Seeing further than Vietnam's bloody past

As I walked into her front room, the old lady gave a gap-toothed smile and lifted up the floorboards.

I gasped with amazement as the wooden boards revealed, underneath, silver and black fish - hundreds and hundreds of them.

They were thrashing about in a tank of water that sat just beneath a shrine to the woman's ancestors.

This is how fish farming is done Vietnam style.

Novelties

The homes themselves are wooden affairs built on stilts in the water and they were lined up in rows just like houses in a street.

To make a bit of extra money, most locals rear fish in underwater cages of the kind the wizened old lady took such pride in showing me.

These bizarre fish farms were not the only novelty I saw during a two-day tour of the Mekong Delta in south-west Vietnam.

Just as some of the dwellings are perched on water, so are many of the markets in the delta area.

But unlike the houses, the floating markets don't have stilts to steady them, so the women wearing Vietnam's famous conical hats have to balance precariously in their tiny bobbing boats as they discuss the price of melons and pineapples.

Moved on

For many, the Mekong Delta is their first stop after arriving in this picturesque south-east Asian country which, 30 years on from conflict, still conjures up images of unhappy US servicemen and children maimed by napalm bombs.

My next stop, Ho Chi Minh City, better known by its old name of Saigon, is proof that Vietnam has certainly moved on from the collective insanity of 30 years ago.

There may be Soviet-esque pictures of hammers and sickles plastered on billboards, but this city is racing into the modern era, with flashy modern hotels springing up all over. Beneath them, countless scooters blast out noxious fumes.

No balance

No visit to Saigon, forward-looking though the city is, is complete without stepping back into the past to reexamine the country's turbulent recent history.

The War Remnants Museum used to be called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes and it is this earlier name that gives a better indication of the nature of the exhibits inside.

The pictures of American atrocities committed during the Vietnam War - or the American War as the Vietnamese call it - are horrific.

However, the museum's message would be all the more powerful if there was a bit more balance.

There is no mention, for example, of the wrongs committed by the North Vietnamese Viet Cong fighters who eventually took Saigon after the Americans fled in 1975.

This is unfortunate because the histories and autobiographies from the period - most offered for sale on the streets in cheap pirate editions - show that the Viet Cong were also ready to commit acts of savagery towards humble villagers whose sympathies lay with the wrong side.

Riverside town

A long coach ride north from Saigon to Hoi An, midway along Vietnam's east coast, took me further back into the country's past.

Hoi An is a picturesque riverside town whose tiny, quaint streets have earned it Unesco World Heritage Site status.

It was an important port in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries but today it is tourists arriving by land - rather than goods coming by sea and river - that provide its lifeblood.

Beautiful Chinese pagodas and temples dot the streets, sandwiched in between tailors who offer to make bespoke suits for rock-bottom prices.

I spent a pleasant half day taking a trip to the temples of My Son, some of which date back more than 1,000 years.

Sadly, aerial bombing by the Americans destroyed many of the temples. Those that remain are partly overgrown, but the setting - surrounded on all sides by tree-covered hills - is stunning.

Shadow

A further ride north took me to Hue, which like My Son is also is a shadow of its pre-war self. The city's centrepiece is the citadel, most of which was built in the 19th century. Sadly much was destroyed during fierce 1968 bombing campaigns.

The tombs built to Vietnam's Nguyen dynasty, members of which reigned between 1802 and 1945, lie safely by the banks of the Perfume River outside Hue and managed to survive the war.

The first stop on a trip along the Perfume River is the Thien Mu Pagoda, which boasts a picturesque seven-storey octagonal tower.

The pagoda, one of the most famous in Vietnam, was founded more than four centuries ago.

In one corner lies an Austin motorcar that in 1963 took a monk called Thich Quang Duc to Saigon, where he set himself alight in protest at Communist oppression of Buddhism. The picture of him burning to death became famous worldwide and a copy sits on the wall behind the rusting car.

Hillside tombs

Times are calmer now and the young monks in their long robes wear smiles and are happy to be photographed.

Further along the river lie the huge Royal mausoleums, elaborately decorated and in many cases surrounded by moats or lakes.

Among them is the hillside tomb built for Emperor Khai Dinh, who ruled from 1916 to 1925.

In this structure, approached by motorbike along a dusty lane, the hand of colonialism can be detected in the European-influenced design.

In the main tomb at the top, the walls are decorated with murals and a bronze statue of Khai Dinh himself sits centre stage.

Further up the Perfume River lies Minh Mang's tomb, which was built more than a century earlier. A series of temples and pavilions, some recently repainted, others slightly decaying, lead to the burial mound.

New Year

In the evening, after I returned from my day-long boat trip - which cost all of $2 (Dh7.34) - and found the local people celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year.

Along pavements, they had set up makeshift shrines where paper shoes, dolls and horses were set ablaze.

The streets were alive late into the evening - a novelty in Vietnam which is usually early to bed and early to rise - and events ended with a spectacular fireworks display by the river.

An overnight coach the next day took me to the capital, Hanoi, where the tomb of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's national hero, was as stark and severe as the Nguyen dynasty tombs were elaborate.

The mausoleum, flanked on one side by a row of Vietnamese flags, and on the other by hammer and sickle flags, lies beside a huge, leafy park complex which was dotted with romantic young couples.

Vietnam seemed to close down for about a week over the New Year period so the streets of old Hanoi, described as bustling in the guidebooks, were eerily quiet.

Limestone formations

My visit to Vietnam ended - just as it had begun - with a two-day trip on the water.

This time it was the spectacular limestone formations of Halong Bay off the country's north-east coast that attracted me.

Designated a World Heritage Site, the bay has more than 3,000 islands rising up from the sea. After my boat docked in one isolated harbour, I spent an hour canoeing between the islets, watching as the setting sun created spectacular silhouettes.

It was an enjoyable end to a holiday that took me from overgrown waterways to picturesque temples, from flashy big city streets to tranquil bays.

There is definitely a lot more to Vietnam than reminders of its bloody past.