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Introducing Vietnam
Welcome to another world, a world where the colours are more vivid, the culture is richer, and the history more compelling. This is the world of Vietnam, the latest Asian dragon to awake from its slumber. Nature has blessed Vietnam with a bountiful harvest. With soaring peaks like Hoang Lien mountains and a killer coastline, with beaches like Quy Nhon and Nha Trang, Vietnam is simply stunning. Blanketed from head to toe with a patchwork of emerald-green rice paddies, timelessly tended by peasant women in conical hats, this time the brochures don't lie.
The rumble of a million motorbikes, the cries of hawkers and the buzz of business transactions are as ever-present as the tinkle of the past in the pagodas, and the swish of the scythe. Modern Asia meets medieval Asia and, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, the two become one. For culinary adventurers, Vietnam is a treasure trove of more than 500 different dishes. It's a wonderful world of pungent herbs and secret spices. Dip delicate spring rolls in nuoc mam, a fish sauce that is as compulsory as ketchup for the Vietnamese. Or play 'down-in-one' with xeo (rice wine), the whisky of the mountains.
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Latest headlines for Vietnam
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Former US defence secretary dies
6 July 2009 3:47PM
Former US defence chief Robert McNamara, an architect of the Vietnam war who later regretted the US role, dies at 93.
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Obituary: Robert McNamara
6 July 2009 2:00PM
The former US Defence Secretary, Robert S McNamara, served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and was at the centre of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War.
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Deadly floods in China, Vietnam
6 July 2009 3:46AM
Heavy rains in south-central China and northern Vietnam kill at least 31 people, state media say.















