VIETNAM HANOI
MINJI’S TRAVEL BOOK
Prologue If you were someone who has ever travelled with friends before, you would probably agree that a trip depends largely on the people you spend it with. Youjin is my perfect travel partner. She’s also my best friend. She’s very similar to me and we hardly have any hiccups. We just have fun together! Our first trip together was in 2012. We went to Hong Kong and Macau and it was a fantastic experience. The next time we were able to go on an adventure together was on our trip to Hanoi in 2016. We chose Hanoi because one of our friends is currently living there. He was able to help us organize our trip on a shoe-string since both Youjin and I were on a very low budget. And as you may or may not know, Vietnam is much cheaper compared to other countries in Asia. Now I predicted that Youjin and I would have fun together as we always do. But nothing could have prepared me for the amount of laugh-out-loud moments we enjoyed. I bet I now have a few extra wrinkles because of it! It was truly another unforgettable experience.
Contents 01 02 03 04
At the Airport Vietnam Hanoi About Vietnam The Hotel, La Selva
05 06 07 08
Tipping Tan Coc Tour Vietnamese Food Economy of Vietnam
09 10 11 12
Massage shop Negotiating Price Clubbing Tour Guide
At The
Airport
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On the early morning of January 20th we headed out to Incheon International Airport. It was a freezing -15 degrees Celsius, so I was happy to get out of the city.
The plane was a little bit delayed, but after five hours I landed safely in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. After passing through immigration, Youjin and I quickly exchanged US dollars to Vietnamese dong and left the airport right away. I have heard that it takes forty minutes to get to the city center by bus. Unfortunately there is no subway in Hanoi. Apparently there are plans to construct a one in the near future. Instead of taking a bus, we opted for a mini bus which would cost us only $2. I talked to one of the minivan drivers and he let us into the vehicle. A few minutes later, however, he asked that we switch vehicles and move our luggage. We were a little confused and
walked to the front to catch another bus for the city. A different driver requested that we pay $5. I thought that he was overcharging us, so I refused. At that moment, there was a red minivan parked in front of the vehicle. I tried to get in and was sort of helped by the driver who pushed us in. There were two men loading people’s luggage into the van. When I stopped in the middle of the line to check the van, the men lifted up our luggage and, within about ten seconds, put it into the van. When I looked back up at the people standing behind us in the line, something felt odd, as if we had just done something wrong.
The people had a strange look on their faces as if we had just cut into the line in front of them, or at least that’s what I assumed. I asked Youjin to get back in the line. Suddenly, one of the Korean girls approached me and said that they had actually rented that red minivan. We were very embarrassed!
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I realized that must have been the reason they had looked at us in such a strange way. She kindly offered us to go to the city together. The men who were helping us with our luggage must have assumed we were all together since we all spoke Korean. Thanks to her (or perhaps, thanks to the luggage guys) we got a complimentary bus into downtown Hanoi. How lucky are we?
02 Arrived in Hanoi Half an hour later, we arrived in downtown Hanoi. Even though I have travelled to many countries around the world, Vietnam is but the second developing country I have visited, apart from China. As I mentioned, there was no subway. I didn’t see any public buses either. One should know that if one were to travel to Vietnam, taxis are the best option for going around the city. I noticed that the buildings in downtown Hanoi looked old. I later learnt that most of them
were built in the 1940’s. There is a significant French influence in Vietnam and this is reflected in the architecture of the city. My first impression of Hanoi is that it is busy, crowded and noisy and that there were many scooters. It seemed as if a million scooters were riding in between the cars in the street. It was crazy…or perhaps only to me, since I had never seen anything like it before.
When we got off our bus, we faced one problem: crossing the road. We hesitated as we were scared of getting run over. When we finally managed to cross the street and reached our hotel, the staff gave us some tips on how to cross the road safely:
1. Be confident. 2. Walk slowly. 3. Don’t step backwards.
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There were other, more detailed tips, but these are the ones that stuck with me. Now it might sound strange that we were given tips on how to cross a road, but it truly helped us a lot. By the second day we had it down. I realized later that Hanoi has its own traffic rules that we might be unaware of at first.
Vietnam
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia.
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Honoi
03
About
Vietnam
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The ride to downtown Hanoi revealed the true Vietnamese scenery to us for the first time. I could tell that most of the area is being used as agricultural land. It looked like Korea in the 1960’s even though I wasn’t born at the time. Let’s take a look about more Vietnam information below, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 90.5 million inhabitants as of 2014, it is the world’s 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The nvame Vietnam translates as “Southern Viet” (synonymous with the much older term Nam Viet); it was first officially adopted in 1802 by Emperor Gia
Long, and was adopted again in 1945 with the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, and Cambodia to the southwest, and Malaysia across the South China Sea to the southeast. Its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished and politically isolated.
