VIETNAM

Vietnam is a country in South East Asia with a population of approximately 86 million people. It borders with China to the North and Laos and Cambodia to the West. The East borders with the Great China Sea.

Halong Bay - Vietnam

A former French colony, Vietnam's eventual independence and the failure of the USA to repel the communists, led to Vietnam's economy stagnating. In recent years a more entrepreneurial style of government has been adopted and now Vietnam is one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Vietnam is well known for its food. Rather like Thai cuisine, Vietnamese food makes extensive use of fish sauce, soy sauce, lemongrass, Galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and chillies. The food I have eaten in Vietnam was typically somewhat less spicy than many Thai dishes, in terms of the quantity of chilli used. Vietnam has a strong clothing industry as well as a strong culture of arts and crafts.

Vietnamese water puppets

The major cities of Hanoi in the North and Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) in the South are 1,141km (709 miles) apart. Ho Chi Minh is actually nearer in distance terms, to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore than it is to Hanoi.

The CONTENT index on the left of this page lists the topics, which interest me about Vietnam. Click on any of them which also interest you.