Interesting facts about Vietnam. House layout three meters wide from DD concept in Vietnam Houses in Vietnam are narrow and long

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Features of Vietnam

Vietnam, like any other country, has enough peculiarities. However, here I will talk about those that we have seen ourselves, as well as how to react to it.

1. The first feature of Vietnam that immediately caught our eye when we arrived in Hanoi is that there are almost no trash cans anywhere in Vietnam! This feature is typical mainly for its northern part. People throw garbage directly on the sidewalks or roadways, without really thinking about the cleanliness of the city, or rather, without thinking at all. When I asked our Vietnamese friend where to throw away the empty juice box, he looked at me askance and asked: “Are you kidding me?”

Often garbage is thrown in bags directly from the windows of houses onto the sidewalks. At night a garbage truck drives by and collects everything. Walking dogs works the same way. The owners simply take the pet outside, without particularly paying attention to where it does all the necessary things (dogs often do these things right in the middle of the sidewalk). This needs to be monitored by other people who carefully avoid the traces of dog walking.

2. The second important feature. It is difficult to find exchange offices in Vietnam! Exchangers are located in pawnshops and the exchange rate there is not favorable. It is better to bring money with you on a bank card and withdraw it from ATMs. Before you go to Vietnam, call your bank and let them know where you'll be going. Many banks block cards when they see transactions coming from a third world country, especially if you try to withdraw a large amount. We got into such a big mess once when we couldn’t withdraw money in the evening and were left on the street at night without a hotel, food or money for the phone.

3. The Vietnamese, frankly, are flayers. How many times have they noticed that animals are like inanimate objects to them!

In Vietnamese markets, they slaughter chickens and ducks right on the street, sell dogs already baked and still smile, and blood flows along the sidewalk. There are no homeless animals in the northern part of Vietnam. Vietnamese eat cats, dogs, rats. It is not surprising that in Hanoi we did not see a single cat (!) or stray dog. Maybe someone saw it, but we didn’t.

4. In the north of Vietnam it is customary to eat dogs and cats, but in the southern part of Vietnam it’s the other way around! In the south, very few people have dogs or cats. Moreover, many South Vietnamese consider it indecent. One guy’s father told him that if he ever ate dog meat, he wouldn’t have to pay for his college education!

5. In Vietnam, few people still speak English. In the north you are more likely to meet Vietnamese speaking Russian! True, doctors speak English well (they also speak Russian, but not all, but those who studied in the Russian Federation or CIS countries).

6. When you ask Vietnamese, especially young ones, for directions, they start giggling and even laughing! Many tourists complain about this. It seems that our faces are not funny, but when you start asking something, the Vietnamese almost burst into laughter; more often girls behave this way!

7. Land is very expensive in Vietnam, so don’t be surprised when you see Vietnamese houses. These are tall narrow structures, sometimes reaching 10 floors. As a rule, one family lives in such a house. The windows in such houses only look out onto the main street, because the houses are located right next to each other, and the windows cannot look out onto the backyard either, because someone else’s territory begins immediately behind the wall of the house. A window can only be made if there is another meter of your territory to the neighbor’s wall. Hanoi gives a complete picture of such original architecture. Sometimes it seems that these are not several houses, but one big one. Thus, it is impossible to shorten the distance and walk between houses. You'll have to go to the nearest fork.

9. In many small stores, the entrance to which is directly from the street, you have to take off your shoes and leave them outside the door, and walk around the store barefoot! The same applies to hairdressers, some cafes, and souvenir shops. This is due to the fact that the store is a home! Home of a Vietnamese family who runs a store! They open shops right in their homes, eat there, and sleep there at night. You won't walk around your house in shoes, will you? So they don’t go and ask others not to go.

10. In Vietnam, many people open a cafe on the ground floor of their house! You don’t have to pay rent, the sanitary service doesn’t come to check such cafes, and you don’t have to pay taxes either!

