In the 1998, I returned to my birthplace after 18 years.  Vietnam was a different place than when I left it.  It was everything I expected to be- beautiful, dainty, bustling, tranquil, bitter, sweet, optimistic and tainted with memories.  I traveled 1000 km along the coast and saw for myself a country known to many as a battle ground. Vietnam, in sum, could not be described with a word.  Like a holistic experience, this country mended and mixed by its aroma of life.