Three Moons in Vietnam: A Hapazard Journey Along the Coast [Hardcover]

Maria Coffey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996

In 1944, Maria Coffery and her husband, travelled the length of the Vietnam coastline by sampan, a traditional hand-crafted boat, and this book tells of their journey. Starting from the south, a few miles from Ho Chi Minh city in the Mekong Delta, they sailed through Halong Bay and headed into the Red River Delta, to the end their journey at the capital city of Hanoi. En route they made many excursions to well known sites, but the real focus of the tale is on meeting the ordinary people.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T) (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316878138
• ISBN-13: 978-0316878135
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,831,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun and descriptive look at life in Vietnam, October 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Three Moons in Vietnam: A Hapazard Journey Along the Coast (Hardcover)

I read this book before I took my first trip to Vietnam in 1997 and I have to say that Maria Coffey does an amazing job of describing what life is really like not only in the cities but in the rural areas of Vietnam. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has an interest in Vietnam's people and their way of life. Coffey's account of her trip with her husband is so amazingly well written that the reader really gets to take the trip with her. Three Moons in Vietnam is a book you will laugh and cry with but most of all it will give you a new perspective of a country and the lifestyle of it's people that is misunderstood by many.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Last two chapters worth the read, October 25, 1999

By 

Philip L. Aaronson (South Kingstown, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Moons in Vietnam: A Hapazard Journey Along the Coast (Hardcover)

The author's experience in trying to help a poor Vietnamese family educate two of their children is a classic lesson in how the good intentions of people from developed nations unwittingly run counter to the best interests of those in under-developed nations. We think that our money and largesse can help to solve the problems of the poor when, in fact, too often it makes things worse. Maria Coffey met some very interesting people living in Hanoi and she chronicles their perceptions in the closing chapters of the book. It provides insight into the continuing struggles that the Vietnamese people have in trying to hold onto the traditional values that have sustained their culture for thousands of years in the face of the new "global economics". Anyone from a developed western nation planning to travel to or live in an agrarian peasant-based culture should include "Something of Value" by Robert Ruark on their reading list.

1.0 out of 5 stars A naiive and annoying book: read at your own risk, September 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Three Moons in Vietnam: A Hapazard Journey Along the Coast (Hardcover)

I've just read this very naiive book on Vietnam by a Canadian couple who tried to travel around Vietnam in the mid '90s, without proper permits or planning, on boats. With typical Western arrogance, the couple showed complete disregard, ignorance and disrespect for the laws and customs of the country they were visiting and, as you would expect, got nowhere and ended up bussing and cycling most of the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. The book is an interesting insight into the "backpacker" psyche but very annoying as they put lots of people at risk helping them and getting them out of the messes they got themselve into, and they come across as incredibly stupid and naiive. The book's called "Three Moons in Vietnam", read it if you get the chance but on no account buy it, it wouldn't do to encourage these people financially in their stupid pursuits!