Fun facts about Vietnam

1. Vietnam has two flags. That is so because it is a Communist country. One has the red background with the yellow star, and the other has the red background with the yellow hammer and sickle -- the Communist symbol.

Flag of Vietnam

Flag of the Communist Party of Vietnam

2. In Vietnam, people drive on the left side of the car and the car keeps on the right side of the road, unlike in Singapore, where drivers sit on the right side and the cars keep on the left side. The type of car in Vietnam is called a "left-hand drive".

Left-hand drive

3. Vietnamese actually resembles Chinese dialects. For example, the Vietnamese word for "thank you", "cảm ơn", sounds like the Chinese word for "thanksgiving", "感恩". Also, the words for "male" and "female", "nam" and "nữ", sound like the Chinese words, "男" and "女".

Toilet signs -- "nam"

4. The sun rises early and sets early in Vietnam. By 6.00am Vietnam time, the sun is already up, shining brightly. I'm not even sure, whether at this time in Singapore (7.00am Singapore time), it is as bright there as it is here in Vietnam. The sun sets at about 5.15pm Vietnam time. I'm sure at 6.15pm Singapore time, it will still be very bright.

Sunset in Ho Chi Minh City

5. Ho Chi Minh City is actually named after Hồ Chí Minh, who used to be the prime minister (1945-1955) and president (1945-1969) of Vietnam.

Hồ Chí Minh

6. There are many motorcycles in Vietnam. It is so extreme, that it is very hard to cross the road in Vietnam, even if there is a zebra crossing or a traffic light. There is even a motorcycle lane on highways!

Motorcycles in Vietnam -- so crowded!

7. At the traffic light in Vietnam, there is not just a countdown for the green man (like in Singapore), there is also a countdown for the red man, the red light, the orange light, and the green light! For some reason, the amount of time for each color at different traffic lights are different, but the orange light is always three seconds long.

Traffic light countdowns in Vietnam

8. In the Vietnamese language, there are six tones (somewhat like Mandarin, which has five tones), which are: 

Tone name	Tone ID	Description	Chao Tone Contour	Diacritic	Example
ngang "level"	A1	mid level	˧ (33)	(no mark)	ba ('three')
huyền "hanging"	A2	low falling (breathy)	˨˩ (21) or (31)	`	bà ('lady')
sắc "sharp"	B1	mid rising, tense	˧˥ (35)	´	bá ('governor')
nặng "heavy"	B2	mid falling, glottalized, short	˧ˀ˨ʔ (3ˀ2ʔ) or ˧ˀ˩ʔ (3ˀ1ʔ)	̣	bạ ('at random')
hỏi "asking"	C1	mid falling(-rising), harsh	˧˩˧ (313) or (323) or (31)	̉	bả ('poison')
ngã "tumbling"	C2	mid rising, glottalized	˧ˀ˥ (3ˀ5) or (4ˀ5)	˜	bã ('residue')

These tones differ in pitch, length, contour melody, intensity and phonation.

A sample of some Vietnamese

9. During the Vietnamese war, the locals hand-dug underground tunnels to move about where the enemies could not see them. The tunnels are called Củ Chi tunnels, and it is now a tourist attraction.

Củ Chi tunnels

10. Before 1976, Ho Chi Minh City was known as Saigon. Long time ago, before the 17th century, it was known as Preah Reach Nokor (Royal City), which became Prey Nokor (Forest Kingdom), which turned into Prey Kor (Kapok Forest). Then, the name was changed to Saigon, after the Saigon river which was named after the sài gòn (kapok) tree. Following that, the name was changed into Ho Chi Minh City in honor of Hồ Chí Minh.

Sài gòn (kapok) tree

Thanks for reading my blog post about Vietnam! I hope you will go to Vietnam! It's really fun down here and there are lots of tourist attractions and good food! I especially like the phở (noodles) which is the local food! Come to Vietnam and you'll have a whale of a time, exploring the Củ Chi tunnels, shopping at the Bến Thành Market, and exploring other tourist attractions too! Again, "cảm ơn" (thank you) and "thấy bạn thời gian tới" (see you next time)!

Cảm ơn cho xem blog của tôi! Hẹn gặp lại lần sau! (Thanks for viewing my blog! See you next time!)