SnapHappyRoss

It’s difficult to describe Vietnam without mentioning the war, it having made such an indelible mark on people east and west. However, what we call the Vietnam War in the West is called the American War in Vietnam and was one of a series of conflicts which wracked the region continually from the Japanese invasion in 1940, until the Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia in 1989. Plenty of physical evidence remains, most notably the tunnel networks and aging military hardware which decorates many tourist locations. Since the economic reforms of 1986 and the lifting of the American embargo in 1994, the country itself has not looked back, and with the population more than doubling since reunification in 1975, Vietnam is one of the Asian tigers responsible for much of the region’s growth.

My parents lived in Vietnam for several years during the mid-2000s, which afforded me the opportunity to visit around twice a year. They were based in Ho Chi Minh City in the south, which was where I spent most of my time, but we did venture out to many of the country’s tourist hotspots. I also travelled through as part of a tour of Southeast Asia with friends in 2006, on a loop that included Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. I loved the friendliness of the Vietnamese people, the chaotic excitement of the cities, the contrast of old and new, the year-round warm weather and cheap beer, not to mention the excellent food. I can’t wait to go back to see how much it has changed in the decades since my last visit.