat us as a novelty. My wife and I have visited Vietnam three times, a few days in October 2004, about a month in October and November of 2006, and another three weeks in June and July of 2008. At one time or another we have travelled by land (bus, minibus or train) all the way from Cantho in the Mekong delta in the far south to Lao Cai on the Chinese border in the north. The Vietnamese people are exceptionally friendly. You will occasionally find one who wants to take advantage of you, but to get a surly or rude response from anyone in Vietnam is very rare. (Some taxi drivers in Saigon are learning, and some are not to be trusted.) Vietnam is a beautiful country. Much of it is mountainous, and much is flat coastal deltaic plane; there seems little in between. The climate is variable, from hot and humid in the lowlands of the south, warm in the central highlands, warm to hot seasonally at Hanoi, and cool seasonal in the northern highlands around Sapa. The country is entirely in the tropics, so visitors from the temperate regions are much more likely to suffer from excessive heat than excessive cold anywhere. This page will cover the bits that we visited starting from the south and moving northward. BuildingOne contrast between Vietnam and Australia that struck us was in the building that is happening in both countries. In Australia money is going into mines, new houses, pleasure boats, recreational four-wheel-drives and caravans. In Vietnam the money is going into building new roads, bridges, factories, and businesses.The implications for the future economic potential of both nations are obvious. Place namesVietnamese break multisyllabic place names into single syllables; eg. The Western usage, Hanoi becomes Ha Noi, Danang becomes Da Nang. I have probably used both styles on this page.
Mekong DeltaFlat, low-lying, and with interconnecting waterways, the Delta is one of the most fertile and densely populated places on Earth. (Of course its people will suffer as the sea level rises, see the note on climate change and Vietnam on this page.)
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)Commonly called Saigon outside of Vietnam, but officially Ho Chi Minh City, this is the biggest city in the country and the commercial hub. (Officially, Saigon is a relatively small section of Hi Chi Minh City.)
DalatDalat is at an altitude of 1500m. You might think that it would be cool, but in June (summer) it is quite warm during the day; the nights are comfortably cool. We did not have air conditioning in our hotel (Dreams 2), and found that the room was quite comfortable so long as we opened the window for an hour or more in the early evening. See also accommodation.Dalat is much less on the tourist map of Westerners than the more popular of Vietnamese destinations. On the other hand, it is one of the most popular destinations with Vietnamese holiday makers; and the locals are not silly. The front door of the hotel was opened at 0600hrs each day. I rise early, and would have liked to go out around 0500hrs. I mentioned this to Luyen early in our stay and he told me that all I had to do was to knock on the door to the foyer and a lad who slept there would let me out. Although I tried this once, I didn't get any response! I inquired in Dalat about the pine trees, thinking that they seemed unlikely to be local natives, but could not get any definite answer. It is possible that they were planted after the USians had denuded all the hills with herbicides during the war.
Eating (Dalat and elsewhere)Denece and I ate at many more places than those listed below, but did not make (decipherable) notes on them. The simpler places aiming at the less well-off Vietnamese were extremely cheap by Western standards, and, in our experience, had good food. The more comfortable places, those with a door, air conditioning and with table settings, were more expensive, but still much cheaper than you would pay in any Western country. Language was more likely to be problematic in the simpler places, but one advantage was that the food was more traditionally Vietnamese.
Also see the note on Hoang Huy Seafood restaurant in Quy Nhon and the Huu Nghi Restaurant in Hoi An.
Nha TrangOn the very long eastern coast, Nha Trang is a very popular beach resort. We visited it in 2006 and 2008.
Quy NhonThe part of the beach where the fishing boats are repaired is not where you would want to go swimming. It seems that quite a few people live on the boats, and crap on the beach nearby – one of the facts of life in Asia. There is a much cleaner section of the beach further along to the east.
