Travel guide North

A traditional peasant headdress, the non la is made from latanier leaves. Its lightweight frame is made up of bamboo hoops, to which the three layers of latanier are sewn with nylon thread for added strength. The conical hat is a symbol of Vietnam around the world.

If Waterloo is remembered as a bleak plain, Diên Biên Phu is referred to as "the basin". 300 km west of Hanoi, Diên Biên Phu is the name of a valley at the crossroads of the roads to Laos. On May 7, 1954, after 55 days of fighting, the French expeditionary corps suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of General Giap's troops.

In Sino-Vietnamese, long, in everyday language, rông. Monstrous in appearance, the dragon is nevertheless an emblem of power and nobility. It is the Emperor's emblem, and the five-clawed dragon appeared on the costumes of the sovereigns. While in Thang Long (Hanoi), the dragon takes flight, in Ha Long, it descends (into the sea).

What could be more beautiful than the lotus flower? A symbol of purity, its white or pink flowers rise above the muddy water. The flowers exude a delicious fragrance. The successive metamorphoses of the leaf and flower at different stages of growth make the lotus an inexhaustible source of philosophical and artistic inspiration.

The Red River (Sông Hông) owes its color to the iron-oxide-laden alluvium it carries on its journey from China's Yunnan region. Both creator and destroyer, it fertilizes the delta with its alluvial deposits and enables the cultivation of rice, which is flooded but overflows in devastating floods every year during the monsoon season.

Archaeological excavations in the Red River delta have revealed lacquered wood and leather objects found in tombs dating back to the ^4th century BC. Lacquer is produced from the sap of the lacquer tree grown in Phu Tho province. Vietnamese lacquerware is an age-old tradition that has never ceased to renew itself.

The "East Sea"(Biển Đông), is the hot spot of the moment and... don't say China Sea! Vietnam is seeking to develop its maritime space: transport and communications, fishing and aquaculture, oil and gas exploitation... But it is up against the ambitions of its powerful northern neighbor and its rapidly expanding fleet.

An essential condiment on every Vietnamese table. It's a brine made from fish that marinate for six months to a year, covered in salt, in large wooden vats. The best, made from anchovies(ca com), is said to come from the island of Phu Quôc. The Romans already produced a similar mixture, called "garum".

Vietnamese women carry their wares on a palanche, a long bamboo pole slung over the shoulder, with a tray suspended from each end. The palanche and its two trays is an image often evoked to describe the shape of the country, and is associated with the image of an eternal Vietnam.

It consists of a 30-40 cm bamboo tube containing a base of water. At one-third of the way up, a small furnace holds a pinch of tobacco. The smoker inhales the smoke, cooled by its passage over the layer of water, with a long, single inhalation accompanied by a characteristic gurgling sound. It's a familiar scene in the north of the country.

Rain is to Hanoi what fog is to London. From the ^7th lunar month onwards, precipitation can fall without interruption. The rain doesn't decrease until September, and then comes the "cloud-shadow rain", light and fleeting in autumn. The drizzle carried by the northeast monsoon in winter is characteristic of the north.

In Vietnamese, to eat is called an com, meaning "to eat rice". There are over 2,000 varieties and sub-varieties of rice, including three sub-species: hard rice, glutinous rice and floating rice. Behind India and Thailand, Vietnam is the world's^3rd largest rice exporter (and^{5th largest} rice producer).