Vietnam Sidebar

We learned that the lady vendors selling fruits or pastries etc. carrying them on their shoulders get up at 4 am and walk the streets until they have sold everything, which is usually around 8 pm. They do this 7 days a week and it takes 10-12 days to make $20. To sleep, eight ladies share one room which cost 35 cents each. They go home to visit their husbands, and children only every few months. The money they earn in the city helps buy supplies for crops to feed their families in the country.  In the countryside If a man wants to marry a woman he takes a water buffalo to the front of her hut. If she accepts she moves the buffalo to the back. If not, he can come and retrieve it. Many boys get a baby buffalo when they are young. They raise them as working pets but also to prepare for marriage.  After the Vietnam war only 5 % were literate because no one could go to school ...they were fighting the war. Some government taxes go to pay back loans that were given to Vietnam to help support the war. Vietnam was a poor country with no munitions.  85% of Vietnamese are Buddhists of varying degrees.  Weddings in the country have about 1000 people invited. Gifts given are usually $100 US so they call it a "friend's saving account" because you get when you marry but you need to give when you go to a friend's wedding.  Houses are 3 meters wide and can be 6 meters long. The more floors you have, the richer you are.  If you are caught with heroin you go to jail and they kill you with cobra venom. They believe in a life for a life in sentencing.  The police are corrupt. We saw many times they pulled cars over for no apparent reason. You need to pay off the police to keep going. If you get caught for anything they ask you how you want to pay. If you say "fast" you give $10 in the pocket of the police and they let you go. If you say "slow" they will confiscate your car and you need to go to court. It takes days and costs more money to get your car back.  The highway on the way to Halong Bay is nicknamed ladies highway. That is because during the war there were no men as everyone volunteered or was conscripted. Women set up food stalls along the highway. The war lasted 20 years so the women could be in their 40's with no husband or child by the time the war was over. They were worried about who would take care of them when they were old. So they tried to get pregnant with drivers when they stopped for food. It was well accepted and many drivers had many children but there were no strings attached. The women took care of their own kids.  When someone dies the funeral lasts for 3 days. Each family has a plot in the village cemetery so depending on the village size they can have 50-100 plots. These cemeteries are built above ground and are ornate. After 3 years the bones are dug up and taken to the a shrine in the home. The plot is reused. Every year on the "death day" there is a celebration.  Many people feel their lives are improving in Vietnam but no one likes the political system because there is only one party. There are elections every 5 years but the people get to vote only for the person running and not the party.