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As long as I have been in Englishclub.com, I often asked my chat-mates “ What do you know about Viet Nam? ” and they immediately answered me:  “ I only know about Viet Nam through two wars in the past ; French – Viet Nam war and America - Viet Nam war”. I’m proud of  being a Vietnamese because  everyone knows about my country as the land of courage, strong spirit, hardihood, etc... But in this blog, I’m not going to tell you about it because you can easily seek it on many websites about Viet Nam. What I want to write, it is my native place – The land of my birth.

Each country has each capital, and Hanoi is the capital in Vietnam, where I was born. About Hanoi, this city is very beautiful and famous with many legend stories about the land. Many gorgeous places  are worth to visit as Ngoc Son Temple in Hoan Kiem lake - Returned Sword, Van Mieu - Literature Temple, Chua Mot Cot – One pillar Pagoda, Ha Noi is well known with 36 Quarter -  oldest streets, in the centre, etc… All of them have a length of history, culture and education of thousands year through generations.

Another sight about Ha Noi beauty , this city is very charming in the evening with shimmer and colorful light bright around the lakes or beside the long streets. It creates a magical picture of modern life. It’s not too difficult to find a good corner surrounding oldest streets to take a look, you can capture a special view of people, vehicles that they look like a painting. And there are a lot of old and big trees on the pavements along streets, they make you feel very comfortable in the summer and so romantic in other seasons, especial peaceful feeling in autumn. The more I’m telling you about Ha Noi the more I feel love this place.

( Those two photos were taken by my brother via Nokia )

But where is the land of my birth?!? This is not about Ha Noi centre which I described above. As I was born when the war was over about five years. My country had changed a lot in rebuilding  basic constructions, roads, factories, colleges, etc… I was a lucky child when I was born and lived in populous area in a tenement-house in Ha Noi, exactly the place was located between the centre and outskirt. Now it recalls me about my wonderful land, wonderful childhood that I can never forget it. Why it is so special to me? Because It has many interesting things as the building was built next to an old village, therefore the culture was mixed between modern life and traditional life.

At that time, my family lived in a modern apartment. There were eight families which lived in the same floor in the same building. Totally thirty children lived and grew up together in the same area. We had a lot of lively memories about our summer holidays because we had long school breaks about three months. We always were excited too much in loitering and catching butterfly, dogbane leaf  beetle, cicada, dragonfly, mantis and grasshopper, etc… We were playing in the public park which was near the building, we used to roll on the lawn or climb on the workers statue in the park. It was funny time because we were innocent children without dress and were running all day in the sunshine.

 And the most interesting thing which I always remember was the road from our building to our school, it was a foot-path from my area through the village, pass across a river to school. Each time I think about this road each time I feel loving and missing it deeply, and why so? Let me tell you about this.

 We were children from six years old to twelve years old  used to go to school on this road. It was full of green hedgerows and gardens, it was tempting us too much because there were various fruits, trees, flowers which were spread as long as the road was. I still remembered I loved violet little flowers with yellow fruits, red hibiscus… I forgot to tell you about a river with bamboo groves on the both of riversides, It was a mixture of green trees and dark green river and blue sky that reflected in the river. There was an iron bridge to cross the river and another bamboo bridge was near. Crossing river on the iron bridge was safer than crossing on the bamboo bridge, but we were naughty kids so we used to walk on the bamboo bridge to school. Whenever we walked on this bridge, we could feel the bridge was moving and swaying with each our step… All of those things were not here now a day. They were replaced of new road, new bridge, new private houses and less trees, less gardens, less natural atmosphere.

( I use those photos from internet )

Time has gone as fast as a wink and now we became mature men and women after more than thirty years. All of us have our own families but we always remember about our sweet childhood. Our feeling about this place is really like the land of our birth. It always has a special part in our heart. It is unforgettable memory and it will never change no matter where we live and when we come back or not.

At last I want to say thanks to all of you for reading my blog!