A closer look at Vietnam

Many of us still think of Vietnam as a nation heavily involved in war, though the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Vietnam is a gorgeous nation, based on a foundation of stunning natural beauty and calming village lifestyles.

Vietnam continues to hold highlands and rainforest regions brimming with new species awaiting discovery and teeming with exotic wildlife. Additionally, its beaches are perfect for a relaxing, sun-filled vacation.

Two decades free of war have provided Vietnam ample opportunity to take advantage of its national union, and they certainly have maximized their potential, becoming one of today's most outstanding travel destinations.

No matter what climate you find perfect for your vacation or even home lifestyle, Vietnam is certain to be more than capable of providing. With a climate as complex as it’s vastly ranging topography, a little bit of everything is available from this fine nation. Although situated entirely within the tropics, it is the wild variance of latitude, altitude and weather patterns that allow for such diversity.

Vietnam has a strong history and has made full use of it, creating a rich, pleasing culture. Vietnam is heavy in its spiritual life, including among its main ideologies Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Tam Giao.

One of the most popular events in Vietnam, for both locals and tourists, is the important annual festival of Tet, which is a weeklong celebration in late January or early February, ringing in the new lunar year and the beginning of the spring season. Festivities include many fabulous traditions such as fireworks, the drums, and gongs, and even quiet meditations. Tet however, is not alone in the yearly festivities of Vietnam - in fact it is only the first of about twenty more traditional and religious festivals celebrated every year!

The architecture in Vietnam gives one a sense of grace, balance and harmony with the culture, the land and spiritualism. Locals and tourists alike are awed by the great numbers of stunning historic temples, monasteries, and pagodas (towers made up of a series of stepped pyramid-like structures, often decorated with carvings, colors and other impressive ornamentation.

The Vietnamese language is a greatly flexible one, making it ideal for the culture’s lust for poetry and poetry plays which occur frequently within the country’s literature as well as performing arts. With the country’s drastic historical changes in leadership the folk art has varied just as wildly, having been very popular until the French colonization, but then faded out until more recently, when woodcuts, village painting, and block printing. Vietnamese lacquer art have become extremely common once more. Music, dance, and puppetry, are among other gorgeous art forms to be witnessed in Vietnam.

Vietnamese cooking has been influenced heavily by the cuisine of France, China, and Thailand, making it anything but bland. Its base is rice, but fresh herbs such as lemon grass, basil, coriander, parsley, laksa leaf, lime, and chili are greatly and expertly utilized. This is topped off by the use of the wide selection of tasty foods grown locally. Indigenous tropical fruits include bananas, pineapples, coconuts, lychees, melons, mandarin oranges, grapes, and exotic varieties like the three-seeded cherry and the green dragon fruit.

Vietnam’s current population has reached approximately 75 million people; 80% of which are ethnic Vietnamese, while the rest are made up of more than fifty separate ethnic groups. Among the many different languages spoken in Vietnam are Vietnamese, as well as Chinese, English, French, and Russian.