Listing the timeless beauty of Vietnam in the eyes of Foreigners
Referring to Overview of Vietnam, no one cannot ignore its elegant, charming, and harmonizing beauty of Vietnamese landscapes and friendly people as well. Especially, the most attractive feature about Vietnam that gets in touch with many foreign visitors is the Vietnamese culture and historical value through varieties of historical and cultural relics, rich and diverse festivals and events annually. Let’s discover such these amazing Vietnam features to fulfill the trip about Vietnam.
Geography and Heritages
Being surrounded by a long coastal line of Pacific Ocean and ranges of majestic mountainous areas, Vietnam possesses different terrains, creating marvelous landscapes and heritages ranked in the world-class natural treasures like Son Doong cage, Ha Long bay, Nha Trang bay, Con Dao islands, and so on. Vietnamese beaches are not only famous for the crystal-clear, fresh, and blue water, but also reputable as the ideal destination that preserves and nurtures the very diverse and rich marines and organism like coral reefs and turtles in Con Dao island, or coconut and pristine forests in Nha Trang, Phan Thiet. Otherwise, the bay in Vietnam, for instance, Ha Long bay, at the present still embraces many mysterious limestone mountains in its natural structures that attract many tourists to discover.
Many large caves in Vietnam are in the jungle and have not been discovered. Son Doong Cave, the largest cave in the world, was first discovered only in 2009 and must be opened in 2012 for visitors. The Son Doong adventure is still strictly controlled, costly and very limited, but there are still plenty of guests coming here to explore, especially Phong Nha Ke Bang cave system. This is the great opportunity to admire the beautiful, pristine, and mysterious creature in Vietnam.
Culture and History
The history of Vietnam associated with thousands of mysterious and heroic stories since the presence of human beings for over ten thousand years lived in Vietnam since the Stone Age of Trang An, Nguom, Son Vi and Soi Nhu. In the first Neolithic period, the Hoa Binh-Bac Son culture in this area has developed in terms of animal husbandry and agriculture, especially rice cultivation. The prehistoric Vietnamese in the Red River delta where Red River and Red River civilization developed the land for cultivation, creating a system of dykes to control the flood, digging canals to grow their crows, initiating the very special Vietnamese village culture being preserved until now.
In the Iron Age, around the 7th century BCE appeared the first Vietnamese state in Northern Vietnam, according to the Vietnamese history books, that is the Van Lang State of the Hung Kings. The Hung Kings were widely recognized as the first organized nation of the Vietnamese people, beginning with the legend of the Dragon Goddess that the Vietnamese proudly passed on from one generation to now. From the tenth century to the fourteenth century, Vietnam in the Dai Viet dynasties built the state on the basis of Buddhism along with Confucian culture influencing from China. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the influence of Buddhism gradually narrowed and the influence of Confucianism increased, the development of Chinese Confucian-style culture, and in the fifteenth century, Dai Viet had a major structure similar to China, the legal, administrative, literary and artistic structures all are Chinese.
Referring to Vietnam, foreigners cannot forget the fierce and dire wars in Vietnam for over hundred years, especially the wars against French and US colonists. During this time, many Vietnamese talent and heroic people marked their names in the world forever are Ho Chi Minh president, Vo Nguyen Giap general, … with ranges of significant historical events, for example, on April 25, 1976, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of South Viet Nam held the General Election for the unification of the state into a country officially named the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in 1977, Vietnam became a member of the United Nations. Along with that, these wars also left Vietnamese many deplorable historical stories about the drawbacks of the wars preserved in Vietnamese historical relics, museums, jails, and so on.
Vietnam has the unique culture associated with the history of the national formation and development from the past. Vietnamese cultural identity reflects many special aspects of various ethnic minorities and religions’ cultural life and social features through Vietnamese traditional events and festivals. Festivals in Vietnam are diverse and rich in different forms and rituals across 3 regions of the country. It is estimated that in Vietnam there are nearly 8000 festivals held annually, most of which are traditional festivals.
