Architecture
Taking a break from those heavyweight posts with a lot of text to read, here is a typical modern family home in an unusual environment (at a rural road) :-)
Apparently, the land price is oriented on the width of the land along the road. So houses in general are very high and slim.
Also, for some reason, the Vietnamese only bother about the front of a building. Often, the sides of a building are left without windows and in concrete-grey without paint.
In the Lonely Planet, there are reports about that in Hanoi, a dubious guesthouse owner rebuilt the front of another actually recommended guesthouse to lure travellers into his. But only the front.
This “massage body” building does not do well in hiding that it was indeed a barn before it has been converted into a “first class” spa. (Just as a side note: From the inside, it indeed looks like on the photos)
There is still quite a bit French architecture left from the colonial era, most of which are in a somewhat crumbling state. Though, the French era influenced modern Vietnamese architecture. Any new representative buildings or expensive hotels will look somewhat French. Upper-class family homes will often look something like Neuschwanstein-Disneyland-French (we all know, Southeastasians love bright colors). This piece, found in Bac Ha and still under construction is still missing the colors which makes it look like a cool Geisterhaus:
