How houses are built in Vietnam. Interesting facts about Vietnam. toilet facts

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ETIQUETTE AND CUSTOMS OF VIETNAM

vietnamese dwelling

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The structure of a traditional Vietnamese house in the form of the character "first"

A traditional Vietnamese dwelling should fit into the overall picture of village life: it is separate from others, but at the same time it is part of a common whole; it does not depend on anyone and at the same time is part of the village community. The walls separating the passages between the houses create a kind of closed world of the family living in this house, but at the same time they are "open" to the relationship of the whole village.

There are many different types of structure in a traditional Vietnamese dwelling, but the most common are two types: T-shaped architecture (main building and outbuilding) - this type is common in the lowlands of northern Vietnam; architecture in the form of the hieroglyph "Mon" (the main room is located in the middle, and on the sides there are two outbuildings).

The traditional dwelling of any Vietnamese family includes the following components: main building, outbuildings, garden, pond, barn, chicken coop, yard, fence and gate. Peasants have long known how to make their lives ecologically stable and harmoniously fit into the environment, creating conditions for balance with the outside world. The most important elements that create ecological balance in the traditional Viet dwelling, built in a hot and humid tropical climate, are three elements: man, earth and water.

Vietnamese dwelling corner

Modern home architecture with yard and garden

For the Vietnamese, the main room is the central link in the home of any family. In the composition of the house there can be an odd number of rooms: 1, 3, 5 or 7, and two outbuildings with a shed roof. Rarely does a house have an even number of rooms. The number of rooms and material for building a house depends on the financial condition of the family or the natural environment in which the family lives. The Viet dwelling is designed in a symmetrical way: since there are an odd number of rooms, the main room is in the middle and is the place where the family altar is set up and guests are received. The interior space in a traditional Vietnamese dwelling demonstrates the difference in the position of a man and a woman: a sleeping place for the men of the family is located in the main room, and the female half of the house is located in the side outbuildings with a shed roof, in an outbuilding or in auxiliary buildings.

The main room is the face of the whole house, as well as the place where the family ancestral altar is installed, so this room is decorated with special care compared to the side rooms. In many houses, the columns in the main room are decorated with patterns and drawings, and the rafters are decorated with skillful and fine carvings. The motives for decorating the traditional home of the Viet are suggested by nature itself.

The room where the ancestral altar is installed is the most revered place in the traditional home of the Viet

The place that receives the most attention in the house and is considered the most important is the ancestral altar. This shows the clear influence of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The ancestral altar is set exactly in the middle of the main room, on the sides it is decorated with panels with paired sayings. Even if the owner of the house is in tight financial circumstances, he still sets the altar in the most prominent place in the house.

A house can exist firmly for several hundred years, passing from father to son, so building a house for the Vietnamese is an extremely important matter. They take seriously all stages of building a house, starting with the choice of building material, a favorable day and month for laying a house, identifying among family members a person with a favorable age for building a house, because, firstly, it is believed that this is a matter of many generations, and, secondly, the construction of a house can lead to the prosperity or trouble of the whole family, or, even more so, of the whole family, if an unfavorable day for construction or the side of the world along which the house is oriented was chosen.

Major renovation of an old community house

The Vietnamese traditionally built their dwellings from locally available local materials such as wood, bamboo, clay, stone, etc. The choice of material depended on the financial capabilities of the family. The frame of the house was usually made of wood, beams and rafters were firmly connected to each other with various types of fasteners (in the form of a dovetail fishtail, etc.). The walls of the house could be made of wood, adobe or plastered. Windows were made in the walls, while windows overlooking the courtyard and the street were distinguished. The external form of a traditional house is very simple and uncomplicated. In those houses where the walls were made of simple bricks and the roof was covered with tiles according to the “yin-yang” principle, there was usually a simple pitched roof, and there were no complex, elaborate decorations (maximum - patterns of lines). Under the roof was a colonnade, which connected the veranda with whitewashed walls. Such a space looks simple and modest.

The simplicity, artlessness and modesty of the interior decoration of a traditional Vietnamese dwelling conceals the inner core of the people, the inexhaustible strength of life and the determination of the Vietnamese.

The interior of a modern Vietnamese house:

Chan Chi Kong, photo: Dinh Kong Hoan

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Features of Vietnam

Vietnam, like any other country, has enough features. However, here I will talk about those that we have seen ourselves, as well as how to respond to them.

1. The first feature of Vietnam that immediately caught our eye when we arrived in Hanoi is that there are almost no garbage cans anywhere in Vietnam! This feature is typical mainly for its northern part. People throw garbage right on the sidewalks or the roadway, not really thinking about the cleanliness of the city, or rather, not thinking at all. When I asked our Vietnamese friend where to throw away an empty juice box, he looked at me askance and asked: "Are you kidding me?".

Often, garbage is thrown in bags directly from the windows of houses onto the sidewalks. At night, a garbage truck passes by and collects everything. Walking the dogs is the same way. The owners simply take the pet outside, not particularly watching where he will do all the necessary things (often the dogs do these things right in the middle of the sidewalk). This should be followed by other people who carefully bypass the traces of dog walking.

2. The second important feature. It is difficult to find exchange offices in Vietnam! Exchangers are located in the premises of pawnshops and the exchange rate there is not profitable. It is better to bring money with you on a bank card, and withdraw from ATMs. Before you go to Vietnam, call your bank and let them know where you are going. Many banks block cards when they see that they are being processed from a third world country, especially if you try to withdraw a large amount. We got into such a bad situation once when we couldn’t withdraw money in the evening and stayed on the street at night without a hotel, food and money for the phone.

3. The Vietnamese, frankly, are flayers. How many times have they noticed that animals are like inanimate objects to them!

