Asia Travel Information Blog

Many people alive today would know little about the Vietnam war and its consequences, but does the current Iraq war show history is repeating itself.

Without too much into the history Vietnam emerged from the second world war and Japanese occupation and like most Asia countries having had enough of colonial domination from Europe. France had not woken up to the fact that Europe’s destruction of itself had resulted in a change in the world order. Eventually Vietnam ended up in a Communist North and a ‘Democratic’ South. The good ol’ USA being the champion of the ‘Free’ west went to war in Vietnam to stop communism taking over the South. Eventually after about 50,000 casualties the USA pulled out under a ‘peace’ plan – or a mechanism by which the USA didn’t have to lose face (peace with honor). Despite this the USA pride and prestige in the world took a huge hit that it only recovered in the Regan years (thanks to the Russians going to the same experience in Afghanistan). How could a world super-power be beaten by a third world country of rice farmers. This of course is a simplistic view – the Vietnamese received large amounts of assistance from other communist countries and endued approximately 5 million army and civilian casualties. However the lesson was simple, make America bleed enough and it will pull out. This is what is occurring in Iraq now. The Muslim extremists, Iraq nationalists, anti-American coalition or whatever you want to call them are trying to make the USA bleed enough to retreat.

Article 2

This article describes my initial two days in Vietnam at the 90th Replacement Battalion, Long Binh.

Vietnam

Continuing from my last article we arrived at Saigon’s Ton San Nhut Airport about two hours after sundown. We were scheduled to land in Binh Hoa AFB but had to deviate to Saigon as Binh Hoa was receiving mortar fire. After deplaning and clearing customs we boarded air conditioned buses for the trip to Binh Hoa. This would be the first time and last time that I would ride in such a bus in Vietnam. The windows on the bus were opaque for some reason so we really could not see Vietnam on the way to the replacement depot.

If you tell a person that you are going to Vietnam, the one thing that springs up in their mind is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War had a huge cultural and political impact on Americans. However, the war happened more than twenty years ago and the country has changed dramatically since then. Vietnam is now a country full of young people and most of them have forgotten about the war. It is now a vibrant country with a growing economy. There are so many things to see and do in Vietnam that it might take a few years to explore the whole country.

Here are a few fun things you can do in Vietnam:

Vietnam

1. Eat beef noodle soup in Hanoi. The traditional Vietnamese soup, Pho, was invented in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. It is a beefy noodle that is usually eaten during the morning but can be eaten anytime during the day.

Vietnam is one of the fastest developing nations in South East Asia. An advantageous geographical location Vietnam is quickly attracting foreign direct investment. It is expected that by the year 2020, Vietnam will climb to a global industrial centre with stabilized political and social environments, with the development of a transport system, infrastructure and a major industry shift as the workforce transitions from unskilled to skilled labour force.

Vietnam’s regional focus for industrial development is in the Southeast. Prospective investors and government bodies are planning for what is hoped to be the boom of the Mekong Delta in 2020. The delta is one of Southeast Asia’s largest food exporting regions, producing the tropical fruit for much of the region. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) is the most developed city in the southeast; however, in less than a decade, HCM City will be just one of several urban centers for the production of economic, industrial, commercial, science and technology, transport and international exchange services. By all projections, in 2020 this region will be known to the world as a robust industrial sector.

Open Tour buses are run by many of Vietnam’s tour companies. They provide cheap transportation alternatives for Vietnam travelers, offering travel bargains (SAMPLE ITINERARY: SAIGON TO NHA TRANG – $US 10, NHA TRANG TO HOI AN – $US 12, HOI AN TO HUE – $US 6, HUE TO HANOI – $US 17. CAUTION: Many Vietnam travel websites are not up to date price-wise.) and pick-up/drop-off service at your preferred hotel. You can stop-off at any point you want to explore and move on with the same company in a few days, or just buy tickets for each leg of the journey as you travel through Vietnam.

Front desk staff at hotels will be happy to book any transportation need, although you’re better off shop around at local tour agents, as prices will vary. Going directly to the bus company office may net you a commission-free fare, but most major bus operators may not be willing to negotiate price as agents will cut their commission to get the business.

Volumes have been said and printed about Vietnam’s bitter past, a scar that will continue a scalding reminder from the struggles and hardship they long endured. The Vietnamese core family values and also the spirit to take proper care of one’s family, one’s relative, and the relative’s kin, sum up the collective resolve of a country, battered and beaten to a pulp, but stood up again; this occasion internationally economic stage. Vietnam is standing proudly. It may be the political and economic progress of this nation of 83 million inhabitants during the last ten years that catapulted this nation into a onset of tiger economy, a long way from its initial political and economic isolation inside the aftermath of the Vietnam war and properly into the 80′s.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu was one of most elegant women of the 20th century.In the 1950s and 1960s,she was first lady of South Vietnam. She was born in 1924 in Hanoi,Vietnam.In fact, she was compared with ladies such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (former first lady of the United States), Dewi Sukarno (ex-first lady of Indonesia), Grace Kelly ( former princess of Monaco) and Eva Duarte de Peron (former first lady of Argentina).In the 1960s, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu popularized the traditional Vietnamese “ao dai” (long dress). She currently resides in France, where she is writing her autobiography.She speaks fluent English, Vietnamese and French.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…Vietnam is the home to Historic City of Hue-one of the ancient wonders of the world. During the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945), Hue was the capital of Vietnam. More than 10 palaces in Hue provide some of the best remaining examples of Vietnamese architecture in Asia. It is the monument that best symbolizes Vietnam. Hue has been recognised as a World Cultural Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

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Raquel Welch

Vietnam

Say what you will, but in my Company area, Raquel Welch was the pin up girl on my wall [black and white], I got a poster from her, signed, but I think it was printed on by machine. No one else in the company had what I called a poster. Calendars yes, but not an original poster, and of Raquel, surely not one from her, so that made me a kind of hot shot [but there is more to this].

Most of my friends in Vietnam believed she [Raquel Welch, whose poster I had put it up on a back-board of the bunk at the head of my bed] was my girlfriend, until I told them, three-weeks after I had gotten it and set it in my room, that I had gotten the poster by request via mailing for it. When I told the guys this, I also told them I was just kidding, that she was not my girlfriend after all –woops, that didn’t go over so well, but to make up for it I told them that when I left Vietnam, someone would get it in the company area.

Ho Chi Minh City

Washed ashore above the Mekong Delta, some 40km north of the South China Sea, HO CHI MINH CITY is a city on the march, a boomtown where the rule of the dollar is absolute. Fuelled by the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi, this effervescent city, perched on the west bank of the Saigon River, now boasts fine restaurants, immaculate hotels, and glitzy bars among its colonial villas, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing-blocks.