US news website names Hanoi among 13 best places to visit in March

Vietnam plus ^ | VNA Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - 8:14:00

[cba123]

As winter's cold grip loosens on Hanoi, the city has been named one of the ideal travel destinations for March by American-based Business Insider.

(please see the link, for the full article)

[ThanhPhero]

I was tin Việt Nam January and February this year. I have been back there many times since I first got a hankering in 203 to see what had happened after my war. This year I finally took a stab at driving in that traffic. It is easy on a motorbike. Everyone signals every move and there is no such thing as road rage. I had found myself, while riding behind my prot́égé's new husband and looking over his shoulder, picking out the path ahead through the mass of scoots. Hải took every path I had chosen. I decided then that I could do this thing and it turned out to be so. The rules are different, of course. You as driver are responsible for everything 180 degrees in front of you and you don't worry about what is behind you, You signal ever move with little horn toots that annoy foreigners so and with finger and hand signals. You have to watch totally and know right where you are going because when the traffic is dense you cannot be looking for store signs or at pretty girls. What had seemed to me to be the most difficult situation turned out to be easy, and that is where two main roads cross and the lights don't work. The traffic does not stop on either road. There is a lot of weaving and some slowing and sprints but everyone gets through it okay. I never saw an accident in these most horrendous looking situations. One secret is that the speeds are low compared to Chicago or Montgomery. You feel like your just racing along while your speedo registers 40 kilometers or less. The seeds are low but on a scoot you will get across this humongous sprawling and dense Sài Gòn faster than across a similar distance in any large American city, not counting freeways and Interstates. A hundred scooters move more people than a hundred cars do in, say. DC or Baltimore.

[ThanhPhero]

I don't much care for Hà Nộii but the food in the little one table stalls is really good. Just don't eat uncooked vegetables.

[ThanhPhero]

I stay out of the big cities and hang around one particular highway town about 20 clicks from Cam Ranh. I have never been cheated or robbed by a Vietnamese and a cell phone I dropped came back to me a day later. It helps that I am the only foreigner who has stayed even overnight in Cam Đức since 1973. I am pretty much protected by everyone.

[cba123]

I am usually ok, except when it gets (really) crowded.

Then I slow way down, and everyone passes me.

Drives my gf absolutely bonkers. But it is, what it is.

[PLMerite]

"US news website names Hanoi among 13 best places to visit in March"

Beats the reception we got last time...

[Laslo Fripp]

I have never ridden a motorbike in Hanoi, but I did fly over it several times back in the 60’s 😈🇺🇸

[ThanhPhero]

Việt Nam is not North Korea. The Vietnamese Communists are not like the Norks or like the Russian reds or the East Germans. They determined way back in the 80s that Việt Nam had to get prosperous to avoid becoming a province of China. The Việt Communists, when they see that something doesn't work, they stop doing it. Those others double down. They got off the farm collectivization kick a bit slow but when they did starvation became rice exports in two years and the antipathy toward Capitalism went away. Việt Nam is, indeed. growing rich. If you want to really learn about Việt Nam I heartily recommend a series of lectures on Vietnamese History on You Tube by Professor Stephen Young of Minnesota U. He is one of the very few Americans who has understood Viêt Nam and its people. He, among other things was a minor diplomat in SEA as was his father and he married a Vietnamese woman and through her is related to some of the historical characters in the 30s and the 50s. He is fluent in the language and, for the benefit of FR readers, a rock solid American Conservative.

[cba123]

Yes and the thing is, most everyone is on a bike, not in a car.

Bikes respond (much) faster than a car.

I have been told, to be very careful of cars and especially busses.

Those are different. Dangerous. ALWAYS yield to them, and keep a safe distance always.

[ThanhPhero]

Đà Lạt is the one uncluttered town in Việt Nam. That is because it is almost entirely a capitalist town. It is a resort in the mountains and all the hotels and businesses are private. The merchants all support the most thorough garbage and sanitation system probably in the world with a horde of older women who are paid well to sweep up all the trash starting at dusk. Trucks put bins all about and then trucks pick them up before dawn. Some street sweepers are active throughout the day. If you drop a piece of plastic it will disappear within a couple of minutes.

