Things we noticed about Vietnam- written by Chelsea, Nathan and Parker

We were in Vietnam for 14 days- in Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An.  Here are some things we noticed:

• There is SO MUCH honking!!
• Scooter drivers wear helmets
• A lot of locals wear conical hats as they find them functional and stylish
• A lot of people wear masks all the time
• There are lots of different patterns of masks
• We learned to ask up front about costs because there were often hidden charges
• Most prices are negotiable- sometimes 50% less than advertised
• There are a lot of old women who walk around carrying fruit on the street
• There are lots of scooters
• The Vietnamese alphabet has the same letters as English but with lots of strange accents.  Some letters have 3 different symbols/accents
• Water buffalo work in the rice fields
• Lots of plastic used like Thailand and Cambodia but there is a bit of recycling in Vietnam
• TWe saw lots and lots of Vietnamese flags
• We also noticed lots of communist flags
• The vietnamese language has lots of difficult sounds to pronounce so we didn't learn as many words as other languages so far
• We saw kids playing basketball and soccer...barefoot
• Statues of Buddha were fat...as compared to the thin Buddhas we saw in Thailand and Cambodia
• Most of the market stalls sold the same things as the stalls beside them
• The vietnamese currency is the dong.  20 000 VND is about $1 CAD
• There were lots of tourists in Hoi An
• Little kids accompany their parents to work and seem to just play on their phones or watch things on their phones
• There is lots of gross food served ...steamed pig brain with black pepper?!
• Our favourite foods were: pho, mi quang and green papaya salad
• Vietnam felt safe
• Biking was stressful because of all the horns honking
• The rivers and streams seemed dirty but didn't smell
• Vietnam is a long and skinny country.  We only visited a very small part of it.
• Canada is 30 times bigger (land) than Vietnam but Vietnam has 3 times more people than Canada
• We didn't see any tuktuks in Vietnam 
• Cars, buses and scooters drive on the same side of the road as Canada (different from Thailand)
• Scooters go anywhere, anytime, in any direction
• Rice paddies smelled sweet
• We noticed lots of incense burning...everywhere
• People burn their garbage in canisters on the sidewalk 
• Service people were friendly up until they realized we weren't interested and then they became rude 
•  The mood in Vietnam did not come across happy
•  All restaurant owners go to the market every morning to buy fresh food
• There is such thing as fresh water shrimp!
•  Women squat down all the time rather than use chairs (ie: while doing foot massages and washing dishes)
•  The Vietnamese people refer to the Vietnam War as the American War
• There is a very strong French influence in Vietnam.  This is because the French occupied Vietnam for ~80 years.  

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  Hoi An is a very pretty town

  
  

  

  Dishes drying in the sun beside the pool at our hotel

  
  

  

  Farmers off to work

  
  

  

  Parker didn't like the smell of the rice paddies but liked to look at them

  
  

  

  A visitor to the hotel one evening

  
  

  

  Morning market time

  
  

  

  Vendor pushing his stall on the way to work

  
  

  

  Some restaurants use well water to wash the dishes

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Night Market as it opens...before the crowds!

  
  

  

  It was fun sitting behind Mom!

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Kumquat tree used for decoration

  
  

  

  We got used to wearing masks in crowded spaces, at the airport and on the plane!

A lady selling food on the sidewalk