traveltips

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Visiting beautiful Danang at the central of Vietnam

Setting off from the North and stop at the central of Vietnam, located a great coastal city named Danang with hills, moutains, islands and seas where you can feel the fresh air filled all around. This is one of the most stunning places worth visiting in Vietnam.

The city of Danang is situated close to plains, hills, mountains, islands, and the sea. Its climate is temperate and there are many historical and cultural sites in and around the city. The tourism sector of Danang offers a variety of tourism products.

Approximately 13km east from the center of Danang is the large Son Tra Peninsula. From a distance, the peninsula looks like a mushroom that sits 693m over the water. The cap of this mushroom is the Son Tra Mountain, and the stem is the Son Tra Beach with smooth, white sand – an ideal place to play sports and enjoy fishing or swimming.

The Son Tra Peninsula is a national park where many species of wild animals and plant varieties are preserved and fresh water is available. On the Son Tra Peninsula there’s a 4,370ha primeval forest. With the green of forest trees and the blue color of seawater, the Son Tra Peninsula has a romantic but imposing beauty.

On the Son Tra Peninsula, one can enjoy the fresh air and contemplate the wonderful natural landscape of this place, and learn about the lives of fishermen here. They can also enjoy various kinds of seafood.

Not very far from the Son Tra Peninsula to the south is the Ngu Hanh Son mountain range, which is a special attraction of the entire central region.

The Ngu Hanh Son mountain range consists of six limestone mountains, each with its own name. The legend is that there was a sea dragon that flew to the seashore and laid some eggs. After 1,000 days the eggs hatched and out of one came a beautiful girl. The egg shell became the five mountains, which were then named by Lord Nguyen after the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, earth.

The northern-most mountain is called Thuy Son (Water Mountain), the one to the east is Moc Son (Wood Mountain), to the west is Kim Son (Metal Mountain), to the south is Hoa Son (Fire Mountain) and in the middle is Tho Son (Earth Mountain).

Hoa Son is actually two small mountains, Duong Hai Son and Am Hoa Son. So, you can say that the Ngu Hanh Son mountain range consists of six mountains – your choice. But regardless, it also has many caves.

At Ngu Hanh Son there is also a famous pagoda, named Chua Khong, and the Tang Chon Cave. The six Ngu Hanh Son mountains are adjacent to the Non Nuoc Beach, one of the six most beautiful beaches in the world.

Not far to the west of Danang is a large mountainous area that is adjacent to the Truong Son mountain range. In this area there are primeval forests with various animals and plants. There are also old houses built in the French style.

In the area of the Ba Na Mountain Range there are adequate tourist facilities, including villas, restaurants and a modern cable car to take visitors from Vong Nguyet Hill to the highest mountain, 1,400m above the sea. From the top of this mountain one gets a panorama view of Danang – the city on the banks of the charming Han River.

When it’s not raining at the Ba Na mountaintop, one can perhaps watch it raining below. At the Ba Na mountaintop, the weather keeps changing so that people can see and feel the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, all within one day.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture, in the center of Danang, is enjoyed by almost every visitor to the city. This museum was built in 1915. It preserves and has on display thousands of Cham sculptures that are from between the seventh and the 15th centuries.

Leaving the center of Danang and going to the north one can see Hai Van Pass – an imposing picture created by nature. From the top of the Hai Van Pass one can see an overview of Danang – a young city that is changing everyday.

Hat xam’ – awakening one part of Vietnamese culture

Artist HA THI CAU

Professionalism

Xam is a genre of folk songs in northern Vietnam. Xam is also a word used to call blind people who sing xam songs to earn money so hat xam is considered a job.

Many equate xam with beggars but they are different. Xam don’t live on free food or money but they live on offerings from people. Before receiving tokens, they have to win people’s hearts with their voices and music.

In the first half of the 20th century, xam grouped up to travel everywhere. Each group was often led by a group leader, who was a blind man.

The word “professional” is needed to describe xam, who earn their living by singing. The professionalism of this job is also shown through the organisation of xam groups, which are linked with each other under the control of a leader.

Normally, each xam leader controls an area. If a xam group wants to sing in another area, it needs the agreement of the xam leader who controls that area.