In Vietnamese markets, chickens and ducks are slaughtered right on the street, dogs are sold already baked and still smiling, and blood is pouring along the sidewalk. There are no homeless animals in the northern part of Vietnam. The Vietnamese eat cats, dogs, rats. No wonder we didn't see a single cat (!) or a stray dog in Hanoi. Maybe someone saw it, but we didn't.

4. In the north of Vietnam, it is customary to eat dogs and cats, but in the southern part of Vietnam, the opposite is true! in the south, very few people have dogs or cats. Moreover, many South Vietnamese consider it indecent. One guy's father said that if he ever eats dog meat, then he will not be paid for his studies at the institute!

5. Few people in Vietnam speak English. In the north, you can more likely meet Vietnamese speaking Russian! True, doctors speak English well (they also speak Russian, but not all, but those who studied in the Russian Federation or the CIS countries).

6. When you ask Vietnamese people, especially young ones, how to get there, they start to giggle and even laugh! Many tourists complain about this. It seems that our faces are not funny, but when you start asking something, the Vietnamese almost roll with laughter, more often girls behave like that!

7. Land is very expensive in Vietnam, so don't be surprised when you see Vietnamese houses. These are tall narrow structures, sometimes reaching 10 floors. In such a house, as a rule, one family lives. The windows in such houses only face the main street, because the houses are right next to each other, and the windows cannot look out on the backyard either, because someone else's territory begins immediately behind the wall of the house. A window can only be made if there is one more meter of your territory to the neighbor's wall. Hanoi gives a complete picture of such original architecture. Sometimes it seems that these are not several houses, but one big one. Thus, it is impossible to shorten the distance and pass between the houses. You have to go to the nearest fork.

9. In many small shops, the entrance to which is directly from the street, you must take off your shoes and leave them outside the door, and go barefoot around the store! The same applies to hairdressers, and to some cafes, and to souvenir shops. This is due to the fact that the store is the house! The home of a Vietnamese family that runs a shop! They open stores right in their homes, eat there, and sleep there at night. You won't walk around your house in shoes, will you? So they do not go and ask others not to go.

10. In Vietnam, many people open a cafe on the first floor of their house! You don’t have to pay rent, the sanitary service doesn’t come to check such cafes, and you don’t have to pay taxes either!

11. The Vietnamese believe that children should be born immediately after the wedding, and almost everyone has a child in the first year of marriage. We were terrorized by the question of why we have been married for 2 years, but no children yet. Everyone asked, both acquaintances and strangers. When they answered that there were no children, they immediately asked the question, when will they be?

12. In Vietnam, for some reason, very small chairs in cafes, as if for hobbits. I don’t understand what this is connected with, since the Vietnamese are absolutely normal growth. And the chairs are such that when you sit down, your knees are almost higher than your head!

13. The flip flops have short legs. When I tried to buy jeans for myself during my two months in Vietnam, I called Vietnam "the country of short legs" out of desperation. Absolutely all jeans were terribly short for me, and the larger size was already dangling. When we went for a walk with our Vietnamese friend, he translated what the people who come to meet us say. Guys from several companies said as they walked past us that I had long legs. In fact, there are longer ones, but in Vietnam they don't see it!

Food

The most popular dish in Vietnam is Pho soup, with rice noodles, bean sprouts, mint and basil. Usually, it is made with beef, it also happens with chicken and fish, but at the base, most often, all the same, beef broth is used.

In addition to rice, bakery products are not alien to the Vietnamese - the consequences of French colonization are felt. Various pastry shops with a variety of pastries and French baguettes are quite popular. The latter are especially popular - often, in stores, we saw queues lining up to grab hot bread straight from the oven. They are also sold in the markets, mini-baguettes are in special demand.

It is worth noting that in tourist places, Vietnamese cuisine is very diverse - here you can try crocodile or ostrich steaks, eat cobra heart, frog legs, not to mention the variety of seafood. We tried frogs and crocodile meat 🙂

Another popular dish is "hot pot" (hot pot). More precisely, this is not even a dish, but a whole process, which consists in the exciting self-preparation of soup right at the table, in a pot on a gas stove. We ate them with seafood and fish, but hot pots with beef, again, are more popular.

Basically, Vietnamese dishes (with the exception of numerous seafood and fish), which the locals eat every day, are not for everyone.

We will also have a separate culinary post dedicated to Vietnamese cuisine, so we will not give out all the secrets now 🙂

One of the features that immediately caught our eye is the local cafes, which, very often, use small, "children's" chairs and tables - it looks like a canteen in a kindergarten

Fruits

Fruit lovers will certainly like Vietnam - their choice here is 1.5 times more than in. They are sold in fruit shops or from hands / bicycles, we ate pink and starry (yogurt) apples, durians, mangosteens, rambutans and mangoes, tried 2 new fruits - sugar apple (annona)

and a variety of melon with an unpronounceable name, we will soon add them to our book" Asian exotic"

In local markets, merchants sometimes told us, as foreigners, the prices were 2 times higher. To find out the real price, we usually asked the buyers, and often, in this case, the sellers began to swear at such tips that prevented them from doing business.

For example, in Dalat we were refused to sell strawberries at a price for locals - according to their logic, it turned out that it was better not to sell the product at all than to sell it to a European at the usual price.
Fortunately, not all sellers are like that, and usually we bought fruits at reasonable prices.

In chain supermarkets, fruit prices are also good, sometimes lower than in the markets. So, for example, in Dalat there is "Big C", known to us from the past - vegetables / fruits / seafood are bought there, so the prices are justified. By the way, fruit prices, in general, are lower in Vietnam than in.

Coffee

Vietnam is a real paradise for coffee lovers; coffee consumption here has been elevated to the rank of a cult. There is even a traditional way of preparing this attractive drink, you can’t describe it in a nutshell - in the near future we will publish a separate article about the coffee traditions of Vietnam, where we will tell you everything in detail (in order not to miss it, do not forget to subscribe to blog updates).

