Vietnamese people: myths and urban legends

Being part of the Oriental culture, vietnamese people have the same historical caracteristic: all of them had a very pronounced way into the magic world, the superstition and all kind of fantastic stories.

In the specific case of Vietnam, all it's people think that they came from dragons and fairies, all create many stories around that topic and how they fall of the heaven and start the kings line. They also have a lot of myths about the creation of the world, some animals like why duck sleeps in one leg, and some exotic fruits like watermelon. Many of this involve impossible love stories that show big hearts and teach many values.

In the other hand, they have a lots of urban legends around war, spies, heroes and treason. Almost all of this stories doesn't have any historical support and many of them has been confirmed as lies, but vietnamese still believing on them and will hardly quit to such stories.

Taking into account that they are a very traditional and reserved culture, you can imagine the tone of all thier myths and urban legends... they are beautiful, full of good messages, color and creativity.

http://www.marymount.k12.ny.us/marynet/StudentResources/art/southeastasia/vietnam/html/vietmyths.html,

pictures taken from the same page.

Vietnam and crime

At this moment, the vietnamese goverment is trying to improve the tourism and, for that reason, their punishments for those people who commit any crime against a tourist are more strict. Also, they have many advises for those who want to know that country and travel there for the first time. Those advises include carrying the bags on the opposite side of the street, in order to be safe from a group of thiefs that use the traditional Cyclos to take from the tourist all that they can, and let all their valuebles things on the reception from the hotel and be very cautious on the beach and the big cities like Ho Chi Ming City.

They also warn all tourist about prostitution, because in contrast with other places, in that country is illegal to practice it or traffic with it. Another thing is to be careful using t-shirts or anything that make reference to the comunism, because in some places, specially on the south, the people doesn't accept it and can become agressive.

In the same way they beg to be careful on the roads, because there are too many vehicles in a little space, and it can be dangerous to cross side by side. Indeed, if you are driving a car, you must be careful on the streets...there are too many accidents.

Finally, the make reference to nature and the importance to keep healthy and in alert because get sick with tropical diseases is too common. With wild animals, there are not much to say, there's not a lot of them and you can badly see one.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Vietnam

Picture taken from: http://www.theage.com.au/.

Indiference or unequality?

Even when Vietnam is one of the smallest countries from the 3rd world, it's people is trying to make it popular overcoming their violent past and all their war's sequels. They are showing to the world it's rich culture and also it's big advances not only in war issues. With this goal on mind, some of them are fighthing to be famous in many different fields and many others became famous just for "default".

Ho Chi Ming never want to be famous while he was searching the independence for his country, but now he has a town with his name and we can found information about him, monuments, festivals and all kind of homages all over.In the other hand, cosmonaut Pham Tuan traveling to the space, do a lot of things to improve Vietnamese proud, but he doesn't receive the same attention.

It seems that vietnamese people only care about war and all that refers to that, leaving behind other people who work hard too doing a lot in culture, changing the point of view of those who think in destruction when heard the word Vietnam. The articles are very good, giving us important information, but we found many pages of Ho Chi Ming but not about Pham Tuan, i believe that's unequality and indiference.

Minh and Tuan, two different ways of write history

Ho Chi Minh and the cosmonaut Pham Tuan became important in not an easy way, both give more than they have to give, putting into risk their own lives in different ways. While the first go to the war, the second traveled to the space.

Ho is most famous for leading the Viet Mihn independence movement in 1941, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. He led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War until his death. Six years later, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, and Vietnamese unification followed. The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor. In the other hand, during his time in orbit in 1980, cosmonaut Tuan performed experiments with mineral samples and plant experiments on azolla. Tuan also took pictures of Vietnam from orbit for the purpose of mapping.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/space/phamtuan.html
Pictures taken from:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pham_Tuan

History, Vietnamese culture and people habbits.

The rich history of Vietnam, provide a lot of rituals and habbits that make of vietnamese people a very particular one and, also give them lots of architectonic structures and the traditional Pagodas. They have a very rich language, poetry, festivals and religions. One of their most popular festivals turns around rice, the base of their meals. All that festivals include fantastic and traditional clothes, very bright and colourful, a lot of meditation, believes and a clear religious part. Colombia has all that rich culture too, obviously in their own way. We have many different types of sub-cultures, natives and traditions. Representative festivals and exotic meals.

http://www.geographia.com/vietnam/

Pictures taken from:http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/, http://www.asiarecipe.com/.

Vietnam: Luscious beauty everywhere, from delicate design to technicolour sunsets.

Vietnam is a popular country because of the Hiroshima´s atomic bomb, but this country is more than war and pain. With an "S" form and almost fully delimited by rivers, Vietnam offers a really beautiful view, with huge mountains and an amazing blue sky. Also, Vietnam has very warm people, full of dreams and working for a better future. There´s no bad time to visit Vietnam, because when in many places rain the other´s has a very shinny sun and, of course, many interesting festivals in any time of the year. As we can see, Vietnam and Colombia has a lot of similar thing, both are countries with a violent history, but with a lot to show to the rest of the world, people, land, nature and beauty.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/vietnam

Picture taken from: http://www.telefonica.net/web2/rastrilla/Vietnam/vietnam_map.jpg