Accommodation in VietnamAll but the very cheapest hotels in the lower parts of the country have air conditioned rooms; we didn't have, or need, air conditioning in our room in Dalat (altitude 1500m). Room prices didn't vary greatly across the country. Of course there was hardly any limit to how much you could pay if you wanted to, but, in general, a good room could be had for around Au$25 per night in the more touristy places, going down to Au$10-$18 in the less visited places (like Quy Nhon and Danang).Breakfast is usually included in the price of the room. This usually means a cooked breakfast if you want one, but generally you eat so much and so well at lunch and dinner you will welcome a light breakfast. Many hotels provide limited Internet access at no extra charge. Also see the note about Dreams 2 Hotel in Dalat.
Hoi AnHoi An has at least two main attractions to Western tourists. Shopping for tailor made clothes is probably some of the best in the world, quite probably the best in the world if you consider value for money; and then there is the fascinating and historical architecture. In addition, the food is excellent, a boat tour on the river is well worth-while and can be instructive, and there is a good beach about four kilometres away. (Jellyfish stings can be a problem at the beach.)
DanangDanang is only 30km from the very touristy town of Hoi An and most of the tourists who visit Hoi An go through Danang. Yet very few of them spend any time in Danang which, consequently, provides a refreshing change from the tourist hordes. The children of Danang are fascinated by Western tourists and their cameras; they love having their photos taken and collapse into giggling helplessness when shown the photos.
HueOnce the capital of Vietnam, there are more palaces in and around Hue than you can poke a stick at.
Halong BayHalong Bay (Latitude N20.8°, Longitude E107.1°) is a maze of steep limestone islands in the north-east of the country. It has been given World Heritage status, and is the biggest tourist attraction in Vietnam. When Denece and I visited, June 2006, the visitor numbers were being handled without spoiling the area; I hope that remains to be the case.
HanoiVietnam's second-biggest capital and city, Hanoi is where you will probably fly into or out of if you go to the north of the country.Our first visit to Hanoi was in 2004 and did not give a good first impression of Vietnam. We had dropped in to Hanoi only to change planes on our way to Britain. There were signs in the airport that stated clearly that airport exit taxes did not have to be paid by those who were in transit. Yet we and others found that there was no way we could get through the airport without paying the tax. Did it go into the pockets of corrupt officials? We'll probably never know. Denece and I went back to Hanoi with our kids (then in their late twenties) in 2006. Hoan Kiem Lake is my favourite place of Hanoi. I start my day early in the morning. (Especially in a place with a hot climate like Vietnam, it is the best part of the day. Why not make the most of the part of the day that is coolest and most comfortable?) Many of the people of Hanoi (it seems the Vietnamese in general) also make an early start. Before daylight there were hundreds or thousands of Hanoiese walking around Hoan Kiem Lake; mostly in a clockwise direction (if my memory is correct). Disappearing motorbikesAnother thing that I first noticed in Hanoi (and saw repeated in many other Vietnamese cities) was that the motorbikes that are so numerous on the streets during the day disappear at night. They are either being ridden on the streets or parked on the footpaths during the day, but are brought inside overnight. Two photos on the right show the same bit of street in the evening and again in the early morning. While many Vietnamese were out on foot, it seems that they wait until later before bringing most of the motorbikes out.
SapaSapa is in the mountains near the northern border with China.We got there by night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, then minibus up the mountainside. Lao Cai is in a deep and remarkable straight valley that is conveniently positioned on a direct line to Hanoi; the railway, of course, follows the valley. Sapa is built around rather steep hills and is interesting, among other things, for the several minority ethnic groups who live through the nearby hills and valleys. In 2006 we stayed a couple of nights at an 'Echo-Retreat' called Tapas that was perhaps a half-hour drive away. Tapas itself was beautiful, comfortable, and very well run; it's only disadvantage was that we were told that we were not supposed, by law, to leave the resort without a local guide. This was apparently another strange law made by the local government with the expressed intention of stopping undesirable interaction between the foreign visitors and the local people, but perhaps really aimed at making the local officials feel that they are in control of where the foreigners can go and what they can do. This may have changed since 2006.
