What do I need to prepare for Vietnam?

Vietnam is a country worth visiting. Nowadays, people's living standards are getting higher and higher, and more and more people travel abroad. Many people don't know where to go abroad. It's cheap and fun. Bian Xiao suggested going to Vietnam to experience life in this mysterious country.

China's feelings for Vietnam have always been complicated. First, the two sides of the strait have a history of more than a thousand years. Facing a small border country, China has always regarded itself as a sovereign country. It issued a commendation order when it obeyed, and sent troops to conquer when it committed a crime. Just like parents treat their children, they don't care much about each other's feelings and face. The second is the two wars that took place in the last century, from being close to each other and resisting the United States side by side, to turning against each other and killing each other. What are the consequences of these on today's relations between the two countries? In fact, the pass on the border between the two countries, from the south gate of the town to the Friendship Pass, is now an embarrassing pass. History has reached the modern age. Although countries are big and small, they should be equal in international relations and rules. Just as children have grown up and parents are still bossing around, the relationship between the two sides must be the best. To truly understand our neighbors and deeply understand today's Sino-Vietnamese relations, you have to feel for yourself.

As for Vietnam, I thought I was familiar with it. We grew up listening to stories about opposing "American imperialism" and supporting the independence of Indian zhina. Later, because of the "self-defense counterattack against Vietnam", we were in the same boat for many years. After China's reform and opening up, the economy rose rapidly. Hearing the story about Vietnam, it is common that people in rural China can't afford a wife. A few pence can buy a wife in Vietnam, and the low-end textile processing industry has slowly moved to Vietnam. What else is there? Ho Chi Minh, Deng Xiaoping and others we are familiar with have all passed away, and others seem to have been forgotten. On second thought, my understanding of Vietnam is far less than that of Europe and America. In my mind, Vietnam today should be a poor and backward country. As for how this conclusion was reached, I am puzzled, partly from our media, partly from previous movies, and more purely from my own prejudice and imagination. Finally, during this year's New Year holiday, I had the opportunity to go to Vietnam to find out.

When the plane was about to land at Johor Bahru International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, I stared at the Vietnamese mountains and rivers passing below through the porthole. The ridge under the tile shed is becoming clearer and clearer, and finally the fields and cities, more and more buildings and criss-crossing streets can be clearly distinguished. When the plane stopped, it was already noon in the local area, and the restarted mobile phone automatically adjusted the time difference of one hour from Beijing time. Our family really set foot in Vietnam.

Compared with the new airports that have mushroomed in big cities in China in recent years, the airports here are small and old, and look shabby. It is said that the customs and habits of a country are the face of the country, which can best reflect the degree of civilization and organizational efficiency of a country. I was surprised to see all the customs officers wearing green uniforms and dazzling red stars. They didn't laugh. In the past, I saw on the Internet that Vietnamese customs officers would ask for bribes, and they would make things difficult if they ignored them. Many years ago, when I entered the customs in the Philippines, I still remembered the staff who asked for bribes. My colleague's tripod was stopped by the customs officers, saying that it would be stored in the customs, or that I had to pay a deposit of 100 dollars when I left the customs. Of course, no one outside the customs recognized it, so we had to plant it. Although it can't compare with the smiling service of China Customs, fortunately, we didn't encounter such bad feelings at Vietnamese Customs this time. I don't know if this is pure luck or if the shady about Vietnamese customs has been exaggerated. I will believe it when I see it.

Airdrop from Shanghai to Saigon in the cold winter, the temperature is close to 30 degrees, which is a bit uncomfortable. The most important thing is to put on summer clothes. Then I took my luggage from the crowded aisle to the noisy airport. I soon remembered our old airport. Plug in the local telephone flow card bought on Taobao, and I became an online person again. I remember the first thing I have to do is to change money. I checked that the official quotation for that day was one yuan VND. I know it will be difficult to find money at the airport, but the People's Bank of China has no VND to exchange. Seeing that the price of the airport 1: 3350 is not outrageous, I changed the Vietnamese dong of 1000 first, and then took the changed Vietnamese dong. Remembering that the pick-up person I booked online might have to wait a long time, my family hurried out.

