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Vietnam

The very mention of the name Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s
came to signify either a brutal jungle war or a spectacular
failure of American power - or both. Thankfully, the
combined legacies of French occupation, the Vietnam War
and withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1990 have given way to the
Vietnamese citizens' thriving entrepreneurial spirit, fueled by
overseas investment and a relaxing of government control.
And yet, the exotic chime of names and places still remains:
Hue, Dien Bien Phu, the Perfumed River, the Plain of Reeds.
The people are erudite and friendly, the food a delicious
mixture of French and local cuisine's, and the scenery is
sublime. Although Vietnam lies in the intertropical zone, local
conditions vary from frosty winter in the far northern hills to
the year-round subequatorial warmth of the Mekong Delta.
At sea level, the mean annual temperature is about 27
degrees C in the south, falling to about 21 degrees C in the
far north. Because of its wide range of latitudes and altitudes,
there are no good or bad seasons for visiting Vietnam. When
one region is wet, cold or steaming hot, there is always
somewhere else that is pleasantly warm and sunny. Visitors
should take into account the Vietnamese New Year
celebration (Tet) which falls in late January or early February
- flights and accommodation are often fully booked. Four
great philosophies and religions have shaped the spiritual life
of the Vietnamese people: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism
and Christianity. Over the centuries, Confucianism, Taoism
and Buddhism have melded with popular Chinese beliefs and
ancient Vietnamese animism to form what is known as Tam
Giao (or `Triple Religion'). The Vietnamese language (kinh)
is a hybrid of Mon-Khmer, Tai and Chinese elements with
many of its basic...

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