Vietnam is a country of contradictions. You can start a business whenever you feel like it. You don't pay taxes. You do pay for schools, your children are your pension and medical care isn't free. Yet, Vietnam is a communist peoples republic. In the words of our tour guide Phuong Thao:

"Although we are Communists,
we have to pay for everything".

I never really got what the communist part was.

See a gallery with more pictures here

Perhaps it would be more clear if I had went to Hanoi, where all government official buildings are. Presumably there's a lot more police officers and, well, communism in general. In Saigon it's all business and no government. Police are scarse and people doesn't seem at all afraid of speaking their mind, like they definitely are in China.

Vietnam is now open to the world, and has grown economically since the reform, Doi moi (Renovation), in 1986. Before that, after the Vietnam war, the borders were closed. Vietnam still remains a very poor country though, especially in the country where farmers and fishermen live off the land. If you want to make a better life for yourself, you have to move to the fast growing cities.

The population in Vietnam is 82 million, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is home to eight million of them. HCMC is a blend of french, chinese, indian and perhaps a touch of russian influences (they are thought russian in school). Naturally it's a lot of western influences nowadays too. They have incorporated the cultures of their invaders without second thought, and seems to forgive and forget in a rather healthy manner. There is concern about the past, but no hate. This may not have been the case just after the war, and Thao told us her father, who fought for the losing power (USA), was discriminated up until the late 70's. As his daughter she wouldn't have been able to go to the university at that time, but later things changed and she has. Meeting her, it's obvious she skipped her mathematics for something else though.

Phuong Thao, tour guide

Our tour guide had a theory why Vietnam didn't quite follow the success of Korea and Japan; They aren't as clever. The Cambodians are even more stupid, however. She also thought vietnamese people lazy by nature, who won't do anything at all if their lives don't depend on it. She told a few stories about it, but I'm afraid I can't remember them truthfully. If your get a chance to go to HCMC, send me an e-mail and I'll forward her contact address to you so that you can hear her stories first hand.

Although people outside the cities are poor, they are very friendly and seem happy. I know very well that westerners tend to glorify the poor and picturesque, but I don't think you can fake happiness.

Another article on vietnamese coffe can be found here