Ah, it's good to be travelling to somewhere I haven't been to before, even if it's a short visit. Tomorrow I head off to Vietnam, and found an 8 minute video that filled in an enormous gap in knowledge about its history.
I feel I have to justify not formerly having a clue about its history going back any further than the French teaching them how to make nice bread. But honestly, there are too many countries in the world to keep details of their history in your head. I made the decision many years ago to never care about the wild historical mess of what could broadly be called Eastern Europe - all of the countries in colour below, except for Russia:
OK, the Ukraine situation has made me a bit more curious about them. But everywhere else: too much information, and if your cuisine doesn't interest me, I'm not too interested.
Anyway, back to Vietnam in eight minutes:
I know it’s not very fashionable singling out this or that race. But it’s hard not to like these Vietnamese. They always seem to win any fight. With Chinese and Russian help they beat the Americans. Then with Russian help they beat the Chinese. Barely a break to catch their breath.
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