What to make of Vietnam? What an interesting place, I’d thoroughly recommend a trip here. Such friendly, hardworking entrepreneurial people here.
Vietnam, what an enigma, not sure if I’ve got the place straight in my head yet. We took a well travelled tourist route staying in Hanoi in the north, Hoi An in the centre and Ho Chi Minh City in the South. All destinations are completely different. Vietnamese food was new to us and it is delicious, fresh and healthy.
Considering it is a communist country, it is almost a mecca to capitalism and entrepreneurship. By that I don’t mean big corporate capitalism (although there are some very big manufacturers here) I mean small shopkeeper capitalism. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of small businesses here, it’s almost as if everyone has one. Government issue – here’s your shop and here’s your moped. It’s a miracle they are all viable.
Hanoi is an old city, there has been a city at Hanoi for a long long time. It’s otherworldly and somewhat haunting. Especially as it can get quite foggy, it really feels like an alien place at times.
The old town is one hell of an experience and a miracle of cramming as much life and commerce in a single place as possible. I got the impression that in North Vietnam it is almost law for Builders to move on to other projects before completing their current one. This seems to go for major infrastructure as well as smaller scale projects. If you come to Hanoi you must really cruise Halong Bay.
Hoi An is a lovely relaxing place, with an eye on the tourist dollar. While if you stay in Hanoi for any length of time you’ll probably get a headache you could spend a good while relaxing here. Hopefully it won’t change too much as tourism develops, but I suspect it will.
Ho Chi Minh City is a complete contrast to Hanoi, it is much more of a modern Asian city, it’s a much younger city a lot of the centre being built by the French. We spent a night cruising the Mekong Delta and I’d thoroughly recommend it, but would also have liked to spend a bit more time in the cities down there such as Can Tho.
As to the future, it will be interesting to see. There is the smell of change in the air. Our guides were very interesting to talk to. Young vietnamese apparently not wanting to follow the traditional route of their parents if they are farmers ( understandable but quite a worry considering how important agriculture is to exports), street food is apparently dying off as there is no status or money in it (it’s being effectively gentrified), people wanting to be Uber or Grab drivers rather than go to college as they can earn more money and work when they want. For me me I just can’t see how all these retail businesses are sustainable in the long term.