The hammer and sickle, the five pointed star and the swastika

are the three most prevalent symbols in Vietnam after Uncle Ho's ubiquitous smiling face.

Like a familiar yet foreign montage of misplaced World War II symbols to a Westerner rubbernecking from the back of a motorbike. But clearly WWII has nothing to do with any of this. Rather than symbolizing the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle is the emblem of the Vietnamese Communist Party, which has seen its earlier Russian counterpart off into the history books. Instead of the stencilled logo for the the US Army, in these parts the five pointed star [yellow or red] is of course the international sign for communism. And the swastika, typically positioned above the gateway to a wat [temple] or emblazoned on the chest or forehead of a statue of Buddha, is an ancient symbol from India and associated with Buddhism and other Eastern religions for two-and-a-half thousand years before the Nazis hoisted it over Munich and changed everything.

Still, even with all of this in mind, swastikas are not something you get used to seeing anywhere let alone framing the entrance to a tranquil Buddhist wat.