Vietnam

Flight:

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) to Hanoi (HAN)

Flight Duration * 21 hours 20 mins * Via Tokyo Narita Apt, Tokyo (NRT)

Distance:

The direct distance between Dallas, Texas and Hanoi, Vietnam is 8441 miles (13584 km).

Phil

Yes, that's right. Laos is in South East Asia which shares borders with China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Which independence?

China ruled Vietnam for centuries and in 938 CE, a Vietnamese leader named Ngô Quyền defeated Chinese forces at the Bạch Đằng River - winning independence.

In the mid-to-late 1800s, France won a series of military victories which saw them take control of Vietnam as a colony of France.

Under Ho Chi Minh, the irregular forces of the Viet Minh waged war on the French and the country was divided in the 1950s, with the North becoming independent under Ho Chi Minh and the South under the restored Vietnamese emperor Bảo Đại (who have been termed "King of Annam" under the French). The North was consistently skirmishing with the forces of the South.

There was a coup in the south, which eventually led to the South being declared a Republic. The American government of the time was worried about Communist expansion and the possibility that communisim would spread throughout the region,and wangled an invitation to send military advisers to the South.

The coup was counter to agreements to hold nationwide elections, and a series of military regimes followed.... all assisted to one degree or another by covert American involvement. This developed into the Vietnam War, and was a long and bloody affair.

Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 and was succeeded by Phạm Văn Đồng, who led the country after it was re-unified after the war. But the driving force all throguhout the wart had been Ho Chi Minh, and he must get the credit for the independence which followed.

Last year I went to Vietnam with Vietnam Tour Guides. It was a bash from cuisines to places to luxurious hotel check in.

The following are the tour packages they provide:

Indochina Overture 14 Days

Majestic Indochina 23 Days

Vietnam and Cambodia, Heritage and Beach 15 Days

Laos and Thailand Combination 10 Days

TRAVEL EAST JSC

Add : Suite 48/6/15, Dang Van Ngu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam

Tel: 84-4-3-993 6948 Fax: 84-4-3 632 0266

Hot line: 84-904-111 770 & 84-912 122 663

It's not possible to count the words in any language, because there is no universal definition of what a word is. Vietnamese is particularly problematic, because it is written in syllable form, based on Chinese, and there is controversy as to whether compound syllables should be written as (and considered) single words.

But most estimates place the number between 40,000 and 160,000 words (which is the same range for almost all other languages).

Note: English is an exception. It has the largest number of words of any language in the world, estimated at 170,000 to 250,000 words. No language has more words than English.

The Saigon River (Vietnamese: Sông Sài Gòn) is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about 140 miles (225 km) and empties into the Nha Be River, which in its turn empties into the South China Sea some 20 km north-east of the Mekong Delta.

The Saigon River is joined 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly named Saigon) by the Dong Nai River, and just above Ho Chi Minh City it is joined by the Ben Cat River. Saigon River is important to Ho Chi Minh City as it is the main water supply as well as the host of Saigon Port, which a total cargo volume load/outloaded of more than 35 million metric tons in 2006. The river is located in Saigon but it also flows through Mekong but the name changes.

The Binh Quoi Tourist Village is located on the Thanh Da peninsula on the Saigon River, in the Bình Thạnh district of Ho Chi Minh City.