In 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms, which began Vietnam’s path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnam’s economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world, and, in 2011, it had the highest Global Growth Generators Index among 11 major economies. Its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. Vietnam still has a Socialist economic system in place. I was very surprised to hear this as I thought the only Socialist country in the world today is North Korea. I am still curious as to what that entails as I didn’t grow up in a Socialist society. I started reading about it to educate myself a little bit. From an economic perspective, it doesn’t seem much different to any other country. People buy and sell items in the same manner in which one would expect to see in a capitalist society. Nothing feels or looks different on the surface, so I still wonder what exactly makes Vietnam a socialist society. Though the market reforms of China and Vietnam have both led to tremendous economic growth, the actual implementation of these new economic policies is decidedly unique. For Trotskyites and left-communists, these market reforms are simply manifestations of state capitalist policies. However, a closer look reveals that these market reforms were deliberate policy decisions demanded by the masses to continue building socialism in a post-Soviet world. Like China, the commanding heights of the Vietnamese economy remains in the hands of the state. The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) – the party of the working class and peasantry – remains at the helm of the state, and it still relies on a planned economic model that incorporates some market elements. The working class still holds political and economic power in Vietnam, and the market reforms were implemented as a means of strengthening socialism rather than weakening it.
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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam)
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Indeed, if many critics of actually existing socialism actually looked into Vietnam, they would find a vibrant protest movement by workers and peasants who work with, rather than against, the CPV to improve socialism. The state subordinates the interests of capital, both foreign and domestic, to the class interests of the people, and the CPV plans the economy to address the needs and demands of the working class first and foremost.
At varying points in history, socialist countries have had to make certain temporary concessions to the market in order to strengthen and preserve socialism. Economically backwards nations that have socialist revolutions face the task of revolutionizing the productive forces in order to meet the material needs of the masses. Vietnam is continuing the arduous task of socialist construction. Hardened by the experience of savage onslaught by US imperialism and inspired by their victory over it, the Vietnamese people have persevered through periods of retreat and economic crisis to continue building socialism in the 21st century. Though market reforms have brought many challenges and negative consequences, the overall orientation of the Vietnamese state and economy is towards the working class, and that alone makes socialism in Vietnam worth studying and defending. Source: Actually Existing Socialism in Vietnam (https://return2source.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/ actually-existing-socialism-in-vietnam)
04 La Selva Our hotel was conveniently located in the center of downtown Hanoi so it was easy to go around. I would say that the hotel La Selva is an excellent choice for a visit to the city. The rooms were clean and the staff was super friendly. I was quite impressed as they even remembered my first name! I have never experienced anything like that before, have you? They greeted me with a “good morning, Minji” and never called me “madam”, but addressed me by my first name instead. The food served at the hotel was great, especially the breakfast. There was a choice between Western or Vietnamese style breakfast. The best part was the 100% pure mango juice…absolutely delicious! After every meal, we were given a satisfaction survey to fill out. If we seemed unhappy about anything, they would try their best to fix or upgrade it. The price of the rooms were average compared to other hotels in Hanoi, but considering the good location, clean rooms, excellent food and great hospitality, what more does one need? I don’t mean to advertise this hotel, but based on my personal experience, I highly recommend La Selva. Picture Source: La Selva Hotel Booking.com (http://www.booking.com/)
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The Hotel
05
Tipping Once the room was ready, we entered and waited for our luggage. The bellboy came up with our luggage and we wanted to tip him. But at that time, we were still unfamiliar with the Vietnamese currency and had no idea what an appropriate tip would be. I looked in my purse and found a 500 VND bill. I wrongfully assumed that 500 VND is equivalent to $1, so we figured that two 500 VND bills would be an appropriate tip. When we gave it to him, he didn’t blink an eye.
He continued to show us the facilities in the room with a friendly, professional demeanor. It was only after he had left that we realized the tip we gave him was equivalent to about 50 cents! We laughed in the room because we found it very funny. We learnt that there are no coins in the Vietnamese currency. The 500 VND bill is the minimum, equivalent to a penny. We couldn’t stop laughing about this matter– a classic unexpected episode one encounters whilst travelling. After getting our things organized, we left the hotel to go wandering around the city. I held Youjin’s arm when we walked down the street to protect her from the scooters. I would say that one day walking around would be sufficient time as downtown Hanoi is quite small. We were starving.
