Vietnam, a name too long associated with the horrors of war, has finally won its last battle - to capture the imagination of the traveling public. Elegant
Hanoi now vies with its dynamic sister,
Ho Chi Minh City (still fondly called Saigon by the locals), for the attention of visitors drawn by the eclectic mix of
old and new. In both cities the streets are jam-packed with motorbikes and scooters, often carrying whole families, and the
markets are chaotically busy.
Elsewhere, the scenes are timeless. Early morning on the
Mekong Delta brings the daily
floating markets where fruit and
vegetables are peddled. Everywhere the green patchwork of
rice paddies stretches into the distance, broken only by the silhouette of water buffalo and
conical-hatted farm workers bending down to tend the young plants.
The soaring
mountains in the north of the country tower over tiny
villages where life continues much as it has done for centuries, with
traditional costumes still proudly worn. Old
French hill stations survive throughout the country offering welcome respite from the heat of the plains below.
The
ancient former imperial capital,
Hué, takes visitors back to a time of concubines and eunuchs. In every town, young women wearing the simple but feminine national dress, the
ao dai, weave their way through the traffic at the controls of a motorbike.
Only in Vietnam could the past and the present be encapsulated so perfectly.
GeographyVietnam shares borders to the north with the People’s Republic of China and to the west with Laos and Cambodia. The South China Sea lies to the east and south. The land is principally agricultural with a central tropical rainforest.
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