11. Vietnamese people believe that they should have children immediately after marriage, and almost everyone has a child in the first year of marriage. We were terrorized with the question why we had been married for 2 years and had no children yet. Everyone asked - both acquaintances and strangers. When they answered that there were no children, they immediately asked the question, when will they be?

12. For some reason, in Vietnam there are very small chairs in cafes, as if for hobbits. I don’t understand what this is connected with, since the Vietnamese are of absolutely normal height. And the chairs are such that when you sit down, your knees are almost higher than your head!

13. Flip-flops have short legs. When I tried to buy jeans during my two months in Vietnam, out of despair, I called Vietnam “the country of short legs.” Absolutely all the jeans were terribly short for me, and sizes larger were already loose. When we went for a walk with our Vietnamese friend, he translated what the people who were walking towards us were saying. Guys from several companies said as they walked past us that I had long legs. In fact, there is a longer one, but in Vietnam they don’t see it!

Food

The most popular dish in Vietnam is Pho soup, with rice noodles, bean sprouts, mint and basil. Usually, it is made with beef, it also happens with chicken and fish, but the base, most often, is still the same, using beef broth.

In addition to rice, the Vietnamese are no strangers to baked goods - they feel the consequences of French colonization. Various pastry shops with a variety of pastries and French baguettes are quite popular. The latter are especially popular - we often saw queues in stores lining up to grab hot bread straight from the oven. They are also sold in markets; mini-baguettes are in particular demand

It is worth noting that in tourist areas, Vietnamese cuisine is very diverse - here you can try crocodile or ostrich steaks, eat cobra heart, frog legs, not to mention a variety of seafood. We tried frogs and crocodile meat :)

Another popular dish is “hot pot”. More precisely, this is not even a dish, but a whole process, which consists of the exciting independent preparation of soup right at the table, in a pot on a gas stove. We ate them with seafood and fish, but hotpots with beef, again, are more popular.

Basically, Vietnamese dishes (with the exception of numerous seafood and fish), which the locals eat every day, are not for everybody.

We will also have a separate culinary post dedicated to Vietnamese cuisine, so we won’t give away all the secrets now :)

One of the features that immediately caught our eye is the local cafes, which very often use small, “children’s” chairs and tables - it looks like a canteen in a kindergarten

Fruits

Vietnam will certainly appeal to fruit lovers - their selection here is 1.5 times greater than in Vietnam. They are sold in fruit shops or from hands/bicycles, we ate pink and star (yogurt) apples, durians, mangosteens, rambutans and mangoes, tried 2 new fruits - sugar apple (annona)

and a type of melon with an unpronounceable name, we will soon add them to our book" Asian exotica"

At local markets, traders sometimes told us, as foreigners, prices were twice as high. To find out the real price, we usually asked buyers, and often, in this case, sellers began to swear at such tipsters, which prevented them from doing business.

For example, in Dalat they refused to sell us strawberries at a price for locals - according to their logic, it turned out that it was better not to sell the product at all than to sell it to a European at the usual price.
Fortunately, not all sellers are like this, and we usually bought fruit at reasonable prices.

In chain supermarkets, prices for fruit are also good, sometimes lower than in the markets. So, for example, in Dalat there is “Big C”, which we also know because locals buy vegetables/fruits/seafood there, which means the prices are justified. By the way, prices for fruits, in general, are lower in Vietnam than in.

Coffee

Vietnam is a real paradise for coffee lovers; coffee consumption here has been elevated to the rank of a cult. There is even a traditional way of preparing this attractive drink, which cannot be described in a nutshell - in the near future we will publish a separate article about the coffee traditions of Vietnam, where we will tell you everything in detail (so as not to miss it, do not forget to subscribe to blog updates).

Looking ahead, I would like to say that we are not coffee lovers at all; in ordinary life we drink coffee quite rarely, once every 1-2 weeks and more often cappuccino and mocha. But on this trip we were “covered”)) we drank 2 cups a day, and bought a couple of kilograms with us :)

The Vietnamese know a lot about coffee; they drink it very strong, in small doses, most often with condensed milk and almost always with ice.