Later that night, I met up with my Vietnamese friend, Anh. Anh and I studied together in the US last year. We used to be quite close in school and visiting him was one of the reasons I decided to go on a trip to Vietnam. I was very happy to see him… and his car! He brought his Maserati from the US and drove us around the city. I asked him to please drive safely as I was nervous with all the scooters and pedestrians in the street. To our surprise, all the pedestrians and scooters seemed to make way for us in the car! That night, Anh treated us to Vietnamese food. I tried frog meat for the first time. I thought it tasted like chicken. After dinner he took us to a Vietnamese street dessert place. The desserts were like nothing I had ever tasted before. We tried green bean and black bean, and I should say, it wasn’t half bad.
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On the middle of one of the streets, we entered a small Pho restaurant and ordered chicken pho (traditional Vietnamese broth). It was quite good, especially in light of the fact that it cost only $1.50! Youjin and I exchanged only $250, but since everything is so cheap, that was enough for the entire three days.
06
Tam Coc Tour
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On our second day in Vietnam, we made a trip to Tam Coc. Most tourists do trips to the famous Halong Bay which takes four hours to get to. But since we were low on time, Youjin and I opted for a two hour trip out of Hanoi, to the beautiful Tam Coc in Ninh Binh province. Some tours were presented to us by travel agents when we first arrived at our hotel. There was a $40 trip and a $20 one. Upon recommendation of the staff, we chose the $40 trip since the cheaper one entails a bus ride on which you sometimes have to stand due to overbooking. I found
this quite shocking that tour guides would let tourists stand on bus trips! We had no choice but to take the more expensive trip which, if you think about it, isn’t that expensive after all. Youjin and I were very excited about Tam Coc and we giggled all the way there. None of the other tourists were as jokey as we were. On the bus ride there, we noticed how many Vietnamese jaywalk on the highway. Have you ever heard of anything like that before? I was terrified at the thought.
our lady $1, but instead decided to tip her $6 for safely rowing us for an hour and a half. When we got off the boat, we moved on to get some bicycles. Bikes are a common form of transport in Vietnam. Riding a bicycle through the countryside was an exhilarating experience. It was an opportunity to witness local life outside the city. The atmosphere of the rural areas reminded me of Korea in the 1970’s. I felt sorry for some of the animals we saw on the way. There were cows, chickens and goats and they were all so skinny. On the ride back to Hanoi, most of the other tourists on our bus fell asleep. But Youjin and I never stopped talking.
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At Tam Coc, we visited two of the ancient temples that remain open to visitors to explore. Following that, we took a little boat ride which, to me, was the highlight of the trip. Of the many rowers available, we picked a little old Vietnamese lady to row us across. She was short and tiny and I was a little bit nervous about getting on her boat without a life vest. We pitied her as she seemed too tiny for the job of rowing the two of us. We were very excited to get rowing. The scenery was spectacular. We noticed some goats grazing on the rocky outcrops of the mountain (see picture). Our rower explained to us that sometimes these goats fall down into the river by accident. At the end of the boat journey, we wanted to tip
07
Vietnamese Food & Desert
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During a previous visit to China, I had trouble eating the local food. It was too greasy for my liking and I found the smell off-putting. I was a little worried that I might experience the same with regards to Vietnamese food and not have an appetite on my trip, but fortunately Vietnamese food doesn’t have a particularly strong smell so I didn’t have any problems eating. The desserts in Vietnam are even better than the savory foods. Youjin and I looked up some popular desserts online since we both have a sweet tooth.
CONG CAPHE
with condensed milk was bitter but the condensed milk hid the bitterness a little bit. The coconut coffee smoothie was even better! I am not really a fan of coconut but this was super good…an irresistible treat for girls, I bet. I would say that the coconut coffee smoothies were our favorite. I wish Korea would import these! I usually lose a few pounds when I go travelling, but this time I must have gained a few because not only are the desserts tasty and delicious, the street food is too!
