Vietnam is located in the South East Asia and is one of the most beautiful countries of the South East Asia. The north of Vietnam is by China. In the East and South, Vietnam is by the East ocean, in the West by Cambodia and Laos.
In addition, Vietnam boasts a unique shape of an elongated S and a long coastline of 3,260km with a lot of beautiful sites.
Vietnam Weather
Although Vietnam lies entirely within the tropics, the Vietnam weather is surprisingly varies from region to region with the annual average temperature from 22ºC to 27ºC(68o F- 80,6o F) because of its topography. So there are many kinds of tropical fruit which are really delicious and cheap.
In the North (from Hai Van mountain pass in the centre of Vietnam to the North), it is the weather of four different seasons in a year: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Spring lasts from February to April with warm weather. In Spring, the weather is very good for plants grow fast and flowers bloom brightly. Summer lasts from May to August with hot and showery weather. All day is sunny. And there are sometimes sudden thundershowers that make summer less hot and become cooler. Autumn is lasts from September to November with cool air, and dry and lightly windy weather. It can be the most beautiful season in a year with yellow leaves, red leaves falling on the streets and sky is clear and blue.
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| Hanoi, Vietnam fall |
Winter lasts from November to January is cold and dry weather. It is the coldest season in a year. Frost and snow can also occur in the high mountains (over 1000m above level sea) as Sapa, that make Vietnamese people eager to go up to see and check in by photos of such scare event of a year.
The southern region is predominantly sub-equatorial with two main seasons of wet season and dry season. A wet season ranges from April to September. It is often sunny in mornings and suddenly rainy in late afternoons. It often rain heavily but stop quickly. Dry season is often from October to May. The weather becomes hotter. All days are often sunny. But it becomes quite cool at night. Definitely, the weather is rather stable in the south.
Vietnamese Language
The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese, which is mother language of the Vietnamese people who constitute 86% of Vietnam’s population. And it is the second language of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. It is quite difficult for new learners because it is monosyllabic, with each syllable havs six different tones that can change meaning of word. Beside the official language, each ethnic minority group has its own vernacular that has been used and preserved in daily life.
The Vietnamese writing system in using today is an modify version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters. The use of accent marks showed different tones. This system of writing, called “Quoc Ngu”, was created by a French Catholic missionary-Fr. Alexander De Rhodes, in the 17th century to translate the scriptures. When France poached Vietnam in the late 19th century, French gradually reset Chinese as the official language in education and government. Vietnamese adopted many French terms as đầm (dame, from madame), sơ mi (shirt, from chemise), xich lô ( from cyclo) and búp bê (doll, from poupée). In addition, many Sino-Vietnamese terms were devised for Western ideas imported through the French. But, the Romanized script did not come to predominate until the beginning of the 20th century, when education became wide-spread and a easier writing system was found more expedient for teaching and communication with the general population.
Vietnamese People
Although it is a small country with the area of 329,560 square kilometers, there are 54 different ethnic groups inhabiting in Vietnam. Kinh ethnic (Viet) people accounts for nearly 86% of Vietnamese population so the others are ethnic minority groups that represent about 14%.
According to historical materials, Viet ethnic was the first ethnic living in Vietnam. And then other people came from the Southeastern Asian area. Almost of them were from China. Their ancestors moved to Vietnam few hundred years ago.
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| Vietnamese People |
Champa and Khmer are descendents of inhabitants who lived in central and south of Vietnam before the area was conquered by Vietnam. There are many other groups such as Muong, H’mong, Pathen, Pu Peo, E Đê, Bana, …. All of them are divided into 5 major groups following their language: Austro-Asiatic, Mon-Khmer, Viet-Muong, Sino-Tibetan, and Austronesian.
Nowadays, Kinh ethnic(or Viet ethnic) is mainly distributed in the Red River Delta, the Mekong Delta and the ethnic minority groups are located in the mountainous areas. Each ethnic has their own custom and tradition. However, they are very friendly and love peace.
Eating out in Vietnam ranges from street food to fine dining in luxury hotels. Though from anywhere, it cannot be negated that Vietnamese food is tasty and healthy. Vietnamese traditional meal is often made by rice, different kinds of vegetables and fish. Rice is the staple cereal and fish sauce “nuoc mam” is extensively used. The most popular dish among the local people is Phở – a noodle soup with both, beef or chicken. Normaly, there are two kind of Pho: chicken soup (pho ga) or beef soup (pho bo). Pho Bo Tai is a soup with rare beef fillets. Another specialty is Nem-spring roll, which is found in many versions, with varying ingredients used.
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| Vietnam traditional family meal |
The menu in restaurants is mainly with dishes made from pork, fish and beef, inside may be have snake and soft-shell turtle, which is considered a delicacy. If you are a vegetarian you can choose a restaurant for vegetarian or vegetarian dishes.
Chè is very famous and popular in Vietnam. It is a dessert made from sticky rice, beans: green beans, white beans, red beans, and a seasonal fruit. Inside, International cuisine such as French, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and American is also available.
Fruit smoothies are made from seasonal fruits. Fruits such as custard apple, sugar apple, banana, avocado, lemon, strawberry, jack fruit, dragon fruit, lychee and mango can be found in fruit stalls.
It is also recommended that you should buy bottled water rather than drinking tap water. Don’t miss out bia hơi Vietnam (meaning ‘beer gas’), as Vietnamese people call draught beer. Imported brands such as San Miguel, Carlsberg and Heineken are available along with local brands such as Saigon, Tiger, Saigon, and 333 (pronounced “ba-ba-ba”).
Currency of Vietnam – Vietnam Dong
The currency is Vietnam Dong (VND). Notes are available in denominations of VND 500,000 dong; 200,000 dong; 100,000 dong; 50,000 dong; 20, 000 dong; 10,000 dong; 5,000 dong; 2,000 dong; 1,000 dong and 500 dong.
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| Vietnam Currency |
Currency of Vietnam is small value and many foreign tourists call Vietnam is a country of many thousand Dong.
Coins have just recently been re-introduced and are available in 5,000; 2,000; 1,000 and 500 Dong denominations. However, the State Bank has revoke all for some reasons.
The USD is often only used in Hotel or big Restaurant so Tourists should exchange your money to VND when travel around Vietnam for personal expenses .
Shopping in Vietnam
In Vietnam,there are many small shops selling all manner of items on the streets. You can do a lot of souvenir shopping in Hanoi, Hanoi’s Old Quarter is best choise for visitors with shops selling clothes, Vietnamese souvenirs, embroidered tablecloths and handbags.
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| Shopping Hanoi’s Old Quarter |
Around Hanoi have many handicraft villages with nice goods such as: marble figurines, vases, ceramics, …from Bat Trang village, silk paintings from silk village Van Phuc-Ha Dong, and hand-painted greetings cards, lacquer ware, tailor-made Ao Dais-Vietnamese traditional clothes.
Ho Chi Minh City-the largest city of Vietnam is also a good place to shop for jewellery, carpets and leather work.
Best Time To Visit Asia 