Looking ahead, I would like to say that we are not coffee lovers at all, in ordinary life we drink coffee quite rarely, once every 1-2 weeks and more often cappuccino and mocha. But on this trip we were "covered")) we drank 2 cups a day, and bought a couple of kilograms with us 🙂

The Vietnamese know a lot about coffee, they drink it very strong, in small doses, most often with condensed milk and almost always with ice.

We, who are not accustomed to such a fortress, almost always diluted it a little.

Oh yes - what we also really liked was that when ordering coffee, almost everywhere they bring green tea for free, or 2 cups or a whole kettle

Housing

Throughout the route, we stayed in small cozy hotels, guesthouses - all rooms, even in Saigon, cost us $10. At the same time, we didn’t try to save much (if we wanted, we could have found cheaper) - we just chose for comfort and always got a room with air conditioning, a refrigerator, a TV, wi-fi, a balcony, towels (which were also changed every day) , hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes) and slippers =)

Speaking of slippers 🙂 Flip flops - this is what they call not only Vietnamese women, but also flip flops (they are also slates). They are so popular here that they are mandatory in almost any hotel, every time we came across blue, apparently this is the general standard. It is very convenient, especially when traveling light, to find flip flops in the room - we went to the beach in them and went on excursions to the islands.

An interesting architectural feature is that guesthouses in Vietnam are often narrow buildings, one room-room wide, often houses are built close to each other, so that common walls are obtained. From the outside, it even seemed to us that there was one building in front of us, but in fact, these are 4 different guesthouses

Beaches

The South China Sea, which we saw in Vietnam, unfortunately, did not sink into our souls.

We first met him in the town of Vung Tau, which is located 100 km south of Ho Chi Minh City. The sea there is gray and ugly, and the beaches are strewn with crowds of people - this is the nearest resort to the southern capital, so the capital's residents have chosen local beaches, on weekends there is no crowding here at all.

The beaches are not very well-groomed, in a day and a half in the city, we managed to see the main ones, but we didn’t even think about swimming

We also didn’t like the beaches in Mui Ne very much - this is a Mecca for kitesurfers, there is excellent wind and waves, and for those who are not fond of kiting, this, in our opinion, is far from the best place

The beach is long, good for running, but the sea near the coast is kind of gray, and the scenery is not at all attractive.

In general, Mui Ne is a fishing village, of course, it cannot be compared with the assortment, but we nevertheless came to look at the morning catch

Perhaps, for this you need to go to the north of the country, to Halong Bay, but according to the reviews of travelers, everything is not so beautiful and wonderful there, as the guidebooks describe.

In terms of infrastructure, the beach line is good, which is quite suitable for tourists coming from winter. Apparently, we have already seen enough of this, and we expect to see the next heavenly bays of incredible beauty.

But we liked the beach in Nha Trang more,

despite the fact that it is urban, the color of the water is surprisingly beautiful, and the sand is pleasant, albeit yellow. The beach is clean, wide, very long, and most interesting, very lively, especially in the morning - this will probably be a separate post

There are also beaches outside the city, we didn’t go there, but something tells us that it should be good there.

Most Vietnamese tourists did not get into the water at all, limiting themselves to a trip on a boat with a transparent bottom.

People

Here are quite ambiguous conclusions - on the one hand, we met many friendly Vietnamese, and not only, but also ordinary local residents. On the other hand, there were often indifferent, with gloomy faces, and completely embittered by something.

Even in the tourist service, where it would seem that income is directly tied to the attitude towards tourists, not everyone accepts this. There are, for example, those who are fluent in Russian, hospitable, smiling - this was mainly the case with guides in Mui Ne and Nha Trang. Or cycle rickshaws offering to ride around the city - very often blurred in a smile and did not resist the photo

And it also happened that even at the hotel at the reception or at the station at the box office, they simply did not understand us and did not even try to understand. They just lazily dismissed us and did not want to decide anything - it was easier for them not to sell a hotel room or a bus ticket and continue picking their noses than to try to somehow understand the white tourist, help him and at the same time earn money.

So, once, a tourist bus rushed past us (it was late, by the way, for 40 minutes). We stood right on the road and even waved the tickets to the driver, but for some reason he ignored us, although the transfer from the hotel was agreed. When we, rushing at speed, the three of us on a moped with a travel agency employee and backpacks, caught up with the bus, the driver cursed very much, claiming that he had not seen us 🙂

In the realm of sales, those vendors we bought from were smiling, or at least not looking away from the camera,

and many reacted in the style - “if you don’t buy, there’s nothing to photograph”

Whether it's a matter of, for them a photo of "white" is an additional plus to karma))

In Saigon, we met with different - friendly, attentive guys who are interested in other cultures, and had a great time together.

If we don’t talk about the Vietnamese themselves, then we also met Russian guys, someone has long been living in Vietnam wholly and completely in love with it, and someone, like us, traveled, and with both of them we enjoyed spending time together chatted, had dinner, drank coffee.

coloring

Vietnam pleased us, including with its culture. We always try to find some ideal (for us) balance between civilization and color - we want both comfort and culture at the same time, but, unfortunately, these are two opposite poles. So, for example, in - everything is very civilized, but there is almost no originality left, and in - everything is exactly the opposite.

For us, the optimal ratio has so far been, but Vietnam also seemed interesting in this regard. Small nationalities preserved in the villages,

pioneers in ties

street vendors in triangular straw hats, traditional games of dominoes and checkers,

coffee and cafes with "toy" chairs are all signs that globalization, although spreading wider and wider, is moving around the planet in uneven steps.

Language

names and menus in restaurants are duplicated in Russian. Even in an Indian restaurant they brought us a menu in which the names of Indian dishes familiar to us were distorted by the Russian translation.