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Cong Café is a franchise that’s pretty easy to find throughout Vietnam as they are quite popular among tourists. Over our stay in Hanoi, we visited Cong Café twice as there was one close to our hotel. One of the items we tried, was egg coffee (coffee with sweetened egg white). The top part is sweet, so you need to mix it well with the bottom part which is bitter. Other popular desserts we tried were the coconut smoothies and coffee with condensed milk. Both were very tasty. The coffee
08
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Economy of Vietnam
As I have mentioned, the low prices in Vietnam was a very good thing for us. No matter what we did, the price was always lower than what we estimated it would be. On our first day in Hanoi, the Vietnamese noodle soup (pho) cost only $1.50. At the other restaurant we had Vietnamese barbecue which only cost us $2.50. A taxi ride of about 15minutes cost around $3. Youjin and I brought $250 with us. When we exchanged that amount into Vietnam-
ese dong, the amount of local money was over a million. Vietnamese currency is confusing as there are many zeroes to keep track of. 30,000 VND is about $1.50. We were so happy to spend our money in Hanoi because even though we bought what we wanted, we ended up with more than enough money left. I think we spent most of our money on tips. I would continue with the following
The economy of Vietnam is a developing planned economy and market economy. Since the mid-1980s, through the Đổi Mới reform period, Vietnam has made a shift from a highly centralized planned economy to a socialistoriented market economy which use both directive and indicative planning (see Five-Year Plans of Vietnam). Over that period, the economy has experienced rapid growth. In the twenty-first century, Vietnam is in a period of being integrated into the global economy. Almost all Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Vietnam has become a leading agricultural exporter and served as an attractive destination for foreign investment in Southeast Asia. In a similar fashion to other Communist countries after the end of the Cold War the planned economy of Vietnam lost the momentum for productivity and sustainable growth. In the current period the economy of Vietnam relies largely on foreign direct investment to attract the capital from overseas to support its continual economic rigorousness.
Vietnam has been named among the Next Eleven and CIVETS countries. Despite economic achievement following Doi Moi, there exist issues that cause many analysts and researchers to remain worried about the economic slowdown in the country in recent years. Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Vietnam)
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In 2013, the nominal GDP reached US$170.565 billion, with nominal GDP per capita of US$1,902. According to a forecast in December 2005 by Goldman Sachs, the Vietnamese economy was expected to become the 35th largest economy in the world with nominal GDP of US$436 billion and nominal GDP per capita of US$4,357 by 2020. According to a forecast by the PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008, Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world’s emerging economies by 2020, with a potential annual growth rate of about 10% in real terms, which would increase the size of the economy to 70% of the size of the UK economy by 2040.
09 Massage Shop
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Since most things in Vietnam are much cheaper than in Korea, Youjin and I wanted to try something we couldn’t do in Korea. Going for a massage was one of those things. There are plenty of massage shops downtown.
I once started negotiating the price for a massage in the city, but my friend Ahn recommended we visit a spa that he usually goes to. Ahn took us there and when we got there, I couldn’t help to think that it seemed pretty similar to any common spa in Korea. Ahn bought our tickets and we were escorted to the ladies room. Youjin and I had no idea what to do, until a lady approached us and lead us into a room where the first part of the massage was to take place. I was expecting it to be like the spa’s we were used to back in Korea, which have private rooms. This one, however, was divided into two sections. When
we entered the first room, we were greeted by a shocking scene, one we were not expecting. Our mouths dropped as we saw everyone naked, enjoying the hot tub. The old lady who initially showed us in, pushed me to take my clothes off and shoved it into a cabinet. I was very embarrassed to not have my body covered up. They didn’t supply us with any robes, only a small hand towel. I couldn’t stop laughing as it was yet another unexpected, hilarious situation we found ourselves in. There were no other tourists, only locals. It was a shocking scene indeed.
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Once I finished taking a shower, the lady leaded me into a room with a small sized hot tub. I jumped in and relaxed for a while. It was very difficult not to laugh. After about ten minutes, I got out and moved into the second room. There were over twenty massage beds in this room. I have never seen such a big room with so many massage beds before. I laid down on one of the beds and a lady started massaging me. First my arms, and then she started massaging my breasts! Yes, she massaged my breasts! I was not expecting that and I was confused and embarrassed. I can honestly say that I was laughing for about half the time. She warned me that there is no need to giggle, but I couldn’t hold it in. We had some difficulty communicating since the lady was unable to speak English, but it was still fun trying! She asked me: “Massa, okay?” I assumed that “massa” meant “okay” in Vietnamese. Later on when I asked Ahn, he told me that “massa” means “massage”. It didn’t seem like a luxury spa at all. Youjin was surprised that my friend Ahn, who is quite welloff, would go to a common, public spa such as this one. Only later on did we realize that this spa was actually for the upper-class. This was yet another true, local experience that we were grateful to have been able to see, and one that will certainly never be forgotten.
