Where do “Vietnamese flashbacks” come from and why don’t the locals sunbathe? 10 wow facts about the country

The Russian national soccer team, despite the ban, still has international matches. Today, September 5, Valeri Karpin’s team will play away with Vietnam, and on Saturday, September 7 – with Thailand.

Before the game with the national team of Vietnam, we have collected an interesting selection of fascinating facts about the country. Recall, the match will be held today at 16:00 Moscow time. The game will be held in the capital of Vietnam – Hanoi. “Championship” will hold a text online broadcast of the meeting.

Vietnam – one of the countries of Southeast Asia, stands out among the others with unusual culture and traditions, which often puzzle Europeans. To visit this Asian country is an adventure. Every step here portends a meeting with a mysterious, unfamiliar and enigmatic world.

The country is literally dotted with temples: magnificent architectural structures can be seen even on mountain tops and in underground caves. In Vietnam, modern trends harmoniously combine with old traditions. However, sometimes it brings some inconveniences. For example, in the narrow neighborhoods between skyscrapers and houses of former construction, it is difficult to get through on a bicycle.

Locals are proud of their unique theater on the water. It originated back in the XI century in the villages of the Red River in the north of the country. With the help of puppets made of wood, spectacular performances are staged. The characters in the performances are usually in a pool waist-deep in water. And are controlled behind a screen by puppeteers with a large bamboo rod. The performance is accompanied by a Vietnamese orchestra: wooden bells, drums, gongs and other unusual sound instruments.

Theater on water

So, what else can shock Vietnam?

Fact 1: There is a monument to Lenin in the capital of Vietnam

This country is bound to Russia by ties of long-standing friendship, when the Soviet Union helped achieve victory in the war with the Americans. To commemorate the heroic events that returned freedom and independence to Vietnam, a monument to Lenin was erected in 1982 in the center of Hanoi.

Lenin Monument in Hanoi

Fact 2: The Vietnamese are best not to be touched

Vietnamese people are very friendly and calm. But they do not like noisy conversations: loud speech is not welcome here. You should not touch the hand of the interlocutor or touch his head. The latter, according to local customs, is considered a threat to health and life. Vietnamese, it should be noted, adore birds. They listen to their singing, which lifts people’s mood and tunes them to a positive perception of the surrounding life. Cages with nightingales, canaries, parrots and other vocal birds occupy the balconies of houses, store windows and restaurants.

Fact 3: There is a unique twin village here

Perhaps only in Vietnam you can get acquainted with an unusual phenomenon. In Dong Nai Province, near Ho Chi Minh City, there is a village of twins. Its inhabitants – men and women – are mostly like two drops similar to each other. And twins are born here quite often. The caring parents do everything they can to make sure the children are identical. We’re talking about clothes, shoes and even hairstyles. According to some rumors, the phenomenon of twins has arisen because of a certain chemical in the water, causing such metamorphosis of nature.

Fact 4: The famous Vietnamese hat does not save from the sun at all

The pointed hat, which has become the national attribute of the country, should not save from the scorching sun rays. It was usually worn to save your head from… coconuts falling from a palm tree. Falling from a height on the sharp end of the hat, the fruit bounces off it. The impact, of course, is still felt, but without serious injury.

Fact 5: Vietnamese brides wear a red wedding dress

At a Vietnamese wedding, which sometimes gathers up to 1000 people, the bride is dressed in a red-colored dress. So do her friends. According to popular belief, the red color represents family happiness and mutual love.

Fact 6: Vietnamese cuisine can shock the unprepared tourist

The cities of Vietnam are entangled with a network of various restaurants and cafes. And the national cuisine is full of exotic delights. For example, you can taste the heart of a snake and drink the blood of a cobra. To take away with you special impressions of Vietnam, it is worth looking at the center of Hanoi. There is a 24-hour Toilet Cafe, where instead of the usual tables and chairs there are bathtubs with toilets. And polite smiling waiters serve food, drinks in medical ducks and in miniature urinals.

And Vietnam ranks second (Burma is first) in rice consumption. It is present on the table of an average Vietnamese family every day – and even several times a day.

Fact 7: Large banknotes are not made of paper, but of polymer.

Vietnam’s official currency is the Vietnamese dong. Coins are not used in the country now. Small banknotes are made of paper, but bills with denominations from 10,000 to 500,000 dong are made of polymer materials. Plastic money does not tear, get wet or dirty. It is funny that on the banknote of 200 dong of 1987 sample is a tractor “Belarus”.

Fact 8: Motorcycles are used here

To the displeasure of tourists, the streets of Vietnamese cities are crowded with motorcyclists. It seems that they filled the entire space. As a rule, there are no traffic lights, and traffic rules in the country exist purely nominally. Therefore, it is very difficult to break through the crowd of “iron horses” even at a crosswalk. However, the locals are not embarrassed by this at all. They bravely step into the thick of it and calmly, with a nonchalant look cross the road.

Fact 9. Vietnamese do not sunbathe and are surprised by sunbathing tourists

The locals’ hearts bleed when they see white-skinned foreigners sunbathing on the beach for hours. For the Vietnamese, porcelain skin is a sign of nobility. Even in the heat, they wear closed clothes. Many locals believe that tanned skin gives away a hard worker and comes from a poor working family. Therefore, in Vietnam there is a huge range of skin whitening cosmetics. According to Vietnamese women, snow-white skin is the most important sign of beauty and material prosperity. And it is no good to be tanned. It supposedly indicates that a woman is unattractive and occupies a low position in society.

Fact 10. Vietnamese people are very superstitious

Men have a belief that if you see the first female representative on the street in the early morning, the day is definitely not good. Spouse, of course, does not count. It should be noted that Vietnamese seriously believe in many omens. For example, if you have met a funeral, expect that soon you will get a whole box of happiness. And you can not whistle at night: otherwise snakes will crawl into the house. And May, it turns out, is the most unlucky month for large purchases.

On a side note

What are “Vietnamese flashbacks”? It’s a term that came along with movies about the Vietnam War. A flashback is a retrospective of the past. In the case of the Hollywood dramas “Platoon” by Oliver Stone, “Full Metal Jacket” by Stanley Kubrick and “Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola, it is a kind of artistic device when the hero is possessed by memories of a bloody war. The man freezes, stares at one point, his eyes reflecting the horror he is reliving.

However, these days, “Vietnam flashbacks” began to be used as memes. For example, they even create pet videos using this retrospective technique. But there is nothing funny about the phenomenon itself. From a psychological point of view, this is PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder. An extremely severe mental condition that requires medication and psychological treatment.