Observations on Vietnam

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In no particular order here are some observations of things we found to be unique about Vietnam:

- Women and children wear pyjamas at any time of the day out and about.



- Vietnamese coffee requires some patience as it drips drop by drop through the filter! It also has a distinct taste, kind of chocolatey and is served with condensed milk rather than normal milk much to Rach's delight.

<br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />- There are soooo many local beers, literally everywhere we went seems to have at least 3 local new ones to try



- The majority of the houses are quite odd looking. From the front they look fairly normal, several windows, a door, maybe a balcony. The sides of the houses have nothing, just blank walls, no windows!



- There is loads of building work everywhere, particularly big 5 star resort hotels. In a couple of years the country will be unrecognizable! They are obviously expecting a big increase in tourism.



- Vietnam is so much more developed than Laos!



- The country would not function without scooters...how would anyone get anywhere!? In Hanoi out of 6 million people, 4.5 million had scooters. Good job really as traffic is bad enough with just them but if everyone had cars...you would go nowhere fast. You see scooters with families of 4-5 on each one, one person carrying a cow, another with a fully decorated Xmas tree.

- If your white, people immediately assume you are Aussie.

<br style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />- Travelling from north to south Vietnam in 1 week is a challenge and is not really long enough to take in all the sights, as well as the beauty of the country.



- You have to be very brief or lie to your hoteliers so you don't offend them when you want to book a trip, but not with them as they tend to charge extra commission than other places.



- They have full ponchos for when it rains that covers there whole scooter and all 3-4 passengers on it.



- The noodles here are below par in comparison to Thailand and Laos. Either cold rice noodles (bun) or instant noodles don't compare to fresh noodles you get elsewhere



- Massive catholic influence from the French...more Xmas trees and less monks



- communism - seems a lot of people are still payed very little

-everyone sits on tiny plastic table and chairs everywhere you go. Majority of restaurants seems to be an extension on the front of people's houses



- a lot of street sellers where lamp shade hats



- the women selling stuff on the street work incredibly hard in order to support their children and get them and education. .again helping the country develop further



-everyone wears face masks, mostly when riding bikes but some on buses and on planes as well



-40-45 die everyday in road accidents, 4-5 in ho chi Minh



- fat smiley Buddha

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