Vietnam is a country, not a war..
Since the early 70s, vietnam has been trying to shake off its image as a war torn country.
Was there in Ho Chi Minh City(HCMC) for a short trip with the missus...
Generally friendly people whom speak english marginally...
Much french influence since it was a french colony long time back.
Even the written language somewhat resembles the french written language with its scripting of how the vowels should be pronounced.
Saw the war museums and the actual Cuchi tunnels that was used during the Vietnam war with USA.
Learnt from its history that as the US troops tried to clear off the forest so as to locate the vietcongs, they used a defoliation agent aka Agent Orange, which could speedily destroy the forest and crops so as to facilitate ease of air survellience to find out where the vietcongs were. (Not knowing that the vietcongs are all underground in well networked tunnels right beside their basecamp near the edge of Saigon)
And these chemicals from Agent Orange actually had many side effects which apparently caused various cancers in troops(from both sides) whom were exposed to the Agent Orange.
Even though Agent Orange was also used in other US wars such as the korean war, USA did admit the side effects and paid hefty compensations to all other countries whom were affected during their war with USA... All except Vietnam... because..... it is still a communist country.
The tour guide whom was more proficient in English actually enlightened us with that fact that the only thing that was communist in the country was its government administration..
Everything else was Capitalism! Yay!
Due to globalisation, modernisation and Capitalism, more foreign investors come in..
KFC was actually first opened in vietnam in less than 2 years ago.
MacDonald's haven't opened any outlet in Vietnam yet, which was quite amazing since from where I came from, its hard to not see a MacDonald's every 2 bus stops.
Anyhow, Bien Thai market provided us with the shopping leisure activity though I enjoyed Vietnam's history lesson more than its shopping.
Plan to go there again for its pristine beaches.
