Vietnam Travel Diary # 1

This is actually my sixth business trip to Vietnam but the first time I'm writing down my thoughts on this wonderful country, a country with a lot of ironies and a lot of history and a lot of getting used to.

Vietnam is a country with very sharp contrasts, where like the Philippines, the disparity of the haves and the have-nots are clearly well-drawn. Interestingly though, which is where some of the ironies start is that they are building one of the newest international airports in the region (while the Philippines' new airport has been languishing in la-la land for over 5 years now). For a third-world country it has serious intentions of leap-frogging over its other SEA neighbors, our beloved country included.

Vietnam is where a farmer (I may be misjudging him and my apologies for this) takes a plane ride from HCMC to Hanoi. Where a nice little old lady jumps the queue over the flustered looks of my fellow foreigners.

Vietnam is a country who does not forget its history. A visit to two war museums (Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi and War Remnants Museum in HCMC) shows how the past has never been forgotten. Sadly this is a trait the Filipinos severely lack which is either our biggest boon or our biggest bane.

And Vietnam is where exotic food is as exotic as it can be. And I thought balut was pretty exotic. On my last trip my boss and I had the lovely opportunity to have fried baby bird (bones and all). This time, alone with my Vietnam friends, I had the chance to sample their version of "seafood": turtle. Yep, served in two versions. And to wash it all down: Hanoi vodka mixed, first off, with fresh turtle blood (thankfully just one shot of the stuff) and with fresh green bile from the turtle's gallbladder. My host's non-plussed response to my first time eating turtle was: "You don't have seafood in Philippines?"

And no, I am not posting a picture of the dish although I do have one. It's one meal to remember and one I would unlikely soon forget!