Vietnamese People

We met a couple on our trip to Hanoi from Spain on their honeymoon. When I asked them what they thought of Viet Nam, they said that they thought it was beautiful and that the people were very friendly. I paused for a moment and told them that it was really nice to hear that because you don't always hear nice things from travelers in Viet Nam when you ask about Vietnamese people.

When I traveled through Viet Nam in 2005, by the time I'd reached Hanoi, I had had my fill of Viet Nam and Vietnamese people, while at the same time feeling like I really hadn't gotten to know Viet Nam. In 2005, the Vietnamese tourist machine was in full gear and travelers could get off the plane in Ho Chi Minh City and make it all the way to Hanoi without cracking open a guide book. Touts at the airport took you to a hotel run by their brother, who booked you on a tour bus with stops at all the popular spots. The bus then picked you up at your hotel, stopped to eat at a restaurant owned by the bus drivers mother, before depositing you at a hotel run by their friend. The people at the hotel recommended a tour to keep you busy until you wanted a bus to your next destination and the whole process began all over. The only Vietnamese you came into contact with were in the tourist industry, which meant that they were well aware of the economic divide between Vietnamese and Western tourists and worked to close that divide one unsuspecting tourist at a time. With only this experience to go by, many left feeling cheated, both out of their money and out of a genuine experience of Viet Nam.

Since we've been in Viet Nam this time around I've gotten to know more about Vietnamese people in various walks of life and have had very little to do with the cogs in the Vietnamese tourist machine. And while I would never want to generalize an entire people, I would still hesitate to call Vietnamese people friendly.

I spent the morning on Tuesday shopping for fabrics to add to my personal tailoring marathon that began last week and will end when I leave Viet Nam in June. I had heard from one of my fellow teachers that the fabric in the market in China Town was the cheapest around, so I decided to begin my day there. Because it is well off the tourist track, I was the only non-Vietnamese person in the market and was greeted with a host of unsmiling faces.

In general, on the streets of Viet Nam, you are not greeted with friendly smiles. Curious, sometimes bordering on hostile, stares - yes, friendly smiles - no. Even in our own neighborhood, we get more blank faced stares than acknowledging nods, except for those with whom we have had personal contact or developed some form of relationship. But we have found that under those unyielding masks, lie (in many cases) warm, thoughtful, caring people who will go out of their way to make sure, once welcomed, that guests have every comfort and feel welcome to return.

You can't stop for long to look at anything in many Vietnamese markets without a chair appearing from no where and the shop keeper offering you a seat. Spend enough time browsing through the stalls and you'll soon receive knowing smiles in response to your wrinkled brow of indecision. Buy something and you will be greeted and recognized on your next visit. Walk by a corner of xe om drivers enough for them to recognize you and shouts of "You! Moto!?" turn into friendly smiles. Frequent a shop or a restaurant and you rapidly feel like a regular, always recognized and welcomed with familiar grins. Work for any length of time with Vietnamese people and you are soon accepted as a friend.

So while, after 10 months, I still wouldn't characterize Vietnamese people as friendly, I have learned to see past their caution with strangers and to appreciate the hard won smiles that appear when I walk past. After an awful day at school, all it takes is one friendly "Chao" from one of the regular xe om drivers I see and the school day is forgotten.