6. History
When people think about Vietnam, it is obvious that they will think about its difficult and chaotic timeline of wars. However, you should know that the war ended nearly 50 years ago. Even though Vietnam is a small country, it is still an economically important point in the Southeast Asia region; therefore, that's why many wars happened in this little landscape, which stole numerous lives of people. Vietnamese experienced three main significant milestones in the history. They had fought with the ancient feudal China for approximately a thousand years until 1958 when French officially started to colonize Vietnam. At that time, Vietnamese culture had been changed from the traditional Eastern culture to the mixed modern culture of Western’s. After the Geneva Conference in 1954, Vietnam was separated into the North and the South territories with two independent governments (Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam) by Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone which was nominally described as “the 17th parallel”. Otherwise, since 1948, French had the military intervention from the United States of America till at the end of 1955, it was officially called Vietnam War. Even though the Paris Peace Accords, officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, was signed at the beginning of 1973, the war only officially ended in April 1975. Since then, Vietnam started reconstructing the whole country and has been economically developing, which helps Vietnamese live better without suffering from the fear of the war.
7. Flea Markets
Flea market is an open-air market which is a type of bazaar that rents or provides space to people who want to sell or barter goods. In Vietnam, you even cannot count the numbers of those. From the city to the countryside, from the coastal region to the mountainous region, flea markets are everywhere in this “S”- shape country. When you come there, you will probably be deep into the noisy crowded, but it will make you feel happy and excited. Depending on the size, you can almost find anything there such as food or clothes. Furthermore, in some areas, there are markets selling only one kind of goods such as “fabric market” or “flower market”.
8. Tropical Fruits
There are some kinds of tropical fruits in Vietnam which you cannot find anywhere in U.S. Have you ever tried “breast milk” fruit (or star apple) or ever seen a jack-fruit tree? Have you ever heard about rose apple (bell fruit), mangosteen or dragon fruit? They are popular because they are nutritious with the unforgettably unique of shapes and flavors. What is more, their prices are also acceptable in Vietnam.
9. Herbal Leaves
If you are a fan of Vietnamese food, you can recognize that there are herbal leaves or lots of vegetables in most of Vietnamese dishes. Most of Vietnamese people are taught to have vegetables or herbal leaves when they are kids. Their parents usually teach them that those natural medicines are good for their health even though sometimes it’s hard for the children to get used to with the flavors because some kinds of leaves have strong smells and tastes such as perilla (shiso), spearmint, knotgrass or centella (Asiatic pennywort).
10. Scenery
Vietnam has numerous gorgeous attractive destinations from the mountainous to the delta or the coastal, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West. If you have chance to visit the northern Vietnam, you can come to Sapa to enjoy its fresh air with cool translucent fog and vast terraced fields, or Ha Noi Capital, where the intersection of the ancient and the modern cultures simultaneously exist. Furthermore, you can also visit Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage, which is one of the most popular travel destinations in Vietnam. You will feel excited about 1,960-2,000 islets which are limestone formed around 500 million years ago in different conditions and environments. In addition, moving from the north to the south of Vietnam, you can experience many other beautiful sceneries. From the sexy shoreline of Da Nang and Nha Trang, or a dreamlike Da Lat with break-taking waterfalls to a bustling Ho Chi Minh City, or a picturesque countryside of Mekong Delta, you may feel overwhelmed when you visit those places, in the positive meaning.
