Less than forty years have passed since the terrible Vietnam war, yet, in that time, Vietnam has transformed itself into a nation buoyant with hope. Vietnam is now easier than ever to get to, its roads are being upgraded, hotels are springing up and the country’s raucous entrepreneurial spirit is once again alive and well as the old Communist system gives way to a socialist market economy. As visitor numbers soar, wartime memories fade, to be replaced with happy experiences of shimmering paddy fields, sugar-white beaches, full-tilt cities and venerable pagodas - Vietnam is a veritable phoenix arisen from the ashes.

Visitors to Vietnam may often be surprised at how quickly the country has put its bitter past experiences behind it, to embrace a vision of the future. It wasn’t always like this, however. The reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975, ending twenty years of bloody civil war, was followed by a decade or so of hardline centralist economic rule from which only the shake-up of “doi moi” – Vietnam’s equivalent of perestroika (reconstruction) – beginning in 1986, could awaken the country. This heralded a renaissance for Vietnam - today, a high spirit of commerce flows through the nation, evidenced by smart new shopping malls and designer boutiques, the hustle and bustle of street markets and the booming cross-border trade with China. For tourists, this is a great time to visit – not just to soak up the intoxicating vitality and optimism but also to witness a country undergoing a profound change. However, that’s not the end of the story. Doi moi is an economic policy, not a magic spell. So, for much of the population, life remains hard. In fact, the move towards a market economy has, not surprisingly, opened up the gap between rich and poor. The average monthly income for a city-dweller is around 100 USD, while in the poorest provinces, workers may scrape by on as little as 30 USD a month – and that urban/rural gulf is growing.

There is an equally marked difference between north and south. A deep psychological divide that was around long before the war, is engrained in Vietnamese culture. Northerners are considered reticent, thrifty, law-abiding and lacking the dynamism and entrepreneurial know-how of their more worldly wise southern compatriots. Not surprisingly, this is mirrored in the broader economy: the south is Vietnam’s growth engine, boasting lower unemployment and higher average wages. The increasingly glitzy Ho Chi Minh City looks more these days to Bangkok and Singapore than it does to Hanoi.

Many visitors find a vast number of places to visit that intrigue and excite them in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the other major centres. However, despite their allure, it’s the country’s striking landscape that most impresses them. Vietnam occupies a narrow strip of land that hugs the eastern borders of Cambodia and Laos, hemmed in by rugged mountains to the west, and by the South China Sea – or the East Sea, as the Vietnamese call it. To the north and south of its narrow waist, it fantails out into the splendid deltas of the Red River and the Mekong, and it’s in these regions that you’ll encounter the paddy fields, dragonflies, buffaloes and conical-hatted farmers that constitute the classic image of Vietnam.

In stark contrast to the pancake-flat rice land of the deltas, Ha Long Bay’s labyrinthine network of limestone outcrops loom dramatically out of the Gulf of Tonkin – a magical spectacle in the early morning mist. Any trip to the remote upland regions of central and northern Vietnam is likely to focus upon the ethnic minorities who reside there. Elaborate tribal costumes, age-old customs and communal longhouses await those visitors game enough to trek into the sticks. As for wildlife, the discovery in recent years of several previously unknown species of plants, birds and animals speaks volumes for the wealth of Vietnam’s biodiversity and makes the improving access to the country’s national parks all the more gratifying.

Title Image Credit: Christopher Crouzet (Image Cropped)