My dreamlike Vietnam

329,560 square kilometres in motion, 82,262,356 active souls, in a country with a past rooted in the daily life, with a dynamic and an eagerly hoped for present. 

Exotic and surprising, Vietnam is draped in the magic of dragon - mystical element of its culture. This symbol is seen everywhere: you can see its eyes, the amazing cities of Saigon and Hanoi, and get lost in its heart, Hue, centre of this magical creature who, with its smell of incense and spiritual force, impregnates the step of humanity with energy. 

Each of its inhabitants – human beings and constructions – is marked by the centuries-long struggle of French, U.S. and Chinese domination. 

When you walk on the noisy streets and avenues or in the rice fields and forests paths, it’s hard to believe that this smiling people have suffered so much. Today, they breathe the will to live their own destiny, at peace and dreaming of liberty with hope in their eyes.

You can hear “Xin chào m?ng b?n” (welcome) when foreigners walk the streets; it's a way to invite them to be part of the daily life. Hence you explore Vietnamese life which, from dawn to dawn, is a feast of colours, flavours, scents and expressions.

Doors and hearts alike are open. Immersed in the family warmth during the daily and permanent cohabitation with theirs and the others, they share their lives on the sidewalks and avenues, where you meet, wherever you go, someone betting for a better life in a typical chess set or game of chance. They share their working days under the country sun of exotic fruits and veggies, resting of the intense heat in a hammock or merely looking at life from under their conical hats. 

Gastronomy is lived intensely at each corner; it’s not uncommon to see someone cooking “phô” or “luk loc”, or braising a piece of meat. Green flooded rice fields predominant in rural landscapes move to cities to sustain their population, markets are noisy and plentiful, fish always fresh, provided thanks to traditional fishing methods, fruit juices with intense taste and colour… noodles.

Vietnamese live outdoors, near the centre of the world, squatting or seated on small benches with a cup of slowly-prepared coffee, with a special taste, cold or hot, white or black, it’s a treat for the palate; bear or “bia hoi”, also freshly and locally brewed, is another pretext to be outside, where everything happens and stays.

Grand-parents share the history, alive in each of their lines; they are anonymous characters, physically marked, who represent the nation’s future’s consciousness, through the innocence of children who play joyfully in the streets and fields, leaving behind them the history which begins to disappear, and acquire knowledge, conscious of the way to live and not to be forced to struggle to survive.

The banquet is served on the table, there is nothing to hide, the heat of the sun floods each one in his daily life and the moon and stars light illuminates the lack of monotony. 

The engine of cities’ souls is similar to that of hundreds of motorbikes swarming about night and day in the streets where their deafening sound falls again in the silence of pagodas and prayers. Crossing the street is almost an act of faith, fastness being not as important as the will to reach one’s destination, while motorbikes pass you by or startle you with their klaxon; if you’re two-wheeled, the one at your side may well say hello with an affectionate gesture or a friendly pat on the back.

The neon lights illuminate the night life in large cities. The sound of the immaculate jungle and its hundred of species lay under the protection of majestic trees. Throughout the country, in countryside and mountains, 54 indigenous ethnic groups share a territory where you can breathe a pure air and the promise of a new future. 

On the coast, at dawn, the sound of waves alone disturbs the pandemonium of women selling quantities of seafood. Fishermen arrive in boats which were once part of the odyssey of “boat people” fleeing their country; today, ports, bays and docks are again the scenery of flourishing trade.

Each inhabitant, immersed in a ordered and energetic chaos – noticeable at the top of electric posts – go around the cities, illuminating his faith thanks to an endless number of incense sticks burning in temples or thanks to the tribute he pays to his ancestors, the protectors of homes.

Days see the past run frenetically every second, in the reality of a daily work, that Vietnamese fully live, sure that a prodigious future awaits ahead; you can already see it in children wearing uniforms, eager to take what the world has to give them today, without ever turning their backs on their culture, which has been with them for centuries. Vietnam is a patchwork of feelings: its architectural, artistic, cultural and spiritual richness hides the poverty with force and enthusiasm. The speed with which the country's going forward faces the slowness of a moment of rest. Each element is part of a whole. Each second you give up your soul in the smile of inhabitants and in the thousand colours and flavours.

The patchwork gets complete with the incomparable beauty of landscapes, united by water – indispensable element which fills everything, from the north and the Ha Long Bay to the south and the Mekong Delta.

The dream escapes when you try and face a reality which you try to live joyfully but which bears everyday on its shoulders misery and pique, under the excess of freedom controlled by the government. The harsh present is lived with souvenirs that memories try to hide behind the feast.

In spite of everything, these terrible memories vanish in the face of a look of hope, captured on contact with eyes; the beauty and culture have remained for more than 4,000 years of history, legends and thousands of facets which, today, in 329,560 square kilometres in motion through 82,262,356 souls, vibrate. 

Karina Alvarado Cancino

Translated from Spanish into English by Esprit Traduction