Festival activities include the cultural ceremonies and the community activities. The ceremonies are the gesture of Vietnamese human beings to show respect for the ancestors, as well as to the Vietnamese cultural symbols as the ancient treasures. Take worshiping is the typical example. In the ranges of pagodas and temples in Vietnam, worshiping, the traditional gesture of Vietnamese people, is held in here frequently to show their customs, rituals, beliefs and wish for their life better. Along with these ceremonies, community activities are known as Vietnamese spiritual performances of customs, beliefs, culture, religion, art, entertainment, entertainment, and social activities … In the east northern of Vietnam, Ban flower festival, festival to pray for peace and rain of Muong ethnic group beside many traditional games like throwing ball, ethnic dancing, or buffalo trading, and so on will promise tourists the most exciting cultural experiences ever.
Vietnam Weather
Vietnam is the country stretching over a thousand miles from northern Sapa to the southern delta of the Mekong Delta so that there are two different climatic zones, with four tropical seasons in the North and the dry and rainy seasons in the South separated from Hai Van Pass between Hue and Danang.
In the South Vietnam, the dry season is from December to the end of April, the weather is not heavy, clear and blue. If tourists aim to relax at a beachfront resort, this is the best time to visit Vietnam. If the destination is the highlands, choosing Dalat to enjoy the very fresh and cool weather and witness the blooming flower seasons.
North Vietnam is known for four seasons rather than just two seasons. The weather is almost hot and humid in summer and cold and dry in winter. The best time of the four seasons is spring, the time for tropical flowers. Spring time in Hanoi is often wet and humid, before the monsoon in May. In which tourists can bring umbrellas, and admire the thousands of flowers blooming in this area. Autumn in northern Vietnam is considered to be the most romantic time of the year. Rain and temperature are regulated between September and the end of October. The leaves are turning colorful and tourists can experience a nice and cool breeze and enjoy the Monsoon festivals, the very interesting cultural beauty of Vietnam.
Vietnam Transportation
Speaking to Vietnamese transportation, foreigners immediately visualize as the nightmare in the daily time due to its chaotic and crowded road structures with too many motorcycles moving irregularly. If walking on the pavement, tourists should be careful because the pavement is uneven and congested. Bikes, motorcycles and other vehicles often ignore the traffic signals, even driving on the sidewalk. For safety, tourists should watch both directions carefully before crossing the road, even when crossing the road in the pedestrian green light. Not only being strange with Vietnam bustle and hustle roads, tourists will able to discover the unique beauties from Vietnam transportation. Vietnamese drivers love to listen the radio, from the motorcycle to the bus, the car …, especially, they friendly smile to welcome them in every corners. Transportation in Vietnam promises to being tourists very differentiated memories with cyclo around the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem lake, and driving experiences on the rent motorbikes, and so on. And to join the transportation in Vietnam by motorbike, do not forget to bring international driving permit for legal approval.
Vietnam National Currency
The official afloat currency in Vietnam is Vietnam dong, 1USD equals to over 22,000 VND or VND including the highest nominal value is 500,000 VND, 200,000 VND, 100,000 VND, 50,000 VND. The lower nominal values often spend for going to markets, exchanges in small trades, or payments in tours are 20,000 VND, 10,000 VND, 5,000 VND, 2,000 VND, 1,000 VND, and 500 VND. Often for foreigners, Vietnam dong contains too much “0” to remember, and Vietnamese currency has the highest denomination in the world, nowhere in the world has a nominal value of half a million, meaning up to five zeros on the paper money, so that tourists can go straight to access any Vietnamese banks’ sites to learn about the exchange rate daily, the procedures for payments through visa, or exchange USD to Vietnam dong, or register Bank account and use ATM for convenient withdraw.
Vietnamese Cuisine
Not only own beautiful scenery, in the eyes of many foreign visitors, Vietnam also wears the beautiful and lovely appearances in small corners of the life where display many special dishes to discover. The best place to eat in Vietnam is small places with a few chairs on the walkway. The dishes such as noodles, fish noodles, and Vietnamese fast food are enough to show the greatness of street in Vietnam. At any hour of the day, tourists can meet Vietnamese people of all ages who can sit at a stand in the market, front of the store and enjoy Vietnamese delicious meals. Eating on the street is one of the easiest and most fun ways to experience everyday life in Vietnam.
Beside some traditional cuisines like Xeo cake, Pho, Bread, as the second largest coffee producer in the world, Vietnam also possesses the coffee drink culture. The most important and common point is that coffee is often served with condensed milk, even without condensed milk, and people can drink a cup of coffee on the sidewalk at any times they want.
Let’s discover the true beauty of Vietnam through its very rich landscapes and friendly people here!