Transport

On intercity long journeys (more than 4 hours), slipper buses are popular, with folding shelves of 2 floors - it is convenient to overcome long distances in them. I was surprised that when boarding such buses, you need to take off your shoes 🙂

We had one 6-hour night trip and one 5.5-hour day trip on slippers, the rest of the distances were shorter, we covered in the usual sit-down buses. The fare is cheap, 200 km costs approximately 130 rubles.

We also rode public transport around the city, the fare is from 8 rubles, usually the price depends on the distance, and by taxi, by European standards, it turned out to be quite cheap (for 5 km, we paid 80,000 dong - 120 rubles).

Also, motorcycle taxis are very popular, the price is negotiable with them. Motorcycle taxi drivers love to sleep directly at their workplace, during the trip we have a whole selection of such a "sleepy kingdom" formed))

In more or less large cities, we saw cycle rickshaws, the appearance of which constantly reminded us of India =)

In Vietnam, motorbikes are extremely popular, there are many more of them than cars. This is especially felt in the southern capital, Ho Chi Minh City, where they make up the vast majority of traffic.

At first, it seemed to us that it was simply impossible to cross the road - a pedestrian crossing for motorcyclists, like an empty place)) But we quickly realized that you can cross the road absolutely anywhere - the main thing is to walk confidently and slowly. Motorcyclists are very maneuverable, they will definitely go around, the main thing is not to be nervous and not to speed up the pace. So every time, crossing the road, we seem to have accomplished a small feat))

In modern cities, especially among young people, fashionable electric bikes are popular, but older people prefer ordinary city bikes.

Nonsense Vietnamese traffic

You are going to Vietnam for the first time. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with some of the features of the culture, traditions and customs of Vietnam. Although Western culture has influenced the Vietnamese identity, all the same, everyday life, superstitions and rituals of the Vietnamese will seem like a curiosity (or even wildness) to a European. Do not be afraid, because travel is the best way to educate yourself.

general information

It is better to come to Vietnam with dollars. Another currency is not in use here, and it will not be easy to change it. Take banknotes of large denominations with you, the exchange rate for small ones is much lower.

In Vietnam, it is difficult to buy clothes in large sizes. The Vietnamese are very petite people. A guy with a height of 175 cm is considered very tall, and there are practically no girls of this size at all. Size M and L are extremely rare in stores.

Alcohol is very cheap in Vietnam due to the lack of excise taxes. Imported alcohol in ordinary stores at a cost, as in Duty Free. The price of local beer does not exceed half a dollar.

In Vietnam, the price for equipment (chain, cable, halyard, rope) depends on the weight.

In Vietnam, as in, plastic bags are very popular. They put and pour absolutely everything in them. Liquids in bags are tightly tightened with an elastic band, they remain airtight even during long-term transportation.

Due to high humidity guitars in Vietnam with rusty strings. Also, because of the humidity, photographs are laminated here, however, over time, the lamination “leaks”.

The Vietnamese do not like the Chinese because of the long-standing enmity.

The monetary unit of Vietnam - dong is made of plastic. It can be wetted and wrinkled.

Dong depicting Ho Chi Minh

In Vietnam, only war veterans and civil servants have pensions.

The upper classes - officials, military, police and priests - do not experience problems with the land. She gets them for free.

Vietnam allows the death penalty. Since 2011, execution has been replaced by lethal injection. By the way, the execution is also appointed for crimes related to drugs.

The Vietnamese call women tourists "Madame", respectively, men "Monsieur": an echo of the French occupation.

Don't try to learn Vietnamese. The language has 6 tones. Even if you learn to distinguish all tones, the most difficulty will arise with homonyms and homoforms. The same word with different pronunciations can mean completely different things. For example, in the word "womb" if you play with "o", we get the verb "to get confused" or the rough equivalent of the word "vagina". Instead of looking for a place to sell Pho soup, if the tone is used incorrectly, you can already look for a “prostitute”. That's how innocently your nutritional needs will go down a little lower)))

Speaking of prostitution. Girls of easy virtue are called "carrots" here. There are many scams and divorces associated with prostitution in Vietnam. Be careful.

đồng chí (from Vietnamese - comrade), I have many madam for you, big and small. Yum yum, yum yum, 50 dollar

Appeal to the ladies: when letting your husband go for a massage, be prepared for the fact that the masseuses in some salons can offer your missus a “Happy end”, i.e. oral sex for dessert.

In Vietnam, as in Thailand, in the cities, kilograms and tubers of wires are piled on poles. And why did the French not enlighten the people in matters of electrification?

The ubiquitous wires of Hanoi

Vietnamese customs and traditions

In Vietnam, there is a belief that if you kill a snake, you can extend your life by a year. The Vietnamese believe that if you eat the beating heart of a snake and drink its blood, then male strength will increase, and women's immunity will improve.

In Vietnam, you can often see 100 dollar bills lying around. Do not rush to pick them up in order to determine authenticity. These fakes are scattered during the funeral procession. And they are also burned, it is believed that through fire they are transmitted to the next world.

Almost every Vietnamese has a $2 bill in their wallet: for good luck. This belief became the basis of the tradition of giving $ 2 for various holidays. It is believed that bets made in the casino or at the races with such bills will definitely bring a win, or at least double.

Before entering a building in Vietnam, you should take off your shoes.

The memory of ancestors in Vietnam is honored more than saints. Even atheists and communists have altars at home with yellowed photographs of long-dead relatives. From the point of view of the Vietnamese, the ancestors have no less power than even the Buddha or the goddess of mercy Guanyin. But the gods are often busy, and you can always turn to the ancestors.

The Vietnamese prefer to live where their ancestors are buried, and if need forces them to move to another city, it happens that they dig up graves and take their native bones with them to bury them next to their new home.