Vietnamese coffeeIt is worth adding a bit to this page to talk about the sort of coffee you are likely to get at street stalls in Vietnam.In my opinion, the coffee as the Vietnamese have it at the street stalls is even better than that served to tourists at most of the restaraunts, not for the coffee itself, but for the way that it is served. There was much variation in the serving styles at street stalls (and some of these may well have been regional), the most elaporate was that which I encountered in a stall, near the Japanese bridge on the waterfront if I remember correctly, in Hoi Ann. This is pictured on the right. The pot is full of green tea, some of which has been poured into a glass; the other glass contains water (the far glass was left behind by another patron). The aluminium cup has hot water, apparently to keep the glass of coffee hot. Tea and water came with the coffee, without me requesting them and at no extra charge; most street stall managers had little English, and I have no Vietnamese. In the second photo the glass of coffee has been taken out of the aluminium cup; note that the coffee is very strong, the glass is quite small, and that there is a thick layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of the coffee glass. Black coffee is an option, I think most Vietnamese drink it white, like this. Coffee at a street stall was almost always 5000 Dong (Aust$0.40); once in Saigon they asked only 4000D.
Train travel in VietnamTrains in Vietnam are comfortable, although not fast. The night trains are very convenient, so long as there is one when and where you need it. 'Soft Sleepers' provide comfortable and cheap travel, four bunks to a compartment; the toilets are at the ends of the carriages. If there is a well timed train, you can get a good night's sleep, a night's accommodation, and get to where you want to go – all in one.In our experience, booking on the trains could be made much easier – this seems to be one thing that still suffers from the poor service that seems a characteristic of socialist economies. There are also poor and desperate people who inhabit the stations hoping to be able to 'help' foreigners find their seats or bunks and carry the luggage; for a small fee. On one train a pushy man grabbed my case, without asking, lifted it up onto a high shelf in our train compartment, and demanded payment. I tried to point out that I didn't need, want, or ask for his help, but he would not leave until I took my case off the high shelf to prove that he was superfluous; I put it back up after he left looking for others to help before the train left. We travelled by night train both directions from Hanoi to Lao Cai, from Hanoi to Hue, and again from Nha Trang to Saigon (this last train got us into Saigon around 0330hrs, rather an inconveniently early arrival.
ServicesATM machines are easy to find in the larger or more touristy cities in Vietnam.Internet access, likewise, is easy to find. Laundry services are usually provided by hotels, but might be even cheaper if you take your washing to the easily found laundries yourself. Posting stuff back home is very easy, at least in Hoi An where we needed to send a box full off. We took our stuff to the post office. The clerk found a box the right size, helped us pack it, and then helped us with the necessary paper work. We later learned that Post Office staff would have come to our hotel and done it all there had we requested it.
Climate change and VietnamVietnam is hot. With climate change it will probably get hotter. Much of the highly populated parts of Vietnam is very low-lying. As the sea level rises, and typhoons become more intense and common, flooding will increase, especially in the Mekong and Red River deltas.The Vietnamese are responsible for only a very small percentage of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been added to the atmosphere in the last couple of hundred years and is the main cause for climate change. Nations like Australia and the USA are much more to blame for the problem, but the Vietnamese will probably suffer more than we will.
This, and similar ethical considerations connected with the
record of USA and Australia, weighs on my conscience and should weigh on
the conscience of all thinking Westerners.
Religion in VietnamVietnam has a very mixed bag of religions. Christian churches are common, Buddhist temples (and pagodas) are everywhere, ancestor worship and animism is widely practiced, Vietnam is the home of Cao-Diaism, and then, I believe, there are Taoism and Confucianism.I had the impression that at least some of the Vietnamese mix their religions, praying at several temples devoted to different religions. The Vietnamese people seem very tolerant with regard to religion, perhaps with such diversity they realise that to believe that whichever one they followed was "the one true religion" would be a highly questionable assumption.
The communist government, to their credit, tried to discourage superstitions
(which of course includes all religions), but don't seem to have been very successful.
The Vietnam warI have written on the Vietnam war in another page and, in regard to the USA, on my page The Real USA. |