We, not accustomed to such a strength, almost always diluted it a little.

Oh, yes - what we also really liked is that when you order coffee, almost everywhere, you get green tea for free, or 2 cups or a whole kettle

Housing

Throughout the entire route we stayed in small cozy hotels and guesthouses - all rooms, even in Saigon, cost us $10. At the same time, we didn’t try too hard to save money (if we wanted, we could have found it cheaper) - we just chose it based on comfort and always got a room with air conditioning, a refrigerator, a TV, wi-fi, a balcony, and towels (which were also changed every day) , hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes) and slippers =)

Speaking of slippers 🙂 Flip flops are the name given not only to women in Vietnam, but also to flip flops (aka flip flops). They are so popular here that they are mandatory in almost any hotel. We always came across blue ones, apparently this is the general standard. It is very convenient, especially when traveling light, to find flip-flops in your room - we wore them to the beach and went on excursions around the islands.

An interesting architectural feature is that guesthouses in Vietnam are often narrow buildings, one room wide; houses are often built close to each other, so that they have common walls. From the outside it even seemed to us that there was one building in front of us, but in fact there were 4 different guesthouses

Beaches

The South China Sea, which we saw in Vietnam, unfortunately, did not sink into our souls.

We first met him in the town of Vung Tau, which is located 100 km south of Ho Chi Minh City. The sea there is gray and ugly, and the beaches are strewn with crowds of people - this is the closest resort to the southern capital, so the capital's residents have chosen the local beaches; on weekends it is not crowded at all.

The beaches are not very well-groomed; in a day and a half in the city, we managed to see the main ones, but the thought of swimming did not arise

We also didn’t really like the beaches in Mui Ne - this is a Mecca for kite surfers, there is excellent wind and waves, and for those who are not keen on kites, this, in our opinion, is far from the best place

The beach is long and good for running, but the sea near the shore is kind of gray and the scenery is completely unattractive.

In general, Mui Ne is a fishing village, of course it can’t be compared with the assortment, but we still came to look at the morning catch

Perhaps for this you need to go to the north of the country, to Ha Long Bay, but according to travelers’ reviews, not everything there is as beautiful and wonderful as the guidebooks describe.

In terms of infrastructure, the beach line is good, which is quite suitable for tourists coming from winter. We’ve apparently already seen enough of this, and we expect to see yet another paradise cove of incredible beauty.

But we liked the beach in Nha Trang more,

despite the fact that it is urban, the color of the water there is surprisingly beautiful, and the sand is pleasant, although yellow. The beach is clean, wide, very long, and most interestingly, very lively, especially in the morning - there will probably be a separate post about this

There are also beaches outside the city, we didn’t go there, but something tells us that it should be nice there.

Most Vietnamese tourists did not go into the water at all, limiting themselves to a trip on a boat with a transparent bottom.

People

Here are completely ambiguous conclusions - on the one hand, we met many friendly Vietnamese, and not only Vietnamese, but also ordinary local residents. On the other hand, we often met indifferent people, with gloomy faces, and completely embittered by something.

Even in the tourism service, where it would seem that income is directly tied to the attitude towards tourists, not everyone accepts this. There are, for example, those who speak excellent Russian, are hospitable, and smiling - this was mainly the case with the guides in Mui Ne and Nha Trang. Or pedicabs offering rides around the city - they often burst into smiles and did not resist taking photos

And it also happened that even at the hotel reception or at the train station at the ticket office, they simply did not understand us and did not even try to understand us. They simply lazily brushed us aside and didn’t want to solve anything - it was easier for them not to sell a hotel room or a bus ticket and continue picking their noses than to try to somehow understand a white tourist, help him and at the same time make money themselves.