The abundance of the Vietnamese table

Vietnamese cuisine

The Vietnamese eat Pho soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Vietnamese begin to cook Pho soup even before dawn, so that by 5-6 in the morning they will feed the people hurrying to work.

In Vietnam, you can try the Balut delicacy. Balut (balut) is a boiled duck egg in which a fetus has already formed with plumage, cartilage and a beak. It is believed that such a dish increases potency. The eggs are steamed and eaten with salt and black pepper.

More than 5,000,000 dogs are eaten annually in Vietnam

The Vietnamese eat dogs. No one knows exactly when the Vietnamese started eating them, but the custom has a long history, especially in the north of the country. Dog meat is the main dish at parties, weddings and feasts on special occasions. In Vietnam, it is believed that dog meat increases male potency, warms the blood on cold winter evenings and helps protect against many diseases. In general, this product, rich in proteins, serves as an excellent substitute for pork, beef and chicken for the Vietnamese.

In Vietnam, you can try frog legs. The love for frogs here comes from the French. Or the French from the Vietnamese?

But it is reliably known that the baguette in Vietnam is an echo of the French "yoke". You won't find black bread here.

Sweets in Vietnam do not tea, but sweet meat please. Sugar-cured beef, sugar-cured fish, sugar-fried chicken.

The Vietnamese eat lizards, snakes, rats, cats, dogs, crocodiles, ostriches, silkworm larvae and many other reptiles.

In Vietnam, the process of eating takes a very long time. The bulk of the meal is spent talking.

At the Vietnamese dinner table there is a huge variety of dishes (it can reach up to 10). But one thing is certain: Fig. The Vietnamese love burnt rice. It is specially left on the tile longer so that a crust forms at the bottom.

You can bring your own alcohol to restaurants and cafes in Vietnam.

Because of the heat, ice is even added to coffee.

Speaking of coffee. Few people know that Vietnamese coffee is considered one of the best coffees in the world. In Vietnam, unlike other countries, coffee is not decaffeinated. Butter is also added to make coffee fatter and more aromatic.

The Vietnamese drink very strong coffee from small transparent cups, brewing roasted and ground beans in aluminum strainers. Condensed milk is added to coffee.

The Vietnamese dry fish in the sun without salt. Then it is fried with sugar!

Vietnam has yellow watermelons. Inside the color is like a pineapple.

Coffee in Vietnam is not brewed, but simply poured with boiling water

Nuoc Mam is the most famous Vietnamese sauce. There is an opinion that it is prepared from rotten fish. This is not entirely true (although the cooking process is similar to the fermentation of fish). The Vietnamese themselves willingly support this legend and tell it to everyone supposedly in secret, because. it becomes very interesting for tourists to try this sauce. Nuoc Mam is often used by the Vietnamese in many dishes.

On the roads of Vietnam

In Vietnam, international driving licenses are not listed.

In theory you are not allowed to rent vehicles with an engine capacity of more than 49 cubic centimeters.

Practically you can rent a car or motorcycle and no one will ask you for a Vietnamese license.

In fact in the event of an accident, you will be at fault.

For a Vietnamese, a bike is not a luxury, but a vehicle, a bed, a dining table and a second home.

In Vietnam, you can't drink and drive. However, it is rare to find a sober driver on a Friday or Saturday. But no one will touch you until you get into an accident.

In the evenings, when there is no more traffic police, you can meet drivers without a helmet and 4.5 people on one motorbike.

Vietnamese drivers do not like to turn on their turn signals and look in the rearview mirror. And when they go to overtake (applies not only to taxi drivers, but also bus drivers), they turn on an emergency signal.

Forget the walking zebra in Vietnam. No one crosses the road on it, the locals park their cars on it.

Don't think that sidewalks in Vietnam are for pedestrians. Sidewalks in Vietnam for motorbikes! You will have to constantly run back and shy away from the ever-squealing bikes.

A traffic light in Vietnam is just a travel accessory. Even if the main stream has stopped, there will always be a dozen tanks that will go to red. Therefore, when crossing at a traffic light, you should always look at the road. Moreover, in both directions, because the Vietnamese calmly drive in the opposite direction.

How to cross the road correctly and safely in Vietnam? Do the same as the locals do: get up on the “type” pedestrian crossing and start slowly moving to the opposite side. The stream of bikes will simply bypass you. Only you must behave predictably, move at the same speed and not stop.

Saigon has over 8 million inhabitants. There is no subway, and the only public transport is the bus

The traffic rules of Vietnam require wearing a helmet when riding a bike, but this rule does not apply to children under 12 years old! (see in this way they are trying to reduce the population).

The most favorite occupation of the Vietnamese in car services is changing the oil. If something breaks, knocks, makes noise or does not start: according to the Vietnamese, the whole trouble is from oil.

Poor Barsik

Vietnamese. Their manners

The Vietnamese get up early and go to bed early.

In Vietnam, the cult of sports. In the morning all the parks and embankments are overcrowded with people. Someone runs, someone does gymnastics, others walk along the beach. In the evening, dances can be organized: families, couples or just girlfriends dance in courtyards or parks.

If a Vietnamese is waving at you as if saying goodbye, do not think that he is saying goodbye to you. He calls you. The Vietnamese do not peel fruit towards themselves with the edge of a knife, but away from themselves.

The Vietnamese love to sing karaoke. Mostly popular Western pop-rock songs of the period 70-90s.

In Vietnam, the lion's share of the population smokes.

In Vietnam, as in the whole of Southeast Asia, there are problems with hygiene. Garbage is scattered all over the streets. No one notices the urn at all. Leftovers, cigarette butts, bottles: everything flies under the Vietnamese refectory table. Restaurants, bars and clubs try not to make expensive flooring, as cigarette butts turn the floor into a sieve.

