A Small Introduction about Vietnam

Vietnam, with area 127,243 in sq mi and population 86,967,524 is a small and beautiful country. It is mainly spread linearly and devided in three parts north south and middle vietnam. A large part of Vietnam in East and south is touching the ocean and hence providing many clean and spectacular sea beaches.The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi located in north though ho chi minh city is considered as the business center of Vietnam, which is situated in south. The wide spread language in Vietnam is Vietnamese still the accent in north and south is different along with some words and speaking style. In some parts of remote areas and village the some other language is spoken which is totally different from Vietnamese language.

The main widespread religion is budhdhism which came here from China and hence you can find many essence of chinese tradition in the pagoda (budhdhist temple) here. A good part of population dont have any religion and they worship their ancestors. Christianity is also followed here along with muslim religion. Muslim religion came here from Indonesia, although a few people you can find who came from bangladesh and India who are muslims.

Food habit. Using hand for eating food is considered a disgusting thing here(my personal experience). Sometime you are forced to hold food like chicken leg or something like that then you have to use only your thumb and index finger. mainly chopstick is used in cooking and eating food. There will be food kept in the middle and you have to use your chopstick to hold the food and keep it in your bowl. there will be a sauce kept in the middle where you can dip your food before eating. you can easily find a big pile of green leaves on your table

and they are supposed to be eaten uncooked.

"banh mi thit" is something which we generally say vietnamese burger is a fast food kind of thing you can easily find on the road side or even in good shop in a variable range from 10,000 VND to 20,000 VND depends on the stuff inside. Generally Vietnamese dont have any restriction on eating any living being on earth (Human are still safe) except people who dont follow budhdhism.

Those who follow budhdhism dont eat frog , dog and some other animals. Dogs and cats are taken as delicacy in north part of vietnam.

Hotpot is one of the most preferred dish here. There will be one big pot placed on a small stove kept in the middle of dining table. The pot will have soup with some vegetables. once the fire is on and soup starts boiling the sea food , fish and other things are pushed inside it. once the sea food and meat is cooked vegetables are pushed inside. Shrimps are also put in this boiling water, sometimes wthey are put live in boiling soup. Once the food is cooked you have to use chopSticks to bring the food into your bowl. This makes you sure that your food is fresh and it will be hot throughout the time you are eating it.

In south you can find many live animals and birds on roads like dogs cats pigeon sparrow but it is quite tough to find any live animal in Hanoi (north of vietnam).

Dress: The traditional dress of Vietnam,for girls, is really beautiful and called Áo Dài. It resembles more or less like salwar samiz of Indian traditional dress.

Normally people wear the western style dress but in special occasion or in many offices it is mandatory to wear Áo Dài.

There is remarkable difference in Áo Dài generally wore in villages and Áo Dài in cities. Áo Dài of Village have the upper part shorter than what generally girls wear in cities.

You can hardly find any fat guy here . People are health conscious and there food habit also have a great contribution in that. Here you can find many sports club and many independent clubs where there is a good arrangement of playing games like football, tennis, billiards, swimming, pingpong(table tennis), golf. The important thing is if you are interested in some game you can easily find a club near by your house. Also people give importance to games and don't hesitate to pay for it. For my surprise when I was in Hanoi, the north part of Vietnam, My owner and his wife used to go to play tennis twice a week near my flat and he was simply enjoying the pink of his health in spite he was touching 60. I also didn't miss the opportunity and learnt swimming and a new game billiards.

Things you can experience and call as vietnam specific experience:

• Seeing the road flooded with small motorbikes.
• Notice how many people can sit on one small motorbike and how many things they can carry on one bike.
• Sitting on the road side pavement slurping a boiling hot Pho (noodle soup). The low rise chairs will add some more points when after sitting on it you will find yourself sitting just few centimetres from ground.
• The traffic signal is for 20-30 sec hardly giving you time to cross the road. Also the signal are managed such that you will feel that all signals went green together. Don't wait for traffic to stop. Cross the road without waiting a moment.See the people driving bike. They can drive wherever they find the space irrespective of traffic norms.
• Enjoying the party and get together in the restaurants as soon as the sun goes down. you can do mot hai ba yo. (1 -2 - 3 up) and mot tram phan tram (100%) with the beer glasses.
• Seeing the guys driving bike with one hand and holding their bạn gái (girlfriend) with another hand.(all the bikes here are without clutch so your one hand is always free).
• notice their special wine which have snake and lizards and sometimes some unseen species inside the bottle and preserved. It is considered to be a very healthy and precious drink.
• Ask for ca fe Nong (hot coffee) in any coffee shop and find a real kicking coffee in front of you.
• Enjoy sitting behind a biker and bargaining down him to knees. here after Bus and Taxi you can find Xeom(bikers) as public transport.
• How to guess if somone is vietnamese: flash a camera in front of them .. their index and middle finger will go up automatically forming V. it means hi or hello.. in vietnam 2 is called hi and so they show two fingers.

Money Exchange:

No need to be in hurry to exchange your dollars at airport. you can easily get good rate for your dollar at any Gold shop. Also in district 1, ben than market in HCMC. there are many authorized shop who converts foreign currency at good rate. BUi Vien, Pham ngu lao street in hcmc have many shops open late in night till 10 for forex.

Also Hang Bac Str, near Hoam Kiem lake in Hanoi you can find shops who provide good exchange rate.

Means of communication:

The bus service is good in spite if you can make them understand where you want to go. except buses Taxi and Xeom(Bikers) are a good option. Try to take government taxi like MaiLinh, VinaSun ,Vina Taxi instead of any private one. The meter of private taxi will run faster then the taxi. Also be sure about the logo and name of Government Taxis. There are many duplicate taxis with same soundex name and same looking logo.
Also you will get Xeom, the bikers, you can bargain a biker to go somewhere if you are alone. Bikers xeom have talent to sleep on their bike in night. they will park the bike on pavement and strange to see that they can balance themselves on that small bike and sleep over it. Vietnamese font is english and hence finding any address is not a tough thing for anyone. You can see address written in front of each house and shop with the number. Just knowing the road name and house number is enough to reach the correct destination.

Make sure that you carry your own mobile phone and as soon as you land in vietnam buy one sim card which easily available on airport and in mobile shops. You need to submit your passport copy to get the sim card. Here you can not find even a single telephone booth. 

Some common Vietnam phrases:

Thanks                : Cam on
please                 : Lam on
hello                    :  Xin Chao
See you again   : hen gep Lai
tasty                    : Ngon Qua
not tasty              : khong ngon
bill                       : tinh tien


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