[ThanhPhero]

If you stay in HCM yuo are definitely missing out. Nex time go to some of the smaller towns and just hang out for a couple of days. Talk to anyone who wants to talk to you. Many have a bit of English, some a lot. If you show an interest in the people like that folks will start guiding you to whatever they think a foreigner might like to see in their town.

On another topic you pointed to, the dog population has risen exponentially since 2003 when I saw just a few. Now they are everywhere but they don't bite and they don't chase vehicles. They are not confined and they learn how to deal with traffic and with people. I have never seen a dead dog in the street. In America we pen them up and they do not learn how to deal with people or traffic. Dead dogs on the street are not uncommon.

[ThanhPhero]

Not true. If America had pushed back after Tết '68 or after the Christmas bombing of '72 we would have occupied the North and then things would be very different now. Read Giáp's memoirs. The North thought it was finished for them both times and both times were amazed that the Americans did not follow up on some pretty thorough victories. Politburo guys were sending their families to China and Russia. I know a little about the 68 situation because I was an AF radio intercept op shortly after Tết and heard what the Northerners had to say about it.

[dfwgator]

Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City.

It's only officially "Ho Chi Minh City", because everybody there still calls it "Saigon".

[ThanhPhero]

The Russians are not well liked in VN except in Nha Trang which is the only place they actually spend some money. Mostly they seem to think they are on the beach in Crimea but the people talk different.

[dfwgator]

I read where they interviewed people from across the globe to gauge which countries were the most pro-capitalist in terms of the population. Vietnam was pretty much right there at the top of the list.

[vooch]

it’s a bit counterintuitive but let’s take the current capitalist vietnam.

One could make a very strong case, that Washington‘s involvement in the Vietnamese Civil War only delayed the outcome by 10 years. Therefore, if the Vietnamese Civil War ended 10 years earlier than it did, the transition to a capitalistic economy in Vietnam would have occurred 10 years earlier.

And we‘d likely have a ally instead of a hesitant trading partner.

[cba123]

That depends on who you talk with.

There are people here who refer to it as “Saigon”. There are also people here who refer to the city as “Ho Chi Minh City”.

The difference in part, is whether the person is originally from here. I think those who are originally from here, still call it Saigon in part.

Those from the north, or who moved here, tend to refer to it as Ho Chi Minh City.

Officially it is Ho Chi Minh City, and you cannot go wrong saying that. But some do still call it Saigon, and there are still stores with that on their signs.

I think there are times when you should avoid referring to the city as Saigon. Maybe when talking with a government official you would want to say Ho Chi Minh just to be on the safe side.

[mdmathis6]

They also would remember that it was Democrats that ramped up the war with them.

[cba123]

I think they sort of watch both sides of our political spectrum.

Obama was good for Vietnam. But so is Trump. So I think they’re sort of currently in the middle.

I know when I was here back then, I was the ONLY foreigner who was for Trump. Everyone else was for whatsername. But the Vietnamese seem to have been right in the middle, at least for what I can see.

So far so good, Trump.

[kearnyirish2]

Red China also embraced capitalism; it isn’t the economic views of these places that scares me. It is the political power structure; Hanoi would no more tolerate a Tiananmen Square demonstration than Red China would, and individuals are instruments of the state. I’m sure the Vietnamese people are very happy to see American dollars in their economy, and they can afford to be gracious - they won the war, and granted no concessions for the easing of sanctions/recognition. I’m not suggesting attacking Vietnam - I’d just rather not expose myself the risks of a totalitarian communist state.

[kearnyirish2]

It must have been an interesting time, and maybe something for a young adventurer with only himself to look after. As a married old guy I have too much to lose, and too many people relying on me. Whenever anything happens to Americans in these communist sh!tholes, I’m reminded of things like American hikers being arrested by Iranian border guards because they strayed across an invisible line: Why put yourself in harm’s way?