It is also professional in the way xam choose sad or merry melodies to be appropriate to the circumstance and the attitude of listeners.

Hat xam’s founder is a prince?

Normally, only jobs related to production have founders, but hat xam also has a founder. And the founder of hat xam is a dignitary, Prince Tran Quoc Dinh.

According to legend, in the Tran Dynasty, there were two princes, Tran Quoc Toan and Tran Quoc Dinh. As both sought the crown, a power struggle ensued. During an altercation, Tran Quoc Toan tore out Tran Quoc Dinh’s eyes and threw him into the forest.

Tran Quoc Dinh couldn’t do anything but cry. He fell asleep. In a dream, a Buddha appeared and gave him a musical instrument which was played with a bamboo rod. Upon awakening, he made the musical instrument based on his dream. It was odd that the instrument created sweet sounds. Hearing the sound, birds brought fruits to him. Some lumbermen heard the sound and took care of him.

Prince Tran Quoc Dinh taught poor and blind people how to play the instrument and sing as well. He became famous, even in the capital. He was invited to sing in the royal palace, where his father recognised his son. Even after returning to the palace, the prince continued to teach poor and blind people.

Hat xam was born then and Tran Quoc Dinh was honoured as the founder of hat xam. Xam consider the 22nd day of the second lunar month and the 22nd day of the eight lunar month as the prince’s death anniversary and the founding anniversary of hat xam.

The Vietnam Music Art Development Centre has an award in the name of Tran Quoc Dinh for artists, collectors, researchers and journalists who make great contributions to traditional music

Based on the characteristics of this job, the anniversary is often organised on wide plots of land, not in a temple or a fixed place.

Restoring hat xam anniversary

Hat xam and hat xam anniversary was popular in the 1950-1960 and it disappeared after that. In 2008, the Vietnam Music Art Development Centre resumed the anniversary for the first time at Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature). This is part of a programme to restore hat xam art conducted since 2005.

Restoring the anniversary is also the aspiration of the living treasure of hat xam, artisan Ha Thi Cau.

This year, the second anniversary will be held at the communal house of Hao Nam village, on Vu Thanh street. According to musician Thao Giang, who initiated the resumption of this anniversary, as of 2009, this anniversary will be organised annually at this communal house.

It is pity that this year artisan Ha Thi Cau will not attend the anniversary because she is very weak now. After the anniversary, some xam singers will go to Ninh Binh province to visit the latest famous xam singer of the 20th century, Mrs. Ha Thi Cau.

As eco-tourism gains popularity, more tourists are opting to take bike tours.

A cycling tour in the northern province of Ninh Binh was one of Rett Townsley’s favourite activities while travelling around Viet Nam.

“It was not my first bike tour but I have not ridden a road bike in several years. It was a good tour, even though it was very tiring. It definitely left me with a lot of good memories,” Townsley says.
Townsley is among a small group of tourists who travelled to Ninh Binh’s Hoa Lu District, the nation’s former citadel, which lures millions of local and foreign tourists every year.

A bus leaves Ha Noi early every morning for the two hour journey to the district. Townsley and his partners book rooms at the Xuan Hoa Hotel, which is said to provide the best travel services in the district, such as meals, rooms, bikes and tour guides.

The hotel provides an excellent jumping-off point for tourists to enjoy a visit to the ancient Hoa Lu citadel which was the country’s capital city for the Dinh dynasty (968-980) and the tien Le (Earlier-Le) dynasty (980-1009).

Maps to these destinations are free from the hotel. Townsley and his friends pay VND20,000 (US$1) for their bikes and share the $10 for a tour guide to show them around for a full day.

It takes Townsley and his friends nearly one hour to travel the 12km to the citadel, where they admire the temple of King Dinh Tien Hoang, who developed Hoa Lu as the capital and set up the first centralised feudal State in Viet Nam. They also enjoyed the temple to the first king of the tien Le dynasty, King Le Dai Hanh.

Their next destination is Tam Coc-Bich Dong, also known as Ha Long Bay on land. The area is home to an awesome stretch of giant limestone karsts jutting out of the rice paddies on the banks of a small river. Townsley and his friends leave the bikes aside for a short time to travel by boat through this secluded oasis away from the haze of the big city.

