WELCOME TO VIETNAM...

Vietnam, a name too long associated with the horrors of war, has
finally won its last battle – to capture the imagination of the
traveling public. Elegant Hanoi now vies with its dynamic sister, Ho
Chi Minh City (still fondly called Saigon by the locals), for the
attention of visitors drawn by the eclectic mix of old and new. More
modern than other Vietnamese cities, Ho Chi Minh City has also
retained its French colonial influences. Its vibrancy is maintained by
the ever-entrepreneurial Saigonese who have taken the government
reforms to heart and re-embraced the capitalist ethic with
unrestrained enthusiasm. The streets are jam-packed with mopeds and
scooters, often carrying whole families. The markets are chaotically
busy.

Elsewhere, the scenes are timeless. Early morning on the Mekong Delta
brings the daily floating markets where fruit and vegetables are
peddled. Everywhere the green patchwork of rice paddies stretches into
the distance, broken only by the silhouette of water buffalo and
conical-hatted farm workers bending down to tend the young plants.

The soaring mountains in the north of the country tower over tiny
villages where life continues much as it has done for centuries, with
traditional costumes still proudly worn. Old French hill stations
survive throughout the country offering welcome respite from the heat
of the plains below. And, in the South China Sea, the 3000 chalk
islands in Ha Long Bay are not to be missed.

The ancient former imperial capital, Hue, takes you back to a time of
concubines and eunuchs. In every town, young women wearing the simple
but feminine national dress, the Ao Dai, weave their way through the
traffic at the controls of a motorbike.

Only in Vietnam could the past and the present be encapsulated so
perfectly.