Vietnam - random notes

70% of Vietnamese are Buddhist (Tri, Tao and Confucianism), they believe in the transmigration of the soul.
Shrines are scattered throughout the fields, where families honour and worship their ancestors. We are the fruit of our ancestors, they were the flowers.
Snakes are farmed and used to control rats in the rice fields, also used for medicine and to eat.
Mice eat the coconuts, people eat the coconut mice.
As big as rats and tastes like coconut!

Yellow star on the flag represents the unification of the 5 social groups: scholar, farmer, worker, merchants, military.
Farmers highly respected.

Haggling in the marketplace is overwhelming. There are too many zeros on this currency!

Kwan yin
Kwan âm
Goddess of compassion and mercy
49 embodiments

My vegetarian meals were tasty and copious, sometimes leaning towards vegan. I ate more tofu in 9 days than I ever have! The Vietnamese don’t eat much bread or dairy, plenty of rice, noodles, green leafy veg and mushrooms. The best meal was the first lunch. The restaurants were quite swish and we didn’t really do much street food except for some snacks. You can get just about anything on the street. It is a colourful and relaxed display of life - iced tea, coffee and all kinds of interesting food. Pull up a plastic stool and sit in the street or alleyway with the locals. Big serves for small change.
The homestay eating experience was wonderful, under traditional water palm leaf buildings, simple and laid back. The pho soup was yummy and I loved the sticky rice balls.