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Travel Literature
Vietnam: A Traveller's Literary Companion (1996), edited by Nguyen Qui Doc, is an engaging collection of stories by various Vietnamese writers, ranging from folklore and the tragedy of war to love and family ties, set against evocative backdrops from Hanoi to Dalat.
Fragrant Palm Leaves (1998) is a remarkable, poetic collection of journal entries by Zen monk and peace crusader Thich Nhat Hanh, written in Vietnam and the USA during the 1960s. As the American War in Vietnam rages on, he tries to make sense of it all, and there are some vivid scenes from South Vietnam in the 1960s.
Sparring with Charlie: Motorbiking down the Ho Chi Minh Trail (1996), by Christopher Hunt, is a light-hearted travelogue about modern Vietnam that takes the reader off the tourist trail and into some less-travelled parts of the country.
In a similar vein is Ten Years After (1987) by Tim Page. This impressive book boasts '12-months worth of photos taken 10 years after the war'. The author also returned to Vietnam to write Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden (1995), the story of his quest to erect a war memorial in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to honour the fallen war correspondents on all sides.
A Dragon Apparent (1952) is Norman Lewis' fascinating account of his journeys through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1950, and is a good insight into the last days of French rule.
Karin Muller's Hitchhiking Vietnam (1998) is a travelogue detailing one woman's tumultuous seven-month journey through Vietnam.
Part memoir and part travel narrative, Catfish and Mandala (1999) is Vietnamese-American Andrew X Pham's fascinating account of his escape from the war-torn Vietnam of 1977 and his subsequent return two decades later, equipped with a bicycle and a need to work out his mixed-up cultural identity.
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