By Tri Dung
Sue Gaunt and her husband from Birmingham – England are now visiting Hoi An. They spent three days in Saigon May 12-14. On the excursion to Cu Chi on May 13th, Sue said it was their second time visiting Vietnam. The first time was last December. Returning to Vietnam just after less than 6 months should be a record. Asked about the reason, Sue explained, “ We came back because we love the friendliness here”.
Very simple but astonishing. We often talk about the advantages of Vietnam’s tourism but it seems “friendliness” or “ hospitality” are seldom mentioned. The truth is success comes not always from expensive things. Hospitality is not to be bought by money but a long year tradition of the Vietnamese. Most representative for the Vietnamese open heart is the smile. Nowhere on the earth can people catch smiles on people’s faces that easy as in Vietnam. People smile in greetings, people even smile in difficulties or sufferings. “ Vietnamese smile at everything” many decades ago, Nguyen Van Vinh, a famous scholar in Vietnam, wrote down his comment. Open-heartedness is another sign of friendliness in here. The immediate presence of many people at the time something wrong occurs is also a sign of readiness for support. A hand and then, some hands will be given and those unknowned good guys will soon disappear the same resilient way they jotted in for help. Unnamed heroes are around us since in every heart seemingly exists the blood and spirit of Luc van Tien, a character in Nguyen Dinh Chieu’s literary work, who devoted his life to fighting the unjust and protecting the miserables.
Friendliness and hospitality can also be seen across the country. That is a smile, that is a nod or that is a greeting. Or that is a gesture showing from afar his or her sympathy and you can rely on it. Vietnam’s mandarin road stretches for thousands of miles and those who are traveling or have traveled across the country certainly realize the saying “ a friend in need is a friend indeed”.
And, such a sight as follows is not easy to find. It was raining and everyone was getting stuck at a traffic light. The smoke of gasoline overwhelmed in the air under the rain. To their utmost surprise, people saw a man without raincoat walking an old broken moped on whose front seat was a small kid smiling safely in her raincoat. “One, two, three, three, two, one” the man counted loudly as to amuse his kid. Rain went on heavily but everyone felt happy. From inside the bus, many tourists also felt a human thread was binding them to this land.
In late 1980s’ when Vietnam tourism was just about to develop from the number of 500,000 visitors/year one of the mottos for this S-shaped country seen on foreign travel agents’ brochure was “Visit Vietnam, one of rare unexploited lands”. The charm from Vietnam at that time which lasts until now is the traditions plus natural beauty. Presently Vietnam has many 5-star hotels, golf courses and resorts for services of a wider variety of foreign tourists; however, the preservation of traditions is even more significant. Besides natural beauties like sea, green paddies,… Vietnamese simplicity and hospitality have been playing the decisive factors in creating the second time and many more times for foreign visitors to come back. The case of Sue Gaunt is illustrative. It is thus truly right to say the local people are contributing in tourism. Whilst foreign investors making investments in scope with guidance from local authorities, the local inhabitants are making their own worthy participation by showing the inherited hospitality.