After another overnight train we arrived in Hue. Hue is such a historical place in Vietnam. Much of the Vietnam war was battled here. Vietnam has such an incredible history. It is soo interesting. To be honest in knew nothing about the Vietnam war. I was in the land where 15 million tonnes of bombs were dropped and i was completely ignorant of this. It is a really shame to come to this country without knowledge of its history. After lots of questions and reading I've finally caught up on my history. So this is what I've learnt.

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Vietnam has been at war for thousand and thousand of years. They have been ruled by France, China and been at battle with many others for years. It wasnt until 1975 that the country finally experienced Peace. The Vietnamese have always wanted independence but someone always wanted to rule the country for its riches. So the only way to be free was to fight. And let me tell you something. The Vietnamese are probably the strongest fighters ever. They kicked everyone assess. And not with bombs but with smarts. The guerrillas used incredible tactics to overpower their enemies even though they possessed far more powerful weapons. First they became free from China after they ruled Vietnam for 1000 years. Then the French after they tried to rule the Vietnamese many times. And then defeated the almighty Americans after 10 years of brutal bloodshed.

This country has war in its blood. Communism was of course the main reason for the most recent battles with the French and Americans. The French ruled Vietnam but it was slowly turning into a Communist country in the north. The western world feared communism so they came to Vietnam to destroy the Viet Ming, Viet Cong, VC (Vietnamese Communist). The French failed so the Americans came in the help the French. Ho Chi Ming was the leader of this VC. He has battled for Vietnams independence for years. The Vietnam war was one of the worst wars ever. So much casualties and bloodshed. South Vietnam was democratic so the Americans joined forces with the south. Together they battled the VC. The Americans were apparently winning the war. So they thought. In HUE, where we now were, one of the biggest battles ever occurred. The VC attacked the Americans on New years calling it the TET OFFENSIVE. This attack was completely unexpected and the Americans suffered greatly. To respond, the Americans dropped Tonnes and tonnes of bombs in Hue to destroy the VC. The casualties here were in the millions. After this the US left Vietnam and the North took over the South. Communism took over. Saigon became HO CHI MINH CITY named after the leader of the VC.

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So that brings me to Communism. Vietnam is a Communist country but hardly. For many years it was strict communism with lots of propaganda and strict laws but now that it not the case. To be perfectly honest. It feels like a democracy here. There is so much capitalism here. So many rich people and poor people. It is far from being equal. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Vietnam has a lot of Foreign investment from other countries and they do a lot of exporting. People are allowed to leave the country if they want to go for vacation but they have to come back. School is not free. You have to pay for university. There is no unemployment insurance. Businesses are everywhere here. The only communist thing is that there is ONE political party. You are allowed to vote on who you want to be elected so the people do have some rights. To sum it up, Vietnam has liberal economics with socialist politics. The people living here are even confused with what type of government they have.

Then the people of Vietnam are really nice for the most part. 80% are Buddhist. What a nice religion. Those who are devout Buddhist are really nice people. These people want to forget the past and look forward. They are all about Peace and do not want to been seen as bad people by foreigners because of the war. Smile and they will smile back. That's what i have done and it works great. The Vietnamese eat EVERYTHING. Dogs, bats, snakes. You name it and they eat it. Its crazy. They are also so skinny. Haven't seen one overweight person. They keep it shape and eat really healthy. Apparently dog and bats are healthy for you. Seriously. This is such an incredible country. Its so different and that's why I love it...

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