Customer Reviews

Three Moons in Vietnam: A Hapazard Journey Along the Coast

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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.

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.

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!