So, one day, a tourist bus rushed past us (which, by the way, was 40 minutes late). We stood right on the road and even waved our tickets to the driver, but for some reason he ignored us, although a transfer from the hotel had been arranged. When the three of us, rushing at speed, on a moped with a travel agency employee and backpacks, caught up with the bus, the driver swore very much, claiming that he did not see us :)

In the sales area, those sellers from whom we bought something smiled, or at least did not turn away from the camera,

and many reacted in the style of “if you don’t buy it, there’s nothing to photograph”

Is it the case, for them a photo of a “white” is an additional plus to karma))

In Saigon we met different people - friendly, attentive people interested in other cultures, and had a great time together.

If we don’t talk about the Vietnamese themselves, we also met Russian guys, some have been living in Vietnam for a long time completely and completely in love with it, and some have traveled like us, and with both of them we enjoyed spending time together , chatted, had dinner, drank coffee.

Color

Vietnam pleased us, among other things, with its culture. We always try to find some ideal (for us) balance between civilization and flavor - we want, at the same time, comfort and culture, but, unfortunately, these are two opposite poles. So, for example, in - everything is very civilized, but there is almost no originality left, and in - everything is exactly the opposite.

For us, the optimal ratio so far has been, but Vietnam also seemed interesting in this regard. Small nationalities preserved in the villages,

pioneers in ties,

street vendors in triangular straw hats, traditional games of dominoes and checkers,

coffee and cafes with “toy” chairs are all signs that globalization, although spreading wider and wider, is moving across the planet at uneven steps.

Language

Names and menus in restaurants are duplicated in Russian. Even in an Indian restaurant they brought us a menu in which the familiar names of Indian dishes were distorted by Russian translation.

Transport

On long intercity journeys (more than 4 hours), slipper buses are popular, with folding shelves on 2 floors - they are convenient to cover long distances. I was surprised that when boarding such buses, you need to take off your shoes :)

We had one night trip of 6 hours and one day trip of 5.5 hours on slippers; the rest of the distances were shorter; we covered them in the usual seated buses. Travel is cheap, 200 km costs approximately 130 rubles.

We also took public transport around the city, the fare starts from 8 rubles, usually the price depends on the distance, and by taxi, by European standards, it turned out to be quite cheap (for 5 km, we paid 80,000 dong - 120 rubles).

Also, motorcycle taxis are very popular, the price is negotiable. Motorcycle taxi drivers love to sleep directly at their workplace, during the trip we have a whole selection of such “sleepy kingdom” formed))

In more or less large cities we saw pedicabs, the appearance of which constantly reminded us of India =)

Motorbikes are extremely popular in Vietnam; there are many more of them than cars. This is especially felt in the southern capital, Ho Chi Minh City, where they make up the overwhelming bulk of traffic

At first, it seemed to us that it was simply impossible to cross the road - a pedestrian crossing for motorcyclists was like an empty place)) But we quickly realized that you can cross the road absolutely anywhere - the main thing is to walk confidently and slowly. Motorcyclists are very maneuverable, they will definitely go around, the main thing is not to get nervous and not to speed up your pace. So every time we crossed the road, it was as if we had accomplished a small feat))

In modern cities, especially among young people, fashionable electric bikes are popular, but older people prefer regular city bicycles

A list of features of Vietnam that surprised, outraged or amused us. We have listed all the biggest oddities of this country in 42 facts. We also give useful tips to those who are planning to visit Vietnam.

Vietnam is the first Asian country we visited and in which... Of course, our first acquaintance with Asia did not go smoothly: some things impressed and surprised us, and some things greatly annoyed us - after all, the difference with other countries we visited was colossal. And although many Vietnamese involved in the tourism and trade sector view the white Mr. as a , nevertheless, Vietnam left a positive impression - it seems to me that, unlike Thailand, it is a more original country, not yet so strongly Europeanized.

One of the first features of Vietnam that immediately catches your eye is the nests of black wires that entangle the streets. The dense interweaving of wires can rightfully be considered a landmark of Vietnam and Saigon in particular.

