"Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam " a Vietnam Travel Page by TomorrowsAngel

I spent 10 days travelling around Vietnam in December last year, staying in Ho Chi Minh City, Hue and Hanoi, exploring the countryside around.
I found Vietnam a country of contrasts. On one side of the road there were opulent glittering tourist hotels, and the other had beggars and spartan foodstands with people trying to eke out a living.
The countryside was stunning, until you looked closely and saw the rubbish scattered at the roadside.

Vietnam appeared to be undergoing tourism, economic and technological development, yet preservation of its rich cultural diversity seemed to be important. The natural beauty of the Red River Delta in the north, the Mekong Delta in the south and the patchwork of brilliant green rice paddies was beautiful.
Ok so it rained quite a bit, bit the beaches still looked nice. Inland, the soaring mountains, cloaked by dense, misty forests looked almost primeval.

Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia
Area: land: 325,360 sq km, water: 4,200 sq km
Climate: tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (mid-May - mid-Sept) and warm, dry season (mid-Oct - mid-March)
Terrain: low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest
Population: 81,624,716 (July 2003 est.)
Ethnic groups: Vietnamese 85%-90%, Chinese, Hmong, Thai, Khmer, Cham, mountain groups
Religions: Buddhist, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Christian (predominantly Roman Catholic, some Protestant), indigenous beliefs, Muslim
Languages: Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a 2nd language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
Currency: dong (VND)