INTRODUCTION
The seventeen days I spent in Vietnam was more like a tragic history lesson than a vacation. While the many sites and sounds of Vietnam were fascinating, it was the stories and legends behind these sites that captivated me. I left Vietnam with a more profound understanding and appreciation of its long struggle for independence against foreign powers and the undeniable mark that these powers left on Vietnam.
Our time in Vietnam was mostly spent in and around three very significant cities. Our first destination was the frantic city of Saigon (or now known as Ho Chi Minh City) and the neighboring Mekong Delta. We continued north to the imperial city of Hue and visited the Demarcation Zone (at the 17th Parallel) which was just 80km north of Hue. And, we ended our trip along the Red River in the quaint city of Hanoi and the majestic Halong Bay.
A caution to the readers: Most of the tales that I will recant were told to me by guides who I believe may have had a biased interpretation of the facts in which they were based. While I tried to include only tales that are consistent with history, please remember that I'm not a historian so take everything with a grain of salt.
[Ai Dao] Looking at the people in Vietnam, the first thing that stood out to me was the ai dao, the traditional dress worn by mostly young women. The ai dao attire was basically a pair of white trousers worn underneath a snuggly fitting skirt typically decorated in some floral pattern that was split at around the waist. And of course let's not forget the conical hat that many Vietnamese wear to shade themselves against the midday sun and that doubles as an umbrella against the afternoon showers.
[Traffic] The other thing that stood out was their incredibly chaotic traffic patterns. Asia as a whole has probably the poorest road etiquette anywhere in the world, and while I've seen pretty horrific driving conditions in many of those Asian nations, Vietnam by far takes the prize. While I've notices that many of those Asian countries may be lacking in one or two types of road courtesies, they are decent in others, but Vietnam seemed to be equally poor in all categories. For example, Taipei drivers may categorically ignore one-way signs, but they tend to obey traffic lights; Indonesian drivers may choose to ignore traffic lights, but they'll at least stop for pedestrians who have the right-of-way; while Bangkok drivers typically ignore cyclists, motorists, pedestrians and traffic lights alike, they at least have traffic lights! On Vietnam's roadways, Darwin rules; the bigger vehicle always has the right-of-way. Traffic lights and dividing markers are no more than an ornamental piece in Vietnam. Crossing the street is always an adventure, more so at night when a significant number of motorcyclists don't turn on their headlights. My guess is that they think it saves them gas which we all know it doesn't (power to the lights comes from the battery). Crossing the street was an acquired skill of "reading and reacting": Reading the driver's intentions of whether he's going to pass in front of you or behind you and then reacting accordingly because he's sure won't stop or even think about slowing down for you. On our first night in Saigon (before we had mastered the art of reading and reacting), in front of Ben Thanh Market's busy pentagonal intersection, we had to hail a cab just to get across the street safely.