Last Day in Vietnam
Trip Start
Jan 2003
1
65
200
Trip End
Dec 2003
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Monday, April 28, 2003
Much of our last full day in Vietnam has been spent shopping and generally recovering from last night's excertions. We did manage to revisit the embassy to thank Annette and Kevin and to take advantage of the swimming facilities! Given Vietnam is so starved of travellers at the moment and therefore we've found it difficult to meet people, it's been particularly nice to spend a bit of time with people we know and would like to keep in touch with.
So, the three words to describe our experiences in Vietnam - inexpensive, traditional and developing. I've already mentioned various examples of the costs here so I won't go into this in too much detail. It's not necessarily the chapest country we've been to (although it's certainly not far off) but you seem to get a lot more for your money. There aren't many ridiculously cheap ($3 to $4) rooms but why would you want to stay in a windowless box for that amount when you can get such a great place for a couple of dollars more?
Vietnam seems to hold onto its traditions more than the other Asian places we've been to. It appears to value the fact they've fought so hard for themsleves that the last thing they want to do is start adopting western ideas etc. While western food is readily available on the tourist trail (particularly Italian) we didn't see any trace of a McDonalds or the like. There are other exmaples of the traditional values such as the women all wearing the conical bamboo hats that i imagined would be just for the tourists now. People also still carry around their produce in two large piles suspended from a bamboo pole slung across one shoulder. Elsewhere this would be in the back of a rickshaw or something but not in Vietnam.
Finally, the development of the country. Still reasonably new to tourism, The Vietnames don't always get things right. A lot are of the mentality that you're being mean for not buying whatever they're selling despite the fact that you don't want it in the first place. The development does make it an easy place to visit with tours readily available for anywhere you may wish to visit etc. While this undoubtedly opens the country up to more visitors (read SAGA holidaymakers), it takes away a lot of the adventure and a certain degree of the feeling of personal independence.
No summary of Vietnam would be complete without at least a mention of the war. While it had profound effects on the whole of the country its legacy lives stronger in the south. People always talk of the vast contrasts between North and South Vietnam but this observation about the war and the fact that I found the people in the south to be friendlier are the only differences I noticed. Sure, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are completely different but in the same ways any two cities differ.
