Bilingual, Bicultural, Dual Citizen?

I recently found out that Vietnam is offering Dual Citizenship to a certain set of people. I found out that I would qualify, but not my daughter. So I have been pondering the question. What would be the advantage of dual nationality? What are the disadvantages? Vietnam is still a communist country, so there are a lot of restrictions on its citizens which have been easing up. There's a lot of distrust about the motives of the government. I have until 2014 to decide, after which the program expires and you would have to apply as any other foreign citizen.

Altars everywhere

Bus Altar - I think the horses are to help keep the bus moving.

Vietnamese are mostly Buddhists, and some are Catholics, and I'm sure there are all sorts of minority religions too, but the one thing they all have in common is that they put up little altars. There's usually an image of whichever deity they're praying to, incense, and some flowers or fruit offerings.

My Aunt prepping for Tet. 

Multiple altars

Funky Amusement Parks

Suối Tiên is a cool, funky Vietnamese take on an amusement park. It's got a lot of historical inspirations, and is part amusement, part educational, part spiritual. There are sections based on cultural or historical stories, and some temples to various notables. And then there are ferris wheels, roller coasters and various other rides. There's even a water park. It definitely shows a different culture!

Main entrance

Tickets - about $1 for kids, $1.60 for adults.

It seems cheap, and it is, but the amusements are separately purchased, so if you just want to go to the temples and walk the gardens, that's fine. If you want to ride the rides you buy tickets for each one. And really, the rides cost something like 25-50c, so it was really very reasonable.

Temple to King Hung

So pensive..

Loving the ice cream there!

View outside

Awfully large crocodile

She loves carousels!

I guess these are elephant tusks, but not sure what they mean.

Food prices: about $1 or 75c

Another temple

Lovely lotus flower

Tiên Dong beach


This is actually a separate little section with its own entrance fee. My parents didn't feel the need to go in, so we were only in for about an hour.

Do you see the funky swimsuit she has on? It was a rental. Yes, they rent swimsuits there, just in case you hadn't planned ahead. I rented one too. And didn't think about sanitary conditions. Nope, wasn't going there. So it was an interesting thing.

Ordering off the Internet - American sites

I'm finding bilingual books at a site called www.Asiaforkids.com. They have a bunch of stuff for most Asian cultures, not just books, but dolls, videos and all sorts of cultural things to help kids learn about their culture.

Some of the books can be found cheaper at Amazon, but they are a nice resource for finding a lot of stuff in one location.