In Vietnam, you can drive in the opposite lane, turn around through 2 continuous lanes, turn anywhere, drive along the sidewalk and not stop at a red light. If an accident occurs: the one who has a broken "muzzle" is to blame.

Real Vietnamese nightclubs are open until 10 pm and no one is dancing there. It looks something like this: the Vietnamese are sitting in clouds of tobacco smoke, and drinking coffee to deafeningly loud music.

The Vietnamese don't like cats. The cat says "meow", which is Vietnamese for "poverty". The Vietnamese are very superstitious people.

As much as the Vietnamese don't like cats, they love dogs... to eat.

In a Vietnamese family, as a rule, a woman clears the table.

In Vietnam, as in Thailand, the cult of white skin. Girls carefully hide all parts of the body from the sun, buy all sorts of whitening cosmetics. Almost all cosmetics in Vietnam have a whitening effect.

Black Hmong women who live in northern Vietnam still treat migraines with red-hot coppers. And the women of the red zao, when they get married, shave off their eyebrows, temples and the back of their heads!

Balm "Asterisk" came to us from Vietnam. It's actually in liquid form. The Vietnamese believe in the miraculous power of this magical liquid, they smear everything with it and with any ailment. And it helps, damn it!

A very famous Vietnamese tradition is to be late. And not for 10-20 minutes, but for 40 minutes. or a whole hour. So if you make an appointment, feel free to come 30 minutes later, you will not lose.

In Vietnam, business exists for the sake of business. It is important for the Vietnamese to do something, and what income it will bring is absolutely all the same

Communicating with the attendants, one gets the feeling that they can think through the actions only 1 step ahead. If it occurs to you to give someone several tasks at once, then after completing one of them, the Vietnamese will simply sit and wait for the next instructions.

Another notable feature of the Vietnamese population can be called a striking forgetfulness when repaying a debt.

Vietnamese women are alien to the concept of taste and style. In the shopping center you can see a lady in a tracksuit and high heels. A sports suit is convenient for riding a bike, and shoes in honor of the day off and going out.

Not the best makeup situation. If a Vietnamese woman decides to apply makeup, then it is like war paint: a thick and bright layer of makeup.

Do not be shocked if you see a little saleswoman in a crowded place defecate. Vietnam has recently opened its doors to tourism, and the natives have recently left the villages.

In Vietnam, houses stretch upward, not outward. Real estate tax is paid based on the area of land occupied.

In Vietnam, business exists for the sake of business. It is important for the Vietnamese to do something, and it does not matter what income it will bring. The first floors of each dwelling are equipped with a shop. Even those who have a house on the 1st floor manage to set up a shop and live there. And all family members - from a 5-year-old baby to an 80-year-old grandmother - automatically become attendants.

In Vietnam, property tax is imposed on the footage along the red lines (roads), while there are no restrictions on height and depth. Therefore, houses in Vietnam are tall and narrow. The width of some houses sometimes does not exceed five meters!

Immediately after our wedding with Lena, we were in Vietnam. This is a story in pictures about how we drove across the country from north to south and back.

As usual, we bought tickets, made visas and outlined an approximate route. On an evening Aeroflot flight we flew to Hanoi. The plane was 90% filled with Vietnamese. The Vietnamese sitting behind us, anticipating a quick return to their homeland, took off their shoes, socks and put their feet in the gaps between our seats. I had to plug these gaps with pillows.

The next morning, having safely passed passport control, we got into a mini bus and went to the old part of the city to look for a hotel. We quickly found a suitable hotel near the lake of the returned sword. In Vietnam, when checking into a hotel, they often require you to hand over your passport at the reception, we got by with photocopies. We dropped our things, rested a bit and went out into the street. We arrived on the eve of two big holidays, the day of the fall of the Saigon regime and Labor Day. In this regard, the whole city was decorated with flags and looked festive. We had breakfast in a restaurant on the second floor of an old French building. This restaurant is no different from many others in Hanoi, it has the same friendly waiters and divine prices, but it has a highlight - music! It always plays awesome American rock and roll.

Hanoi. Vietnam is one of the most convenient countries for independent travel, the tourist service is very highly developed, in every major city there are mini travel agencies that sell tours to all the sights in the vicinity. Given that the country is elongated from north to south, it is very easy to travel around it, moving from one city to another. There is practically no risk of being deceived and buying tickets several times more expensive, all travel companies have similar routes and prices. We bought excursions to Sapa and Halong.

About architecture. Once upon a time there was a tax on the width of the facade of buildings, and the Vietnamese began to build narrow houses three, four floors, and sometimes even higher. The average width of such a house is about three to four meters. Today, there is no such tax, but over the years, an idea has been formed of how a house should look like, and they are building it to this day. But the facades of these buildings are beautifully decorated and varied. Inside the house there is always a massive wooden staircase with very steep steps, the railings sometimes go perpendicularly upwards. Interesting houses are built along the road that leads from the airport.

On the first day of our arrival, we rode a rickshaw through the streets of the old city. In Vietnam, as I have already noted, there is a tendency to rationalize the entire living space. Therefore, the streets of the old city are very correct. Shoes are sold on one street, watches and gold on another, clothes on a third, and so on. Tombstones are sold at the intersection of Hang Bac and Hang Dao streets. The owner of one of the shops used a cunning marketing ploy to sell the goods better, he put a tombstone with a photograph of Britney Spears on the window. It is interesting how the singer herself would react to this, she lives and does not know that they earn money on her image in this way.

