ipernity: Vietnamese memories by Wolfgang

Many of my friends ask me to transfer my Flickr album to IPERNITY - here is done - and I added some pictures more:
Vietnam or Việt Nam is the country of the Viets, the majority ethnic group in Vietnam. "Nam" means "the South", affirming Vietnam's sovereignty from China (usually called "North country" by the Vietnamese).
It was our first visit in March 2003 and honestly spoken out we had a bid of prejudice about people and country. Short time after being in Hanoi we learned how wrong we thought before. We just met lovely and unspoiled people at the market, along the scenic Hoàn Kiếm Lake, beside the main roads and in the restaurants. It seems that the "children from Uncle Ho" got the happiest children after the horrific history they had in the past (this should be an example for many other societies).
The 1865 km from Hanoi to Saigon is the only highway in Vietnam. We flew most of this way but drove from Huế to Saigon (Sài Gòn) and to the Mekong Delta by car. Everybody who drives in the Vietnamese traffic the first time will have the feeling as swimming as a profi-swimmer in a pool with thousands playing kids around.
The north and the south are quite different in Vietnamese mentality and we thought we changed into an other country, manly the daily grind seems more relaxed in the north of the country.
Our first impression was all the remain of the horrific history Vietnam and its people had to suffer under some conflicts, not only the one with the USA. There is a tension since many hundred years with the big neighbor at the north. Due this sad history the people every where face you in an harmonic friendly way.
It was our first visit to Vietnam and definitely not the last one. An amazing country, still free from the stampede of mass tourism like happen at many other places in Asia and spoiling its people.