Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [0]
This sixth edition first published October 2009 by Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
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© Jan Dodd, Ron Emmons, Mark Lewis and Martin Zatko
ISBN: 978-1-84836-084-6
No part of this e-book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
This Digital Edition published 2010. ISBN: 9781405380430
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in The Rough Guide to Vietnam, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide.
Introduction
Introduction to Vietnam
Where to go
When to go
31 things not to miss
Introduction to Vietnam
Phu Quoc Island
Exercisers at Hoan Kiem Lake
Few countries have changed so much over such a short time as Vietnam. Less than forty years since the savagery and slaughter of the American War, this resilient nation is buoyant with hope. It is a country on the move: access is now easier than ever, roads are being upgraded, hotels are springing up and Vietnam’s raucous entrepreneurial spirit is once again alive and well as the old-style Communist system gives way to a socialist market economy. As the number of tourists finding their way here soars, the word is out that this is a land not of bomb craters and army ordnance but of shimmering paddy fields and sugar-white beaches, full-tilt cities and venerable pagodas – often overwhelming in its sheer beauty.
The speed with which Vietnam’s population has been able to put the bitter events of its recent past behind it, and focus its gaze so steadfastly on the future, often surprises visitors expecting to encounter shell-shocked resentment of the West. It wasn’t always like this, however. The reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975, ending twenty years of bloody civil war, was followed by a decade or so of hardline centralist economic rule from which only the shake-up of doi moi – Vietnam’s equivalent of perestroika – beginning in 1986, could awaken the country. This signalled a renaissance for Vietnam, and today a high fever of commerce grips the nation: from the flash new shopping malls and designer boutiques to the hustle and bustle of street markets and the booming cross-border trade with China. From a tourist’s point of view, this is a great time to visit – not only to soak up the intoxicating sense of vitality and optimism, but also the chance to witness a country in profound flux. Inevitably, that’s not the whole story. Doi moi is an economic policy, not a magic spell, and life, for much of the population, remains hard. Indeed, the move towards a market economy has predictably polarized the gap between rich and poor. Average monthly incomes for city-dwellers are around US$60, while in the poorest provinces workers may scrape by on as little as US$20 a month – a difference that amply illustrates the growing gulf between urban and rural Vietnam.
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Introduction to Vietnam |
Fact file
• The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the capital of which is Hanoi, is one of the world’s last surviving one-party Communist states. It shares land borders with China, Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam is a long, thin country comprising over 330,000 square kilometres, with more than 3400km of coastline. At its narrowest point it measures a mere 50km wide.
• Vietnam has a population of 86 million, of which 74 percent live in the countryside, giving Vietnam some of the highest rural