Then they walked around the lake of the returned sword. There is a pleasant atmosphere near the lake, they don’t gnaw seeds, they don’t drink beer sitting on the backs of benches, they don’t throw trash cans into the lake, not like us. In general, Hanoi is considered the safest capital in the world, and I agree with that. Before the trip, I read a lot of travel reports, there is even a thread on the Vinsky forum “Why I won’t go to Vietnam anymore.” The authors intimidated them as best they could: they say, bags are torn off, robbed, they are crushed with tales, taxi drivers do not allow passage. Zharov wrote about Vietnam in general that it seems that in some places some spoiled girl wrote, and not a man who traveled half the world. I agree that in terms of man-made attractions, Vietnam loses to many countries in Southeast Asia, but in terms of nature, beach holidays, food, and service, it is very good. In general, it is strange where such reviews come from, perhaps everything is known in comparison. If you have been to India, then the issue of annoying drivers, poor service in restaurants, cleanliness and comfort of hotels will not arise in Vietnam. And the level of organization surpasses many countries in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese are a very hardworking people and the Vietnamese economy is one of the fastest growing in the world.

The next morning, waking up early, we went to breakfast, restaurants for foreigners were still closed, and I dragged Lena into a cafe for locals. The choice was small, they took Pho Bo - a soup with wide flat rice noodles with beef and herbs. The soup tasted of something rotten, even a little sabachatenko, after tasting it, I realized that there was no rottenness in it, perhaps it was seasoned with nyok mam - a sauce of rotten fry. There was a long road to Ha Long ahead, so I crushed the whole bowl. It is noteworthy that the first days we were often heated, and this time we were charged 70,000 dong for such a breakfast, although its real price of the ball is not more than 30,000. But given that one dollar is equal to 16,000 dong, this is not much for us strained. By the way, new-style dongs are made on plastic film, which is very convenient in a country with a hot, humid climate. I even went swimming with money in the korman.

Soon a minivan drove up, we loaded up and hit the road. In theory, it was about two hours to go, but because of the holidays, many Vietnamese decided to go to Ha Long, as a result, at the entrance to the pier, we got into a traffic jam, or rather, our driver greatly contributed to its occurrence. The road was narrow, one lane in each direction. The main direction and the roadside were already occupied, and the driver drove in the opposite direction where, without driving even twenty meters, he met with oncoming traffic. The place was narrow. A queue had already gathered behind us and behind the oncoming car, someone could not back out. And the small gaps between cars and buses were filled with motorbikes in an instant. And everything stopped, and those on motorbikes, in general, wedged in on purpose to be part of the moment. It is surprising that no one swears, yells, or threatens to commit sexual acts with relatives of neighbors in the traffic jam. And everyone is standing, honking, smiling. Then a guy got out of some car and slowly resolved the situation.

Even in the minivan, our guide collected everyone's passports, and upon arrival immediately rushed with them towards the ticket offices located on the pier. Allegedly to buy tickets, in fact, he needed passports for something else - during a two-day trip on a ship, the price of the tour includes: transfer, accommodation, tickets, food, but not drinks. And when it comes time to pay for drinks, a pledged passport is a strong argument.

Junks. Once upon a time, as a child, I had an illustrated book about ships. On the last page of this book, against the backdrop of the setting sun, was a ship with low wooden sides and webbed sails unlike anything else. I have always wanted to see such a boat with my own eyes, but to go sailing is just a dream! And here we are on the pier, packed with junks, coming one after another, pushing each other, putting passengers on and off... My thoughts were interrupted by the returning guide, and we, following him, jumping from one ship to another, got to ours. The junk moved away from the shore towards Halong Bay, the tables were set and we began to dine. Ha Long is a unique natural phenomenon protected by UNESCO. There are about 2,000 islands of various sizes and shapes in the bay, most of them are impregnable rocks overgrown with shrubs. The water is quiet calm, transparent unusual turquoise color. The junks stop at the houseboats of local fishermen who sell live sea food. In the bay there is an uncountable number of marine inhabitants for every taste and color. Bought, I don’t know what to call them, they are cooked on the ship especially for the one who bought them.

On the first day we were on an island with caves with stalactites illuminated in different colors. The guide persistently showed us images of creatures created by nature, but I didn’t really notice anything. We spent the night on a junk, the cabin had a double bed, shower, toilet. The next day we went kayaking around the bay. All two days that we spent in Ha Long, the weather was foggy, and sometimes the sun broke through, from this the bay seemed mysterious and unexplored.

We were traveling back to Hanoi by bus, the bus broke down. And here we are standing under the hot sun and thinking: “Everyone got it, where in the middle of the way can you find an empty bus ?!” But it was not there! In less than five minutes, three minivans pulled up to us. Service.

Hanoi again. We had 7 hours before the train to Sapa. A very unpleasant thing turned out - I forgot the adapter for charging the camera in Moscow and, therefore, we can assume that we do not have a camera. Leaving Lena at the restaurant with our backpack, I went out pretty drunk in search of an adapter. We have not yet bought a local SIM card, and for some reason Lenin's phone did not work in roaming and, therefore, we did not have a connection with each other. I also needed to change money. And so I gallop from one electronics store to another and everywhere the same thing: “Oh, what a camera you have, sir! We don't have those." I had to buy a new camera. It was also a whole story. In the end, I caught a motorbiker and rushed through the evening city, illuminated by lanterns, headlights of cars and motorbikes moving in all directions at the same time, back to the restaurant. Many people describe traffic in Vietnam as the maximum possible mayhem on the road, in fact it is not. You don’t have to travel far to be convinced of this, there is Cambodia nearby, and in it the rules are observed even less. There was time before the train, and we went to wander around the city, bought a SIM card, it is very simple, you don’t even need to register for any document, changed money, and ate again. And then we were taken to the station in a minivan.

In Vietnam, there is a narrow-gauge railway, which makes the trains narrower than ours, but at the same time there is a lot of space on the shelves in compartment cars. We went to Sapa with Australian pensioners from the island of Tasmania.Very entertaining old men-travelers. They had a three month trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. We found many common topics with them, we drank beer with my grandfather. In the morning the train arrived in Lao Cai city. This city is located on the border with China, and there are buses from it to the city of Sapa. It was raining outside. The representative of the hotel was already waiting for us in the station building.