About the peculiarities of behavior of the Vietnamese

Vietnamese, unlike Thais, speak very loudly - almost like Moroccans. Be prepared to be woken up early in the morning by some loud-voiced Vietnamese under your window or in the hotel.
The south of Vietnam looks much friendlier than the north. In our opinion, people there are simpler, more unselfish, open and smiling! The Vietnamese in the north (especially in Hanoi) seemed gloomy, taciturn and rude to us - well, exactly how they got to Russia. Many in the north are generally very strong.
In tourist places, sometimes they are ready not to sell food/clothing/services at all, rather than give in at a real, not inflated price - funny, but true. A Vietnamese spoiled by tourists would rather lie idle all day in the shade, waiting for a big jackpot, than make a concession and sell things off.
The Vietnamese smoke in public transport, in hotel rooms, and in cafes.

Men often grow their nails (or one nail) and file them down. It looks creepy.
Almost everyone in the south wears masks (they look like muzzles to me). I read that the Vietnamese are afraid of contracting the flu, and also believe that the chemicals sprayed by the Americans during the war are still in the air. In the north there are much fewer people wearing masks.
This is terribly annoying, but the Vietnamese don’t know what a queue is. For them, standing in front of someone in line is normal, even if you have been standing there for 15 minutes. Be bolder and faster.
They may nod their heads affirmatively to your questions, but they won’t really understand a damn thing about you. It’s better to try to translate it into Vietnamese and write it in a notepad/show it in a translator.
In tourist areas you will be offered sunglasses if you are wearing sunglasses, a raincoat if you are wearing one, and water if you are drinking it (etc.).
Not only in temples is it customary to remove shoes; this can often be observed in hotels, shops and even toilets. Although foreigners are sometimes allowed not to take off if there are no rubber slippers to change shoes (with the exception of temples).

Facts about toilets

Almost everywhere (except airports and luxury shopping centers) the locks in the booths do not work. There is almost no toilet paper anywhere either (or it hangs at the entrance - you need to tear it off and take it with you). Soap is also not available everywhere, so take wet wipes. Sometimes the toilet cleaner may charge you an amount for visiting the toilet, sometimes (what a paradox!) you are allowed into dry toilets for free.
For some reason, Vietnamese men often don’t make it to the toilets. Roughly speaking, they relieve themselves anywhere. Even if a Vietnamese is next to the toilet door, he will still do his business on the street (we have witnessed this). Huge open space? It’s okay, the Vietnamese will stand in the very center of the flowerbed, no one will see. The same applies to children - they are not at all embarrassed to do their business right on the sidewalks. At first it was shocking and seemed wild, but then we got used to it.

Facts about food in Vietnam

Feel it! Read our articles about everything related to food in Vietnam (will open in new tabs):

(full list of main dishes, names in Vietnamese, description, photographs)
(about features in different regions and cities of the country)
(something you definitely need to try)
(names, photos, description, taste and rules of choice when purchasing)
(the best coffee that exists!)

Well, now I’ll list the food-related features of Vietnam:

Always, even in cafes with fixed prices and in food courts, check the prices so as not to be deceived or misunderstood.
Prices for Europeans may be different (we encountered this in Hanoi): one price is written on the banner, but they tell you another.
You may be asked to pay a large sum for the fact that the bread on the table turns out to be paid for, but no one will warn you about this in advance.
Street food in the north of Vietnam is more expensive than in the south. We ate pho bo soup in Ho Chi Minh City for 20 - 25 thousand, in Hanoi it costs from 35 thousand dong.
Chopsticks in Vietnamese street cafes are often heavily chewed and dirty - always wipe them with wet wipes or, like us, buy your own chopsticks and carry them with you.
In food halls, tables and chairs can be dirty and greasy - if possible, check them so as not to put a stain on your favorite trousers or jacket.
If you have ever been to Vietnam, you probably paid attention to the repetitive monotonous recordings coming from a tape recorder on mopeds and reminiscent of some kind of propaganda or a call to vote in elections. As it turns out, this is just a sale of corn (or something edible): the Vietnamese deliver food to those who cannot leave their workplace to have a snack.
The Vietnamese eat dogs (in the north), rats, frogs and various insects. You can try snake, crocodile and other exotic animals, but you need to know specific restaurants. But a ready-made dog can easily be found on the market.
We still haven’t fully understood the principle by which street establishments operate. It is clear that some are open exclusively in the morning, some work only in the evening, and some - during the day. But in small towns (Halong, Hoi An, Hue) there are “dead” hours (in the afternoon - from about 2 to 4 o'clock, in the morning - from 11 to 12), when everything seems to have died out.
For some reason, grocery stores and eateries close around 8 pm, but perfume shops, jewelry, bookstores, various boutiques, optics, etc. can be open until 10 pm. In small towns around midnight it is no longer possible to buy groceries or eat somewhere, but it is easy to buy a guitar or a portrait of Ho Chi Minh.

