Forgot to say last night about the lovely little night market that we found just before it dark so here’s a few nice photos..

And we had a quick snack in luxurious surroundings…

I got up early this morning to go to the local food market to try and find some lemongrass with the roots still attached. 

It’s really difficult to find fresh lemongrass in Spain so I’m going to take some back to have a go at growing it.

The food market was typical. If you read my Japan blog I think I described the full horror of it. 

A bustling market with all manner of unrecognisable creatures wriggling around in vats, bowls or just on the floor and a huge selection of fruits and vegetables. 

Unfortunately, they ‘dress’ lemongrass by cutting off the roots, so it was quite difficult explaining what I wanted and why but, thanks to Google translate, I managed to procure some and the kind lady wouldn’t even let me pay for just four sticks as she sells a huge bunch for less than twopence. 

So I’m now officially a grass smuggler. 

Afterwards we had a leisurely breakfast. 

Don’t ever be tempted to try salted eggs, they may look like normal eggs but, as the kids say, OMG!!  My lips are so shrivelled that I look the exact opposite of a Manchester girl, and I still have the awful taste in my mouth.

We had oranges for breakfast:

Why aren’t they called ‘Greens’ here?

Then said goodbye to the spa..

We then left to drive back to Ho Chi Minh airport to leave Vietnam for Cambodia.

We have absolutely loved Vietnam.

Warm, welcoming people, full of character, opinions, happiness and optimism. 

Out of the hundreds of Vietnamese that we have interacted with only one was rude. A lady in a leather bag bag shop in which Brigitte was having a quick browse. (Big mistake! As Julia Roberts would say 😀) she was completely disinterested and deliberately ignored us. 

Maybe she’d had an argument with her boyfriend that morning, maybe her cat had died, who knows, so I will forgive her, especially as the other 99.999% have been an absolute delight. 

Revelations

No, it’s not a Bible class. It’s revelations following my ’investigations’ about Communism, Vietnamese style, plus a few observations.

Firstly, although we have travelled the length of the country, we have seen no overt poverty and no begging on the streets.

Yes, there are some obviously very, very poor people when measured against western standards, but food is so bountiful in the countryside that I don’t think anyone would ever go hungry.

However, that doesn’t explain the lack of people begging in the city streets. I can’t think of any large city where I have ever been and not seen one person asking for money.

I had assumed that the authorities hauled them off somewhere but that’s not the case. Begging is allowed, it’s just that it’s not really done here just because as people are proud. Apparently, there are a few in the large cities but we never saw them.

Talking of travelling, in the west we have Uber, here they have Grab.

A very similar experience but it works every single time here. We used it a lot, the car, (you can also choose a scooter) always new and spotless, always arrived in minutes and our average fare was about £1.

The app worked perfectly in English and the driver communication and tracking, coupled with constant information about your trip is far superior to Uber.

Onto communism…

It’s very well hidden. If I were to think of a communist state, it wouldn’t look like Vietnam. As I’ve previously said, everyone is happy and optimistic about their own, and their country’s future and I’m absolutely convinced that’s real.

People are encouraged to better themselves, there’s an entrepreneurial spirit and the people want to work hard and succeed (again, both for themselves and their country).

If I had to describe it, then it’s capitalist communism.

However, now I am out of the country I can say more. Not to protect me, I don’t think they could care less what I or anyone else says about Vietnam.

It’s just that a few people said a few ‘interesting’ things so, just in case I mentioned any of them in the blog (I don’t think I did), I thought I’d do this at the end of the trip so they couldn’t be identified by the timeline.

I was told that the internet and social media is closely monitored and censored where the government thinks it may ‘harm national security’ or it ‘opposes the government’. It’s known as the ‘Bamboo Firewall’. 

This obviously also extends to foreign TV as Brigitte was watching BBC worldwide news in the hotel when the transmission stopped and this message appeared.

As she was watching the BBC which, as most Brits will know but maybe no-one in Vietnam will, it never has commercial advertising so the message can’t be true. (Censoring the BBC is probably not such a bad idea though!)

There’s cameras everywhere, almost as many in the UK and I was told they monitor the people and that many police speak good English so they can listen to conversations to check what is being said to tourists.

I was also told that there are ’rules’ and there are certain taboo subjects, the people know what they can and cannot talk about. 

If someone transgresses then they will be arrested and probably imprisoned for 1-2 years for a small offence. However, they will find it difficult to find employment after that and their families will also have a ‘bumpy’ ride in future.

So, it’s not as open a society as we were led to believe.

However, even though there are rules in place, the people understand what those are and, as long as they stay within those defined boundaries, they are looked after, protected, live good healthy lives that they have full control over, travel freely and are allowed (and encouraged) to thrive and succeed. 

Besides, they all seem to genuinely trust and believe that their government is doing a good job (and how many people in western democracies would ever say that about their own government?) and, judging by their economic growth and the incredible country we have experienced, it seems their belief is justified.

It all seems to work a lot better than the chaotic west. Especially as free speech now seems to mean hate-filled ranting, and most of the democratic governments have no long term vision and corruption is rife. 

I don’t think we’ve been here long enough to absolutely confirm what I think but it does all seem to work well and it seems a great society to be a part of. 

So, unfotunately, that’s the end of our Vietnam experience. We both would highly recommend it as a safe, beautiful and always-interesting place to come to.

I’ve taken 1,566 photos on my camera and about 500 on my phone – that’s going to be a lot of editing when we get back.

Final Vietnamese fruit quiz.

Well, the response was better today both in quantity and accuracy but I did make it easy for you.

And the winner is…… Anonymous!

All the comments attached to the blog are marked ‘anonymous’ because I don’t require you to subscribe or log in.

Whoever wrote “can’t believe you ate Rat 🤮is the fruit Rambutan?” Is the winner – maybe let me know by Whatsapp who you are.

If I had a pound for all the people who couldn’t believe I ate rat….

Today’s mystery fruit….

Coming soon – Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh City – In transit.

25th November 2024