10
Negotiating Price
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I have to say that the Vietnamese are a friendly bunch. Whenever I asked for something, people were friendly and warm. But despite them being friendly, it’s useful to know that when you buy something from a local, there is a chance that you may be getting overcharged‌sometimes up to twice as much! The staff at our hotel warned us about this and told us to never settle for the first price that an item is offered at. They told us to always negotiate the price down by 50% (at first), and then continue negotiating with the seller. I remember how once I was offered a particular price for a taxi ride which I thought was too expensive. I refused and the driver started following me and negotiating a better price. Since then, I never settled for anything before negotiating first.
Clubbing Luckily I stayed in Hanoi over a weekend and we were able to go clubbing on a Friday night with Ahn and some of his friends.
There was no stage and nobody danced. There were only tables to stand and have drinks at. The people inside the club were all standing around or sitting at tables drinking. It seemed like a luxury club and the music was quite nice, but nobody was dancing. I was bored. That said, I was still grateful to have experienced going to a club in Vietnam.
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11
Before going to the club, Ahn took me to a hotel lounge where we met some of his friends. I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone as only some of them were able to speak English. Only later did I realize that the hotel we went to belonged to one of Ahn’s friends. Once everyone assembled there, we moved to the club. I was very excited to see a club in Vietnam. However, to my disappointment, it was a terrible experience.
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12 Tour Guide On our third day in Hanoi, we requested a personal tour guide. I thought that a tour guide would be somebody who could introduce us to famous touristic places and move us around the city in a private car. As I have mentioned, public transport is quite poor in Hanoi. That was our reason for requesting our own driver/tour guide as taxi drivers would probably have overcharged us. When we met our tour guide at the hotel lobby, I was very embarrassed because he didn’t have a car. Now although he was super nice, a tour guide without a car is pretty much useless to us. He didn’t charge us much, but we found ourselves in an uncomfortable situation as we had to pay for everything he ended up doing with us, for example drinks at a café, food at a restaurant and even taxi fees. We realized that him being there was completely unnecessary as we didn’t need to pay someone to show us around the city unless he had a car. What we needed was a driver. I realize my mistake now that I should have asked whether or not our guide would have a car before we booked one. But by that time it was too late to send him back. I asked him to recommend some places in Hanoi that didn’t include temples. I saw a map of some temples and touristic sites that didn’t really interest me as none of those needed explanation. Besides, these places Youjin and I could go to on our own with the help of maps or
our smartphones. I wanted to go somewhere I could take plenty of pictures. Our guide suggested the old Vietnamese bridge and leaded us there. On the way there, the traffic made me dizzy again. There was honking every five seconds as we passed through the crowds in the street. When we got to the bridge, it looked too dangerous to walk across on the pedestrian path. The foundation of the bridge was made of what seemed to be thin bricks. Even though our tour guide told us it would be safe, I felt uneasy about it. I was surprised how the bridge was holding as it didn’t look safe at all. We decided not to walk to the end of the bridge and turned back. It wasn’t a fun experience at all. Basically, all the tour guide did was hold my jacket and carry the groceries I had bought. He was very willing to do so, but I still felt bad about it and to be frank, quite uncomfortable with the whole situation. His fee was only $10 but we gave him another $10 on top of that which made him very happy. Once he left, we were both relieved. I therefore strongly suggest you make sure you know what getting a tour guide for a day entails, before you request to have one sent to you.
Leaving in Hanoi On the last day, Ahn picked us up and took us to the airport. I really appreciate how much Ahn did for us. When I said good-bye to him, he said the following: “See you again one day.” This made me sad. As I mentioned, we used to be quite close and I used to meet up with him three times a week at school. But now we live in different countries. I do hope that I can see him again one day. I was very sad that my vacation had come to the end and that I had to leave Vietnam. I enjoyed it tremendously and laughed so much. I will not forget this trip. I have been back now for almost one month but I still find myself thinking about my trip to Vietnam, which puts a smile on my face. I believe that the most important aspect of travelling is the person you do it with, your travel partner. I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy it as much as I did had it not been for my friend, Youjin. I look forward to our next trip to a new city together.
If you were someone who has ever travelled with friends before, you would probably agree that a trip depends largely on the people you spend it with.
Hanoi
Nothing could have prepared me for the amount of laugh-out-loud moments I enjoyed. I bet I now have a few extra wrinkles because of it! It was truly another unforgettable experience in Vietnam.
MJL Vietnam Hanoi 2016.04
Pictures & Writing: Minji Lee Resource: 1) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Vietnam) 2) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam) 3) Hotel Pictures: La Selva Hotel Booking.com (http://www.booking.com/)
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