Planning for a vacation part 2 ...

We've been back to Viet Nam quite a few times already in the last eighteen years. The first trip back home was in ninety three. Back then, Viet Nam had not yet changed as it is right now. The country was in disarray, as the Communist government could not decide which way to go.

That very first visit was extremely hard for all of us. We had not prepared ourselves to deal with what we saw around us. People were so poor, they did not have enough food to eat. Young kids and old people were begging every where. They fought for the left over which the customers barely finished, left on the tables at the restaurants. The government controlled everything from big to small, from the luxury to the cheap. Nothing you could buy without rationing cards issued by the local government.

Bribery, corruption, and embezzlement were happening every where, and at every levels. People used to say: "big dogs take big bites, small dogs take small ones", and there would be nothing left. Money could buy anything, exactly anything at all. Money could even tip off the balance of justice. 

We used to be a rice export country, but then people did not have enough rice to eat, because working for "Hợp Tác Xã" run by the government gives people the same earning. Who needs to work harder for the same earning as the guys next to you who just only need to show up? Thinking about those times make my heart ached, because my wife and I had to endure a few years of it. There were never enough food for a single meal a day. And white rice was only for the rich people.

They finally found out that strict Communist's ways would not only bring the country's economy down to its knee, but also get the country into a great disorderly mass.

The "Đổi Mới", or Economy Reforms initiated in ninety six has shown the results. It's been getting better and better as the years go by economically. Nowadays, it's hard to find a beggar in any cities beside the front entrance of the church or Buddhist temple.

The people in big cities are having more and more and they start to worry about how enhancing their life styles beside feeding their children. I've seen travel agencies popped up every where like wild mushrooms after the rain. They also are looking for better education for their children. Going study abroad is a norm nowadays for the business people, and their young college bound children, with destinations like Australia, England, Singapore, and even the US.

Bringing foods to the table is no longer number one priority. Luxury items which nobody dared to dream before now showing up all over the place. Many people now own the latest model automobiles, yachts, and even small jets. Regardless of, it would cost three times more for import and luxury tax than we would pay for the same items here.

Last year, I saw it with my own eyes that there were more Bentley, Ferrari, and Porches in Sai Gon alone than in Orange County Southern California. I wouldn't say that people in Sai Gon were richer than us here, but a few of them are having a lot more money than an average Joe in America.

At first, on those travel tours I booked in Viet Nam in the late ninety, only Vietnamese who came back home from abroad called "Việt Kiều" or oversea Vietnamese could afford. Then more and more, Sai Gon people started to mix in. Now the tours in Viet Nam would have a mix of half and half, and the trips abroad would be a third of the tourists from Sai Gon, and the rest are people like us.

We used to spend around ten to fifteen US dollars for a good meals for the four of us. But not any more, like everything else, inflation and the drop in value brings the dollar down tremendously. Now it costs more than five buck for a single meal. A treat in a nice restaurant for four would cost us anywhere from forty to sixty bucks easily nowadays. I remember the first time we got back to Viet Nam. We brought the whole clan of twenty five relatives with us to a nice sea food restaurant, and after a very luxurious meal with two cases of European imported beer, and the bill was a mere little less than two hundred US dollars.

Last year, it was totally different. We had to spend a lot more for a lot less. But Viet Nam listed as one of the five fastest growing economies in Asia, could afford it for its own people. They started bringing more and more imported luxury items from all over the world. People now want to get higher education to compete with the most fierce competitors surrounding them. And they all want to equip themselves with the latest technology knowledge and understanding to perform this task. They want to catch up with those advance countries in Asia like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. One of their advantages is the vast number of young people for all kind of labors, from intellectual to manual labors. Viet Nam has one of the highest ratio of working-age population, roughly over sixty five percents. Only a little over six percents of the population are sixty five years of age or older. It's sad to say but is true, they still have a long way to get there.

I don't like to sit still during our vacation. We've traveled a lot. I love to go to far away lands. We are lucky to have a chance to visit places like Taiwan, Thailand, Korea (twice each), Hồng Kông, Malaysia, and Singapore. We have not visited China yet, but it will be on our list this time. In our own birth country, we have had the chance to travel almost every corners of it except the very Northern tip of Laokay, and Sapa ...

Some places we have visited more than once. Others famous places we have visited more than twice. So far, we have been spending times from the very Southern tip of Viet Nam, with places like Cà Mau, and  Hà Tiên to the North, with places like Hà Nội, and Ninh Bình ...

Our plan for this trip is spending at least seven days in China, to stop by these big cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Guangdong province. There is also a short trip to Bangkok, Thailand. The last time we were there was in the year two thousand. If we could book a ten day trip to Japan, then it would complete our journey perfectly.

Within three or four weeks, we'll be on our way. Viet Nam here we come.