"Impressions from Vietnam" a Vietnam Travel Page by Eberhard

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Following my retirement last year, I decided to see those parts of the word I had not seen before. And there are many of them. In fact I only know Europe from the North of Norway to the east of Turkey and without Eastern Europe, and the United States of America. So most of the planet is left to discover. As I spent, by pure accident, the Millennium New Year in LAOS, the idea to start with Asia and Vietnam was borne. It was not just the selection of one out of many countries, but what I wanted was to see and to learn about countries under development. What I wanted was not simple sightseeing, but to seriously learn about the people, the way they live, the way they work, they eat, they travel. To learn about their language, their countryside, their roads, their fields, plants: in summary, their life. I wanted to be as close to them as I could possibly get. Realising that I would always stay a foreigner, a tourist.
In preparing my trip, I used a French, an English and a German Guide book. Not very surprisingly, they are not much different in suggesting your itinerary. That’s why the tourists follow each other on the same paths.
Part of my preparation was to find in Europe Vietnamese, who could provide me with in country contacts. I was successful in doing so and in three cases this proved to be very helpful in having contacts with individual people in Vietnam. I was welcomed very heartily by people who did not know me personally.
Arriving in Hanoi and travelling south to Ho Chi Minh, I was initially very disappointed due to the catastrophic traffic and the chaos on the streets. Soon however, I discovered what was behind:
Very hard working people, almost all the work still being done by hand, people struggling to survive in their daily life, but also people being friendly and having no objections to foreigners.
I also made an attempt to know at least a minimum about their language. This is an essential element to understand people. Some preparation at home with a book and a cassette and a few hours of language lessons in Ha Noi did not bring me too far however. Nevertheless, I know understand the way their language is build and the main differences it has as compared to ours.
During my trip I have kept my family updated by E-mail every two to three days. They enjoyed that very much, as they could accompany me during my trip.
I have in the mean time written also a complete report of some 20 pages, with pictures (in German, but whoever wants to have that report can send me an e-mail).
Four weeks in a so far unknown country: nor very much, but enough to collect some impressions.