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A warm welcome to Vietnam in eight questions about the essentials. No need to be an expert: everyone can play along, young and old, and learn something new.
Morning market visitor 0–3 · Riverboat explorer 4–6 · True friend of Vietnam 7–8
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Ho Chi Minh City in the south, still often called Saigon, is the biggest city, but the capital is Hanoi in the north. Its Old Quarter was once known as the 36 streets, and many of them are still named after the goods once sold there, such as silk, jewellery and bamboo.
Photo: Quangnlnhe182394, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
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Today's alphabet was first worked out by Portuguese and other European missionaries in the 1600s, but Chinese-style characters stayed in common use until the early 1900s. Many of the little marks show the tones: with six tones, 'ma' can mean ghost, 'má' cheek and 'mạ' young rice plants.
Photo: Lachy70, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Ha Long means 'descending dragon', and an old legend tells of dragons that came down from the sky and spat out jewels, which turned into the islands dotting the bay. Many of the rocky islands are covered in jungle, and some are hollow, with huge caves inside.
Photo: Taewangkorea, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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This hat is called nón lá, which simply means 'leaf hat', and it is made by stitching thin leaves over a frame of bamboo rings. In the city of Huế, some hats hide pictures or lines of poetry between their layers, which only show up when you hold the hat up to the sunlight.
Photo: Lucas Jans, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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During the Full Moon Lantern Festival, held since 1998, homes, shops and restaurants switch off their electric lights, vehicles stay out of the streets, and only the moon and the lanterns light the way. The old town's best-known sight is a small covered bridge that Japanese merchants are said to have built more than 400 years ago.
Photo: This Photo was taken by Supanut Arunoprayote . Feel free to use any of my images, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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The sheets, called bánh tráng or rice paper, are made from a thin rice batter that is steamed and then dried in the sun, often with some tapioca starch mixed in. Dipped briefly in water they turn soft and sticky, ready to be rolled around prawns, pork, fresh herbs and thin rice noodles.
Photo: pelican from Tokyo, Japan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Water puppetry began about a thousand years ago in the flooded rice fields of northern Vietnam. The puppeteers stand in waist-deep water behind a bamboo screen and move the puppets with long poles hidden under the surface, so they seem to dance across the water all by themselves.
Photo: Gryffindor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Vietnam has tens of millions of motorbikes, one of the highest numbers per person in the world. You can even hop on a motorbike taxi called a xe ôm, which means 'hug bike', because passengers hold on to the driver.
Photo: Thái Nhi, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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