After climbing over the wall to pick up the plane, I looked up, down and left, but I never saw the pick-up card with my name on it. I dialed the number I left for the driver when I made an appointment, and I dialed the wrong number! Strange, so I sent a WeChat to the car rental company, and the other party actually replied that the driver had received us. Really confused. Under the heat wave, I was a little anxious, and then I went back to WeChat and said that the driver had picked up the wrong person. Next, there is bound to be a long wait. There is nothing to do but keep calm. Finally, a pick-up card with my name on it appeared, and my hanging heart finally let go. The driver is a young man, probably because he can't speak this language. He took us directly to the parking lot to find his car. Everything was finally in order, and we didn't want to ask the reason for the oolong, so we got on the road.

The airport in Ho Chi Minh City is only seven kilometers away from the city, but the car was blocked as soon as it got out of the airport. Motorcycles whizzed through the seams, which made us unaccustomed and even a little scared when we first arrived. It seems to have become the signature impression of Vietnam. It is common for a family of four to ride motorcycles. The local people are obviously used to it, and there is no police intervention. It should be allowed by law. What is shocking is that those motorcycles shuttle flexibly on the roads that we think are extremely dangerous, and the passengers in the back seat can still look at their mobile phones leisurely and wonder if they are playing games. Along the way, I listened to the roar of car horns and watched pedestrians cross the road in the traffic. Such heavy traffic and traffic jam like intestinal obstruction should be more serious than any city in China. It took an hour to walk seven kilometers.

Finally arrived at the hotel and paid the driver. By the way, I counted the stack of Vietnamese dong. I'm so stupid. 1:3350 is actually only given to 1:3035, which is almost 10% worse. What a terrible liar. Although the difference is less than 100 RMB, it has damaged the image of Vietnamese and awakened my sense of security in Vietnam in the future.

This first impression is really bad, as if Vietnam gave it a fright.

When we were brought into the hotel by the waiter, we felt like spring breeze people. The attentive service staff greeted us happily. They are all polite and fluent in English. Someone helped us with our luggage, someone took us aside to rest, and someone brought local drinks. Seeing the warm decoration of the lobby and the leisurely appearance of other guests, we seem to have switched to another world. The hotel should be a Vietnamese brand, but there are many western guests. The lobby bar on the first floor is spacious and bright, with indoor and outdoor parts. The design of the hotel is very foreign, the simple style of northern Europe and the characteristics of southern tropics make people feel very comfortable. In particular, the phrase "beinguniquisbethanbeingperfect" at the door is really special. It's heaven!

The waiting time is a bit long. All the clear reservation information has been confirmed, and everyone living in each room should confirm it one by one. This has never happened in other countries, and it is a bit urgent to sign every order in the end. But looking at the smile on the hotel receptionist's face and saying sorry from time to time, what can we say? Apart from answering it doesn't matter, I can only secretly worry about their inefficiency Think about government regulations. Otherwise, why should the hotel embarrass the guests? They must be smiling.

The room is large, beautifully designed and decorated, and its elegant style is rare in China and other places. The decoration of logs is even more refreshing, which makes people feel relaxed during a holiday. There is a street outside the window, but the window is soundproof. Basically, I can't hear the high decibels on the street. All kinds of billboards on the street are mainly Japanese and European and American brands. Just across the street, there are familiar mobile phone advertisements Oppo and Vivo, which finally surprised me.

After a rest, our family went to the street to find food, turned right when we went out, and immediately plunged into the noisy street. It's foggy. It seems that PM2.5 will not be good. When we checked the mobile phone, it was close to 200, which was a nightmare for the imperial city. This is out of the den, into the den. We rushed to the supermarket to buy masks and saw pedestrians wearing masks everywhere, especially many motorcyclists wearing masks. It seems that masks are also a necessity here.

