Blog posts about Vietnam.

My awareness of Vietnam’s history and place in the world when we arrived here was spotty, at best. I knew it primarily by its food, notably the subtle yet complex broth in a good bowl of pho.

I found some great postcards at a shop called Little Cat Studio in the old city of Hỏi An, Vietnam. They have watercolor illustrations of Vietnamese food and life on the front, and are printed on soft, thick handmade paper. It wasn’t until a couple of days after buying them that I sat down to address the cards and noticed something strange.

We’ve been enjoying the warm ( by US standards ) weather and learning more about the history and present day region of Vietnam that we’re currently living in. I think that what’s surprising me the most about Vietnam is how different it is than Thailand. In common, they both have a lot of English spoken by locals, especially those who cater to the tourism market. But the relative lack of temples and Buddhism caught me off guard.

It would be a fairly easy transition for an American Catholic to move to Vietnam given the prevalence of English spoken and the visible presence of Catholic churches here. The Portuguese brought Christianity with them when they arrived in the 1500s, and their influence was reinforced by the French a few centuries later.