TWENTY-EIGHT: Good morning, Vietnam!

If I could choose one type of food, it would be Vietnamese. It is so fresh and flavourful. My few short visits to Vietnam were peaceful and memorable. I appreciate the culture and the history and I wish it was closer so I could go back again.

Good Morning, Vietnam!

February, 2006

By Diana Leeson

Living and working in Taiwan may be a difficult cultural experience at times, but at least it allows you to get out and see a bit of southeast Asia from time to time. Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia have always been popular vacation destinations for foreigners in Taiwan, but they are quickly being replaced by the less commercial (and arguably more culturally rich) locations of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

For Chinese New Year 2006, The Aussie and I packed our bags and left a damp, drizzly Taipei winter for the sunny shores of south Vietnam. From November to May, it is almost too windy in Muine Bay: perfect conditions for a kitesurfers’ paradise. Several kite and windsurfing schools are set up on the beach, and English-speaking instructors from all over the world are ready to lend you their expertise, for a price. This was The Aussie’s main purpose for choosing Vietnam as a holiday destination. I just wanted a warm, sunny beach. And I didn’t want to pay too much.

As it turns out, all of our wishes were granted. The Aussie kitesurfed so much that his ribs hurt from being bashed by the waves, and although I didn’t exactly relax (I spent my holiday walking up and down the beach, launching and landing his kite), I got a good tan.

The “resorts” of Muine Bay, outside Phan Thiet, are still largely undiscovered and therefore reasonably priced. A search on the Internet will reveal plenty of overpriced seaside hotels, but interspersed between these along the beach are a number of smaller, cheaper accommodations. The nice thing about these places is that they tend to have more of an “Indochine” feel to the architecture and decor. And rooms start at $18 USD per night!

Some Western travelers may wonder about what kind of welcome they will receive from the Vietnamese people during their stay. After all, tourists can visit bombed-out areas and crawl through tunnels that are reminders of the war. It’s true that if you resemble an American, you might get the occasional cold shoulder in the North. But this wasn’t a problem in the South.

Our Taiwanese friends had a bit of a different Vietnamese experience. At first glance, they appear to be locals and so the villagers try to communicate with them in their mother tongue. When they are unsuccessful, they often think that the Taiwanese are just being rude. This can lead to a bit of confusion.

Another embarrassing situation is when the Taiwanese girl with her Western guy is mistaken for a Vietnamese prostitute. In a country where modesty is key (legs and arms are never bare) these women in their holiday beach wear are sometimes given rude stares or even muttered about by clusters of gawking natives. Thankfully, hotel and resort staffs are a little more knowledgeable about the cultures of their various guests, and everyone is welcome.

I used to laugh at how the Taiwanese people I worked with were often confusing me with another Western colleague, who happened to have long blonde hair and blue eyes. “You have the same noses,” they argued, “and you wear your hair the same way.” All Westerners look the same to them, until they get used to our various differences in accent and behaviour.

When I thought about it, I realized that I am guilty of the same assumptions. I still can’t tell the difference between the various Asian peoples in appearance, and I have only just begun to successfully differentiate between Australian and British accents -- a frequent bone of contention with my Aussie partner, I assure you! I am often amazed (and embarrassed) at how little we North Americans know about the rest of the world. With the US as our big brother next door, we are guilty of remaining somewhat insular in our education of world history and geography. Often a Taiwanese person will come up to me and start a discussion about their studies in Canadian culture and traditions, and I’m impressed at how much they know.

Some cultures think “We are so different from everyone else. Let’s find out about the rest of the world.” Why is that North Americans (Americans, primarily, but Canadians are also guilty) seem to think “Why do they do or think that? We don’t do it that way. They should do it our way. Our way is better.” A popular joke among foreigners in Taiwan is that the Americans call their baseball finals “The World Series”. Is the rest of the world invited? Or just the part of the world that matters to the Americans?

But I digress. My Vietnamese vacation, it seems, was more than just a trip to the beach. It was a bit of a lesson in cultural acceptance and personal integrity. The word “Viet” means “people” and “nam” means “south”. These people of the south are soft-spoken and modest, warm and welcoming. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many smiles in one day.