Many people praised Vietnamese bread and rice noodles. They checked the Catwalk Eagle and found the nearest one with the best evaluation. Try French baguette first. The shop is not big and there are no other guests. The host told us to sit down, and we didn't know how to eat. We ordered their signature French sticks and waited until we found out that the owner of this restaurant is a Korean, who mainly cooks Korean food and sells French sticks. Since it was recommended by the catwalk eagle, it should be considered superior. Looking at what the shop next to me was doing, I turned to look: a baguette is slightly longer than a mobile phone, olive-shaped, with a crisp skin and chewy bread inside. Bake in the oven for a few minutes, cut it in the middle with a knife, and put all kinds of vegetarian dishes and meat buns in it. It's obviously a mixture of sandwiches and China steamed stuffed buns. In addition, Vietnamese always add a plant called citronella to their food, add a little to the baguette, and then dip us in sweet and sour juice. For me, bonzi is neither delicious nor annoying, but it is too hard for the elderly to swallow. So we walked into a nearby rice noodle shop. In Vietnam, the word Pho can be seen everywhere, which is the specialty of rice noodle shops.

The rice noodle shop we went to was full of customers, much like the chain store established after learning from western McDonald's. The bartender ordered some food, but his English was not very good. We pointed to the menu and signature rice noodles. In our impression, rice noodles are basically served with soup, and they are mixed with rice noodles when they come up, just like our mixed noodles. There is a special kind of soup rice noodles, but we missed it. Rice noodles are delicious. Add lemon and citronella according to the prompt, and the taste is unique.

With a full stomach, we walked along the street and looked around. Police in green uniforms appear from time to time in the streets, but the number is not large. As the Spring Festival approaches, Vietnamese people who celebrate the Lunar New Year like China can be seen everywhere wearing New Year decorations. You can use a "translation" app to see Vietnamese, which is the auspicious language of "Happy New Year" and "rich in financial resources", just like China. Chinese was used in Vietnam for thousands of years until French missionaries came to France and invented a set of phonetic symbols mixed with Latin and Italian to help them learn Vietnamese. This is the same reason that we began to use Pinyin to help us learn Chinese. In early China, some missionaries used Pinyin to help us learn Chinese. Different phonetic symbols come from different dialects. Fortunately, no matter how different the pronunciation is, China's words are literally the same. This is the advantage of Qin Shihuang's car on the same track, and the same characters are left to China to unify the characters. Once separated from writing or written in pinyin, a dialect has evolved into a unique writing, and Vietnamese has gradually drifted away from Chinese. Both Japanese and Korean, which belong to the Chinese cultural circle, were separated from Chinese after creating their own writing rules.

After France colonized Vietnam, Chinese characters were officially abolished in 19 17, just over a hundred years ago. Vietnamese, which can only be regarded as a Chinese dialect, is a foreign language for China people today. Unlike when we came to Japan, although we didn't know Japanese, we could still understand the general meaning from those Chinese signs. Fortunately, the application on mobile phone can help us to walk freely in foreign countries, without asking L.

I am surprised that English is so popular in Vietnam today, and I feel better than China. Waiters in hotels and foreign-related organizations in China can naturally speak English, but it is difficult to find a new foreigner who walks into cafes in the streets without worrying about communication difficulties. It stands to reason that the French officially colonized Vietnam for 60 years. It has been 60 years since China handed over the suzerainty of Vietnam to France after the Sino-French War in 1885, and Vietnam officially became independent after the end of World War II in 1945. Today, the older generation of Vietnamese can still speak fluent French, while young people seldom learn French, which is not popular internationally, and voluntarily change to English, an international common language. This is the power of the market. No one wants to go against the trend, and no one has any business problems. Walking on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, the signs of shops are mostly in English, the cars and motorcycles coming and going are mostly Japanese brands, and the fences around the subway are high-speed trains built by Japan and Vietnam instead of China. What happened? What kind of units do Vietnamese think China and China are in? What I want to know about this trip to Vietnam is.

In the evening, bid farewell to the hustle and bustle of the city and return to the hotel. I wasn't surprised when I turned on the TV. Dozens of stations don't even have a Chinese channel. I can see the hotel's TV channels, from CNN, BBC, VOA, HBO, NHK, Discovery to France, Russia and even Korea, there is no Chinese channel! Look at this leopard. China and China must not be as beautiful as diplomatic rhetoric says. A hotel engaged in tourism business, the proportion of guests staying now will not be low. Are they crazy? There is only one conclusion: the government has played a certain role behind it, and ordinary hotels with Vietnamese local brands are unable to compete with it.

In this case, it is best to read quietly for a while, go to bed early and recover from the fatigue of long-distance travel as soon as possible.