Sanitary issue: cleanliness and hygiene

The cleaning of hotels, even quite presentable ones, is poor. Stains, hair and small debris on the floor are standard cleaning. Wear shower slippers in your room; you usually always have them.
Almost every hotel (according to our observations) has ants. This is not too big a problem, but we are surprised why no one is fighting this.
By the way, for some reason no one poisons rats on the streets either.
In Vietnam, it is customary to dump dirty water into the street, so sometimes the smell is not pleasant.
About puddles: when it rains, an extremely unpleasant feature of Vietnamese sidewalks comes to light. The fact is that the tiles with which sidewalks are laid are often not new and rickety. Be careful: if you step on such a trap tile during the rain, you risk being doused with dirty water. Try to choose tiles that are more or less non-bulging (this is especially true for Hue, Hoi An and Hanoi). In dry weather, large concrete slabs are also fraught with danger: they wobble, and a sewer drain is hidden under them. More than once we saw collapsed, uncovered slabs (Ha Long).
The Vietnamese leave garbage anywhere - coconuts and leftover fruit, candy wrappers, etc. - all this remains on the ground. In cafes, if there are no trash cans, napkins are thrown directly onto the floor. Some people manage to litter even in churches. Well, if seeds are used, then the entire floor will be strewn with them. Usually at night all the garbage from the streets is collected by garbage trucks.
Ice for drinks is crushed on the asphalt, so those who are squeamish and afraid for their stomachs are better off asking for drinks without ice. And again a paradox: drinks without ice sometimes cost almost twice as much!
Noodles, cabbage leaves and anything else edible can be dried right on the sidewalk. In general, doing something with food right on the sidewalk is one of the main features characteristic of the residents of Vietnam.

This is how cabbage leaves are dried in Halong

Facts about transport, the art of transportation and movement

The peculiarity of Vietnam is transport. The streets of Vietnamese cities are not designed for pedestrians; there are either no sidewalks at all, or they are filled with motorbikes. I will list some observations and facts that we found interesting and that may be useful to you:

In Ho Chi Minh City, we were faced with the fact that some city buses go along some completely incomprehensible route. Moreover, the information at the stop stand is the same, but local residents report something completely different.
If you decide to take a city bus, be careful: you need to get on and off the elephant as quickly as possible. When entering, jump on and hold on to the handrails. When getting off, jump out, because the conductor will literally push you out of the bus at the stop. And he doesn’t care that you have big backpacks. The driver does not wait for anyone, not even the conductor - he usually jumps on the bus at the last moment. By the way, the bus stop time is 2-3 seconds, the driver will not wait longer (an exception is made only for elderly people). The same is true if you catch an intercity bus on the highway or in the city (a bus from Da Nang to Hoi An, for example).
You can buy a ticket to the city, but you will be thrown out in the middle of nowhere, 10 km from it, since the bus, it turns out, is passing and does not enter the city at all.
This is unthinkable, but it is a fact: in Vietnam, a bus for locals can travel 150 km in 5 (!!!) hours (this is how we drove from Hanoi to Halong). The fact is that along the way the driver picks up everyone: the conductor jumps out of the bus and calls for passengers; handing over various parcels is also common - from live chickens to large boxes.
Intercity buses in Vietnam are made of rubber: even if you can’t breathe inside, the conductor will recruit passengers at each pole.