Sapa. Judging by the photographs that I saw on the Internet before the trip, everything is monotonous in Sapa: mountains, hills, stepped fields, waterfalls. Based on this, I planned a trip for one day. And in vain. Because you can easily spend a week in Sapa. Thanks to the mild climate, there is a special atmosphere, amazing nature, very hospitable people, like everywhere in Vietnam, delicious food. The city is located in a mountainous region at an altitude of about one and a half thousand meters above sea level nearby, the highest mountain in Vietnam is about three and a half thousand meters. When the bus travels to Sapa for several hours, it starts to pawn in the ears, like on an airplane. Despite the fact that it is raining below, the sun is shining in the city, the air is fresh and fragrant with the aromas of flowers. In the vicinity of Sapa, there are many villages in which small peoples of Vietnam live, some of them are immigrants from Siberia who passed through China many centuries ago. After breakfast, we went to the nearest village to the Black Hmong. The Hmong tribe is the most numerous of about three hundred and fifty thousand people. They dress in dark blue clothes embroidered with multi-colored patterns, behind their backs they have large baskets, in their hands they twist dry hemp, from which they twist the thread, from which they then make clothes. Very nice smiling people. Hmong houses are made of boards, heated by a fire, because of this they are heavily smoked. But in the houses there are TVs and DVD players. The Hmong sell a variety of crafts: clothes, knives, musical instruments, tinctures on snakes. I bought myself something like a khomus, and amazed all the tourists with my virtuoso playing on a musical instrument unfamiliar to them. Lena bought herself a cool bracelet. Passing through the village, we found ourselves at a waterfall, next to a spinning wheel of a mini hydroelectric power station and cool bamboo swings, turning over under the weight of water from small streams flowing down from the hills. And around the bamboo thickets.

All this time we were going down the hill, and to return back there were two options: either uphill on foot for two hours or by motorcycle along the road in twenty minutes. They took a local carrier and the three of us rushed along a narrow mountain serpentine. The road was winding and pretty sandy, and you had to go fast, otherwise the bike would not have gone into the mountains. Trucks sometimes drove to the meeting. Ride with the breeze, already tears from the eyes. There are especially many Minsks in Sapa, some came to Vietnam back in Soviet times, some are still delivered today. In general, there is a lot of our equipment in northern Vietnam, Kamaz and Oise are often found.

After lunch, our program included a silver waterfall, to which we were supposed to be brought by JEEP. A broken-down army UAZ of the seventies arrived, on which we were the fourth: me, Lena, a guide and driver in flip flops, went to the waterfall. The journey took less than an hour. The waterfall turned out to be really high, but not too deep. On special decks, you can climb up to one third of the entire height of the waterfall, where a bridge of chrome-plated pipes is thrown over the waterfall. In principle, you can climb higher on the rocks. Leaving the waterfall, we bought sweet green tea, you don’t need to add sugar to it, you just brew it, and it’s already sweet. On the way to the waterfall, stunning views open up, if you are there, then ask the driver to stop on the serpentine, get out of the car and enjoy the vastness of the world around us.

The day spent in Sapa came to an end, there were four hours left before the bus that was supposed to take us to the Lao Cai station, which we spent walking around the city. In terms of saturation, one day in Sapa surpassed two days in Halong. Sitting in a cafe in the city of Lao Cai, I drank myself unconscious of the very, very tasty beer of the same name. Consciousness was excited and demanded to continue, but the legs could no longer move. I don't remember how we got to Hanoi.

Hanoi again. On the morning of the next day, we arrived in Hanoi. We had already bought tickets for the Hue evening train. And in fact, we had no business in Hanoi. So after showering and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we took a rickshaw to Grandpa Ho's mausoleum. I liked the organization of the passage to the mausoleum, the people walk exactly along the lines in a column of two people, if someone starts to joke, the guys in full dress white uniforms culturally explain to him how to behave, so someone does not climb through the bushes and the queue goes quickly, not that we have. Just as quickly, everyone passes inside, in the center of the main hall there is a glass sarcophagus, demonically illuminated by red light. It contains Ho Chi Minh City in rubber galoshes. He didn't want to be embalmed, but the nation needed a creed, and Ho's followers did.

Ho Chi Minh City is a great man who managed to liberate Vietnam from the French and contributed to the unification of the north and south. During the war against the Americans, showing miracles of diplomacy, he managed to negotiate assistance with the USSR and China, which at that moment were on the brink of war with each other. Thanks to this, Vietnam is currently a single state, but it could be like in Korea.

Next to the mausoleum stands the yellow presidential palace - the former knowledge of the governor, built by the French. In a nearby park, there is a wooden house where Ho Chi Minh City lived when the Americans bombed Hanoi. The pond in the park is full of fish. Not far from that place is the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the pagoda on the same pillar.

Having had a snack in the garden near the pagoda on one pillar, we walked north to the temple, in which there is a figure of a deity personifying the wind.

From there, again on foot, but in the other direction, we reached the temple of literature. I walked barefoot as the streets in Hanoi are clean and the sidewalks are warm. A rickshaw was driving nearby and begging for a lot of money for a trip that we did not agree to.

Temple of Literature - a small copy of the Chinese temple of Confucius. Mandarins - officials - were trained in this temple. Stone turtles are installed on the territory of the temple, on the shells of which there are stone slabs with the names of graduates.

On the way back to our hotel, we ate at kfc and went for a foot massage. Vietnamese massage is not as good as Khmer and certainly not as good as Thai. Although their legs wrinkle, they do nothing. After the massage, masseuses always insistently ask for a tip, and this is the situation in all cities of Vietnam.