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CURRENTS
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Country Overview: Vietnam
After the Franco-Viet Minh War (1946-54), the Geneva Accords provided for a temporary division of Vietnam into two zones at the Ben Hai River (near the 17th parallel). Although the country was reunified in 1975, some political and cultural differences between the North and the South are still apparent today. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam. Many people use the names interchangeably, but 'Ho Chi Minh City' is politically correct while 'Saigon' is what most local residents prefer. Ho Chi Minh City's land area is overwhelmingly rural, dotted with villages and groups of houses set amidst rice paddies. However, this rural area holds only about 25% of the city's population. Ho Chi Minh City is the industrial and commercial heart of Vietnam, accounting for a large percentage of the country's manufacturing output and retail trade. It is to Ho Chi Minh City that the vast majority of foreign business people come to invest and trade. Hotels and tourist facilities are newer, more luxurious, and more numerous than in Hanoi and other cities. CLIMATE: Although Vietnam is totally within the tropics, it has a diverse climate because of its range of latitudes, altitudes, and weather patterns. Ho Chi Minh City has little temperature variation; it's hot and humid year round with virtually no winter. The average temperature in February is a high of 90°F and a low of 70°F. Hanoi and other areas in the north have two seasons: winter and summer. Winter is quite cool, even cold, and lasts from November to April. The hot summers run from May to October. CLOTHING: You will rarely see a Vietnamese
person wearing shorts, unless s/he is playing tennis. Pants and shirts are the
norm for both sexes, although you will still see women wearing the traditional
ao dai (trousers with a long, close-fitting tunic that is split to the waist).
Conical, straw hats are worn by many Vietnamese women, especially in the south.
Dress in Hanoi is somewhat more formal, and Western business attire is more
common. FOOD: One of the delights of visiting Vietnam is the amazing cuisine. The Vietnamese are particularly fond of seafood, but they do equally well at preparing chicken, beef, pork, and vegetable dishes. Vietnamese spring rolls, much smaller than Chinese egg rolls, are called cha gio (pronounced "chow yau") in the south and nem in the north. They are made of rice paper filled with minced pork, crab, vermicelli, onion, mushroom and eggs and then fried until the rice paper turns a crispy brown. A common way to eat them is to wrap them in a lettuce leaf with a few sprigs of mint and then dip them into a sauce of vinegar, cucumber, pepper, and other ingredients. Pho is the noodle soup that is eaten at all hours of the day but especially for breakfast. It is made with noodles, greens, and shredded beef, chicken or pork.
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Vietnam's
total land area is roughly 127,244 square miles, slightly larger than Italy.
Most of the country consists of hills and mountains. The Truong Son Mountains
form a backbone that stretches 750 miles from north to south, separating Vietnam
from its two neighbors – Laos and Cambodia. Long and precariously thin
in the middle, the country's northern and southern regions broaden into fertile
delta lands, spreading out from the Red River in the north and the Mekong in
the south. To many Vietnamese, this suggests the familiar shape of a bamboo
pole laden at each end with baskets of harvested rice.
