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/.