If they have planned for an extra day or two of holiday, the group can sail on to the Trang An Eco-Tourism complex, which is said to host a world of natural and cultural heritage.

With its striking limestone mountains, caves and clear streams, combined with the ruins of the former capital at Hoa Lu, the area annually attracts millions of tourists from across Viet Nam and around the world.

Back on land at Van Lam Wharf, an expanse of art work is waiting for the group. The area is a great place for tourists to explore Viet Nam’s needlework.

Thousands of embroidery and thread work products with many designs in different sizes are so beautiful that most people cannot deny at least one indulgence for themselves or as a gift for a loved one back home.

“I especially enjoyed the part of the ride that took us right up to the limestone mountains,” says Townsley, who also expresses his pleasure with the boat ride and the walk around the Trang An complex.

“However, the most interesting part of the tour is the bike ride itself. Our tour guide, Trung, leads us over the country lanes that link villages, rice fields and homes.

“It was one of the greatest experiences we had on this tour,” says Thanh Hoa, another member of the group.

“I’m a city girl so I have very little idea about rural life. I have been curious about the lives and activities of farmers, but now my mind has been opened quite a lot,” she says.

Despite his poor English, Trung guides people to the most beautiful and special places in the area where they can witness the beauty of the rural scenes or give a hand to local farmers with their work.

Open-minded

“Local people are open-minded. They are happy to let visitors help them cultivate rice seedlings, bail water to the fields or dig a fish breeding pond. You can even take a meal with a family or ask them to teach you how to embroider a simple product in Van Lam Village,” says Trung.

It seems as if the landscape has been untouched by time, and that’s exactly how locals want it to stay. “Although tourism has developed over the past few years, we still want to keep the original features of the region,” he says. As the only foreigner Townsley is the happiest person in the group – many people, including a lot of children, greeted him enthusiastically.

“I think the biggest advantage of the tour is just the fact that you can see so much more when you are on a bike than you would see from a tour bus. Also, bikes don’t cause pollution,” he says. He adds that he thinks the route is a little too long for most tourists. “I think 12km is okay but 20 is a little much.”

He suggests that better quality bikes would make the tour a better experience and that larger groups should come with a support vehicle. But he still intends to recommend the tour to his family and friends when they come to Viet Nam.

“My customers are really interested in this tour because it puts them closer to nature and to the culture, customs and habits of the local people, which are often very different from their own,” says Nguyen Viet Trinh.

“Most of our travellers are currently white-collar workers who don’t generally have time for biking. Bike tours give them chance to discover many new things and recover their health with exercise and fresh air,” Trinh says.

“However, we have only met 85-90 per cent of their demands because of a few customer service problems, including the quality of the bikes and tour guides,” he says. He adds that customer service improvements would increase the number of tourists to Viet Nam. — VNS

Ceramic Road along the Red River, Vietnam

The 2.018 meter-long project with total squares of 6.500m² is an art construction playing a great meaning to welcome 1000^th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi and honor art heritages to patterns of history from the periods of Dong Son to dynasties of Ly, Tran, Le, Nguyen. The 2.018 meter-long project with total squares of 6.500m² is an art construction playing a great meaning to welcome 1000^th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi and honor art heritages to patterns of history from the periods of Dong Son to dynasties of Ly, Tran, Le, Nguyen.
The road runs from Au Co Avenue through Nghi Tam, Yen Phu, Tran Nhat Duat, Tran Quang Khai and Tran Khanh Du roads. As planned, it comprises 21 sections of ceramic pictures with verities of interesting and colourful objects.
Taking part in this project, not only Vietnamese artists, Ceramic Road receives a very enthusiastic response of international artists. All with wishes to contribute a meaningful gift to bring beauty to the community as well to welcome 1000 year-old Hanoi Capital. Apart from the assistance of Michael Geertsen, a Denmark artist, and Dominique de Miscault from France, many other artists from many countries all over the world as UK, United State, Netherlands, Italia, Spain and Finland have registered to join. Ceramic Road is striving to set Guiness Record and become the longest Ceramic Picture in the world.

Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu to host World Food Festival

The southern coastal province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu will host the World Food Festival 2010 from July 21-25.

A 3km-long party will be arranged along the beautiful beaches of Thùy Vân and Bãi Sau in Vũng Tàu City, representatives of the Organizing Board revealed at a press briefing held in Hà Nội on March 11.

The festival will also include markets on specialties and dishes from all 63 provinces and cities in Việt Nam and more than 80 nations in the world, they added.

With five main facets – gastronomy, culture, festivities, shopping and relaxing- the event is expected to provide visitors with opportunities to enjoy traditional dishes and beverages, explore different cultures, shop and take part in a colorful parade with thousands of other people from different countries as well as areas in Việt Nam.

During the festival, cooking demonstrations will be held on the beaches.

The Organizing Board hopes the festival will become an annual traditional event in Vũng Tàu Province and will be recognized as a Guinness world record in terms of the largest space for a gastronomy festival.

Nghệ An appeals for tourism investment

VGP – Nghệ An, the largest province in the North Central part of Việt Nam, is calling on massive investment of around US $250 million in 22 projects on marine and eco-tourism from now to 2015.

A beach in Nghệ An – Illustration photo

These projects include an eco-tourist area at Khe Kèm Waterfall (worth of US $63 million), a tourist area at Quyết Mountain-Bến Thủy (US $25 million), Sao Va Waterfall (US $10 million), and Nghi Thiết Beach (US $6 million).

To tap its tourist potentials, the local authorities of Nghệ An called upon investors to get involved in sea, convalescence and eco-tourism, sites in Quỳnh Lưu, Cửa Lò, Nghi Lộc, Con Cuông and Nam Đàn Districts.

These projects are expected to create new, attractive and typical tourist products for Nghệ An and the Central region of Việt Nam.

In addition, the locality also thirsts for more flows of investment building more commercial centers, sports services, entertainment parks, and so on.

The authorities of Nghệ An pledge to grant numerous incentives for investors in terms of investment promotion, site clearance, better infrastructure, and land lease./.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

How to get to Vung Tau from Saigon

Vung Tau, just 125km away, is about the nearest beach from Saigon. Beside the beaches, Vung Tau also offers great seafood, some attractions with the pagodas and gigantic religious statues on the mountains. And as far as I know, it’s the only place in Vietnam where you can find greyhound racing (www.vietnamracing.net/). For a brief tour to Ba Ria Vung Tau, check out 36 hours in Vung Tau.

There are about 3 ways one can get to Vung Tau from Saigon:

1. Tour bus from Sinh Cafe and other tour agencies. About 3 hours.

2. Drive or ride to Vung Tau from Saigon. About 3 hours (under 2 hours if you are a hell rider).

3. Take the hydrofoil. It is the most comfortable and fastest at just under 1.5 hours.

In this travel tip on how to get to Vung Tau from Saigon, I’ll show you where to buy the hydrofoil or ferry ticket, the timings of those ferry services and how those hydrofoils to Vung Tau feels like.

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We are now standing directly behind the Rex Hotel at Nguyen Hue Street. From the Saigon Tax Trade Center, or commonly known as the Saigon Tax Center or Thuong Xa Tax in Vietnamese, head down in the direction of the yellow arrow. Use the blue Sun Wah Tower (circled in red) as the next landmark.

How to get to Vung Tau from Saigon

With the blue Sun Wah Tower on your right, head down about 150m in the direction of the yellow arrow. Use the Duxton Hotel and Harbour View building (circled in red) as your next 2 landmarks.

How to get to Vung Tau from Saigon

Just after passing by the Harbour View building, you will be at this T-junction where there are always lots of cars and especially big trucks. Yellow arrow is where the main ferry or hydrofoil terminal is. You can buy your tickets from all 3 different hydrofoil operators here. At the same time, the blue and green arrows indicate the positions of ticket booths also from the same 3 operators. The difference here is that you can get your tickets without having to get off your bike

How to get to Vung Tau from Saigon

Main ferry terminal.

How to get to Vung Tau from Saigon

Once you enter the ferry terminal, you’ll see the 3 different operators’ booth. They are all selling at the same price of 160,000vnd per ticket (about US$9).