The moped can accommodate up to 5 people and some other cargo.
The moped can also be used as a small truck. What they transport: bags of food, building materials, bamboo and reeds, chickens in cages, pigs and in general anything that comes to mind. Once we saw the Vietnamese transporting a whole living tree on a bike.
Sidewalks in Vietnam are not for pedestrians, but for mopeds. They are mainly used as parking, but during rush hours there is no shame in using it to avoid traffic jams.
Each parking lot has its own security guard, who also supervises the parking process.
Pedicabs and taxi drivers on motorbikes like to take a nap on their vehicles if there are no clients.
Despite the fact that the Vietnamese often do not follow traffic rules, they have very few accidents. But be careful, in cities it is sometimes dangerous to look around - just in case someone runs over you.
Driving in Vietnam is not for the faint of heart – this could be a subject for a separate article. Be extremely careful on the roads - the Vietnamese love to overtake, cut off, drive in the oncoming lane and dive out of side streets, creating emergency situations.
How to cross the street in Vietnam? Just walk slowly and confidently, the motorbikes will pass you smoothly. You can raise your hand and walk - this is how you ask them to slow down and let you pass. The first time is very scary, it seems as if a pack of angry bikes is rushing towards you, but gradually you get into the rhythm and calmly cross the road.

Introductory image source: staffan.scherz / flickr.com.

It looks like Hundertwasser, Dali and Gaudi can smoke on the sidelines. Because it’s not for nothing that the Madhouse Hotel is one of the ten strangest buildings in the world.
Each building in it is unique, each room is unique. However, so is the history of its creation. Because this hotel was invented and built by the daughter of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which, in my opinion, only adds another bit of madness to this. So, the architect of this creation is the Vietnamese Dang Viet Nga (a good name that says: Viet is the indigenous people of Vietnam, and Nga is Russia). Her biography is largely determined by the fact that she is the daughter of Truong Tinh, who for many years was the right hand of Ho Chi Minh, so I will tell you a little about him. Interestingly, Truong Tinh, which means “Long March,” is a pseudonym he took in his youth, during the period of his fascination with Mao’s ideology. True, as a result of this hobby and his agrarian reform, famine began in the country, and after the Soviet-Chinese split he was demoted for this deviation. But in the 80s he returned again and became the president of Vietnam. His real name is Dang Xuan Khu (the Vietnamese always have their surname first). Dang Viet Nga was born in Hanoi in 1940, but lived for 14 years in Russia. From 1959 to 1972, she studied in Moscow, at the Moscow Architectural Institute and in graduate school there, defended her PhD thesis in architecture and as a result... brought home a love for the hippie style and ideology.
After returning to Vietnam, she worked in Hanoi, designing buildings for the government (regular, not crazy buildings) for many years.
And then she settled in Dalat, which charmed her with its cool mountain climate, amazing landscapes and the pleasant character of the local people. And in 1990, she began construction here of her favorite brainchild called “Moon Villa,” which she conceived as a hotel for lovers.
She declares that the mission of the building is to return us to nature, which was largely destroyed by previous generations (and ours too).
The architecture of the villa is indeed oversaturated with elements of nature - both flora and fauna.
Caves, tree roots, vines, labyrinths... It seems that there is not a single straight line, not a single right angle. Here is the passage from one building to another, painted to look like a cow, and even entwined with vines and dripping with milk...
Continuous bends, weaves and labyrinths are a striking contrast to typical Vietnamese houses with their narrow, elongated upward facades 3–5 meters wide, joining tightly to each other. I will show them later, they are also very beautiful... but in a different way.
Round shapes and complete unpredictability dominate here - you never know what awaits you ahead, the villa is filled with secluded corners and unexpected turns, descents and ascents. Where did the second name come from: the architectural structure was so fantastic that the first guests who visited it exclaimed “Crazy house!”, which translated means “crazy house!” Since then it has been called that. By the way, local residents were sure for many years that this is exactly how they build in Russia. The stairs here are also unusual - Viet Nga really likes to make them in the form of stumps.
Each of the ten rooms in the hotel is dedicated to its own totem animal, and they also symbolize a certain country: for example, the bear above is Russia (you probably noticed the motifs of a Russian hut there), the tiger is China (it will appear later), and this one eagle (or rather toucan?) - America. Maybe South, judging by other details.
The rooms are furnished with unique furniture. Each totem animal is also a fireplace.
The villa is changing all the time, just like a living organism; after 22 years it has not yet been fully completed. We recently finished building transitions between buildings. Under the glass dome there are underground floors, they are not yet ready at all. The rooms are equipped with modern bathrooms, but also in an interesting design. And mirrors are often located above the beds - Viet Nga believes that this promotes love.
All ten rooms are rented out for accommodation, and for relatively little money for foreigners - about one hundred dollars per night. But it’s better not to leave the room after dark, especially when drunk: due to the indescribable geometry of the transitions, I got completely lost there several times, even when sober and in daylight
In addition, guests cannot completely close the doors to their rooms during the day, they can only restrict access to the rooms, and there are at least several hundred tourists here every day, so residents go somewhere for the day. But I would still like to spend at least one night here, it’s a pity that time didn’t allow it.
Wash basin. You can meditate on it for several hours. There are not only big buildings here. Here is a detached cottage with miniature two-story apartments. In general, the rooms are very different in size - some are for large families, and some are for couples in love.
This one is small. On the first floor on the right is the entrance to the toilet, on the left is the staircase to the second floor. There is also a small table nearby and that’s it. Bedroom on the second floor. But the space is so intricately organized that you don’t notice the cramped space. Entrance to the adjacent building. By the way, I also found a number of caves (or even hollows) with small tables and benches - apparently for meetings and conversations. And all this is not only incredible, it is also very beautiful. And here is Dang Viet Nga herself (this photo is not mine, but I really want to show it to you). She is 72 years old and still dresses in hippie style, speaks good Russian, drives an old Soviet car and sells tickets at the box office of her villa, and spends her free time with her boyfriend.
It’s a pity that I didn’t know any of this when we arrived there. I had no idea that we could meet the author himself. But if you get there, having already read my post, you will have the chance to meet one of the most remarkable women in the world! And what a blessing that the authorities did not demolish her villa, as they did with the “house of a hundred roofs” by another equally insane architect. He just didn't have that kind of dad. Now they want to restore his house...

