Background: The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when they were defeated by Communist forces under Ho Chi Minh, who took control of the North. US economic and military aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster the government, but US armed forces were withdrawn following a cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, North Vietnamese forces overran the South. Despite the return of peace, for over two decades the country experienced little economic growth because of conservative leadership policies. Since 2001, Vietnamese authorities have committed to economic liberalization and enacted structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries. The country continues to experience protests from the Montagnard ethnic minority population of the Central Highlands over loss of land to Vietnamese settlers and religious persecution.
July 26th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi I have no pictures from Hanoi because my camera was stolen tonight. We were at the night market, looking at a vendor's goods. I was wearing a small backpack and the camera was (foolishly) in the fro ... [full story]
July 26th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi (I have added photos from my last blog entry)
It had been raining hevily again in Vang Vieng, and in the morning the river was extremly high the main bridge was inaccesable. i spoke to one local wh ... 13 photos[full story]
July 11th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi I am my host Huong's first CS guest. Huong lives with her parents, granma and little twin sister and brother in a tall, narrow, 4-storey house. She's 18 years old, but is so tiny and thin that she cou ... 5 photos[full story]
July 22nd 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi One of the irritations I come across in these 'former Communist countries' is that nothing ever seems to work properly and/or well. This includes the USB port on this computer (again) and therefore I ... [full story]
July 20th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi headed south from Vang Vien to Viente to catch a plane to Hanoi. spent the next two days in my hotel room with a dodgy stomach. Did make it out for an afternoon and took a leisurely stroll through the ... 4 photos[full story]
June 5th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi Ich verbrachte eine gute Woche in Hanoi, und da ich die Stadt bereits sehr gut kannte, verbrachte ich die meiste Zeit im Alten Viertel und fiel in eine Art Backpackerroutine, trank viel Bier, führte d ... [full story]
July 18th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi So, it was with great sadness that I left Hoi An - what a great place. My favorite city in Vietnam.
For time budgeting purposes, we ended up flying into Hanoi. We'd decided that instead of doing La ... [full story]
July 14th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi (Seul les accents aigus sont fournis...)
Traverser 13 fuseaux horaires en 24 heures est une expérience assez étrange puisque rapidement on a plus aucune idée sur quelle heure se baser. En arrivant ... 18 photos[full story]
July 14th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi Hello everyone, welcome to Lisa and Martyn's last ever blog....................
Well we arrived in Hanoi after a very uncomfortable 20 hour ( meant to be 17!) bus ride all the way up from Hoi An. G ... 42 photos[full story]
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