Tag: Trip

Vietnam Today – Communiste …moi non plus

What will be published here will be not a report, not a diary, not a set of documents.

Instead, it will be a set of experiences, sensations, impressions that I developed through what I saw and the people I met in this beautiful country of South-East Asia. A country that is stuck in between a past that reveals itself in the omnipresence of the sickle-and-hammer flags and Ho Chi Minh’s images, and a future made of Burger Kings, Nike shoes, skyscrapers and motorcycles produced by multinational companies that now have their production plants in Vietnam.

Yes, it is closer to a travel journal, and as travel journal it will be published here:

one day of the trip per time, on Thursdays.

 

Episodes:

1 – Hanoi, the capital city

2 – Halong Bay: rice & souvenirs

3 – Ho Lua & Tam Coc – the deep Vietnam

4 – Hoi An: American Nightmare & American Dream

5 – My Son & Da Nang: the old & the new

6 – Saigon & Mekong: money doesn’t stink… fish does
Continue reading “Vietnam Today – Communiste …moi non plus”

1 – Hanoi, the capital city

The plane flies towards Hanoi, once it was the capital city of North Vietnam now it is the capital of the whole Vietnam.

The vegetation and morphology of this place is visible from the windows of our airplane already and it gives us a prime of the nature of the country we are bound to: a young, green, thick country that is all to be discovered. Continue reading “1 – Hanoi, the capital city”

2 – Halong Bay: rice & souvenirs

..or structure and drywall, harsh reality and opulence.

Green hills and clouds reflect themselves on the water mirrors of the paddies. As far as the eye can see, they stretch on the sides of the street that links Hanoi to the other cities of the North of Vietnam. Fields are dotted light poles that come one after another at regular intervals and cone-shaped hats of bowed farmers intent on reaching rice plants with their leg and hands immersed in the water.

 

Continue reading “2 – Halong Bay: rice & souvenirs”

4 – Hue & Hoi An: American nightmare & American dream

To fly is not for everyone. On Vietnam Airlines flight from Hanoi to Hue we board on in the early morning we are those dressed worse. From the capital city in the North we are moving to the central part of Vietnam Once landed, taxi drivers have to fight for making us get on their car and take us to the city center, at the Imperial city. The winner is the first who succeeds on taking our suitcases and load them on the back of the car. He had to fight with the others, but he finally gained our 8 euro, yeah. Continue reading “4 – Hue & Hoi An: American nightmare & American dream”

3 – Ho Lua & Tam Coc – the deep Vietnam

Third day in Vietnam, another guided tour. Despite the tour we are going to attend it is a planned touristic visit, Vietnam can surprise you in ways you do not expect, as for instance in our guide.

This good smiling easy going guy make the foreigners call him Kimi and his figure looks more like a comedian than a tour guide, although he is very well prepared. Continue reading “3 – Ho Lua & Tam Coc – the deep Vietnam”