In Vietnam, wealthy citizens build very unusual houses for themselves, which may seem quite strange to many of us. You might even immediately think that this is not home at all, however, there is a completely logical explanation for such a decision.

I have such a psychology that I constantly analyze and compare everything. While in Sri Lanka I compare it with India, while in Vietnam I compare it with Thailand and Cambodia. And I must say, this is quite an interesting activity. It seems to be the same region, and the same religion, but each country still has its own history and path of development. And this sometimes affects the most unusual aspects of everyday life.

Guess what kind of buildings these are?

No, these are not utility buildings or transformer booths - these are residential buildings!

These photos were taken on the outskirts of Phan Thiet. Judging by the photographs of Google satellite maps, this place has only just begun to be built up. There are practically no buildings in the photographs, but in fact they have already been built quite a bit. And if you look at the quality of the facades, quite wealthy Vietnamese live here.

Why do the Vietnamese build such strange houses?

And everything is very simple. Previously, land tax was calculated in a very interesting format. You had to pay for the width of the house along the road. Those. You can build as much depth and height as you want, but meters of width are the most expensive meters.

This comrade was very lucky - a corner house. Maybe make windows on the other side.

Here are two houses built close to each other. In theory, time will pass and there will not be a meter of free space between all the houses.

This is probably why almost no one makes windows on the side walls. Although this shot is an exception.

Amazing feature. I haven’t seen anything like this in Thailand, but I have seen similar buildings in Cambodia.

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