An ode to Ha Long Bay

Our three days and two nights on a the wooden junk named Valentine, of Indochina Sails may just be our most memorable trip together since I was 10 years old and accompanied my mother to visit the sea for the first time. Now I was a 20-something girl, old enough to stretch by my mother’s side on two deck chairs and enjoy the darkness surrounding the numerous white limestone towers, not to mention the melodious ballads flying up from the wooden deck into the sky. It was our first night on board, a moment so tranquil that it made a western couple stand up and waltz. At the time, our junk was still moving slowly ahead, passing through the cool sea-breeze and many gigantic limestone towers, which impressed us with their bizarre shapes in the darkness.
This wasn’t what we were expecting when we joined the newly- designed cruise.

We were excited the moment we took a tender to step onto the gigantic wooden junk, which resembled an ancient French-style palace floating on the sea. Passing through the glittering dining room, with its windows facing the sea, we reached our cabin. My mother and I immediately saw beyond the wooden doors: two parallel white sheeted beds, a jar of white Madonna lilies, two large windows covering almost half of the brown wooden wall, and a splendid view of the sea outside.

Our first day was spent relaxing on the deck and in our cabin, although there were various activities tourists could enjoy partaking in on land, such as visiting Bat Cave, Cua Van fishing village or Soi Sim Beach. Most of us were not interested in stepping off the junk, since it served as an idyllic day-trippers’ paradise. Lying on the beds at night, we could see both the high limestone towers and bright stars glittering in the dark sky.

We went to bed early that night. Perhaps it was the effect of consuming a few glasses of good red wine on deck, or the cool breeze coming in from the large window mixed in with the intoxicating air from the cream lilies, that served as soothing lullabies.
The second day began filled with energy as we woke up early to participate in a tai chi session on the sun deck. We then transferred to the day-trip boat and cruised to the bay’s most untouched areas. A buffet-style breakfast was served on the boat, which was not only impressive in its various delicious Western dishes, but also served very good Vietnamese pho (noodle soup).

By the time we completed our breakfast we had reached Ngoc Vung Island. It was sunny and none of us could refuse to take a light bicycle trip through untouched forests to enjoy the natural scenery here. After half an hour, we found ourselves in front of the endless white sand-beach with not a single human shadow in sight. From afar, the sea could appeared as an emerald. I changed into a bathing suit while my mother chose to relax under the cool shadows of the pine forest.The highlight of the trip turned out to be kayaking in the afternoon, when our boat reached Cong Do area. All of us were very eager, although my mother seemed hesitant. She had never squeezed into a kayak before and she didn’t know how to swim.

Our yellow kayaks followed each other, moving in the low surf, with the warm waters of the sea lapping, and the cool breeze wrapping around us. The high rock formations seemed much higher when looked up and could make our way through all the narrow slots between the towers to discover a strange area where big boats couldn’t reach.

Our second day came to a good end with a delicious dinner, a grilled seafood feast, after which we went off to see people catching squids offshore. Passengers who caught squids could be found at our table for a second dinner, laughing away as they shared their funny stories.

The next morning our ship steamed forward to Sung Sot Cave, one of the bay’s most impressive limestone caverns. The entrance required a hike up stone steps to a spot high above the bay. More steps led into receding chambers, past humongous stalactites and stalagmites that resembled giant sandcastles.

Our cruise ended in the afternoon with us waving to the staff as we returned to land.

Many hesitate to vacation in a sailboat, but it is worth trying, for once you go, you will want to go again and again. It is advisable to go in a group, as you can share together all the wonderful moments of sitting standstill in the cool sea-breeze, listening to love ballads, sipping Vallformosa red wine, while the limestone towers all around move softly as the boat keeps drifting ahead.

Ha Long is like a story whose ending I thought I had reached but in reality I discovered that it has many alternative endings that need to be discovered, again and again. — News from VNS

Mountainous homestay in Mai Chau Valley

If the southern delta provinces attract visitors through scenic landscapes of rivers, floating markets and fruit gardens, the
northern mountainous provinces introduce equally beautiful scenery with terraced fields and colourful bazaars.

People in both north and south are friendly and have many special customs. Tourist organizes homestays in both locations for tourists to get a good look into life in southern and northern Vietnam.

In the homestay tour to the northern province of Hoa Binh, tourists stay with local ethnic minority families in Mai Chau Valley. Apart from experiencing rural family life, tourists join trekking tours and other activities.

To get there, tourists can buy a 24-day, from-south-to-north or a two-day, from Hanoi-to-Mai-Chau tour from Heritages Travel. For those on a tight schedule the two-day trip is, of course, the best choice.

Starting in Hanoi, it will take tourists to stay one night with the White Thai hill tribe in Mai Chau, a beautiful valley with many Thai people living in clean wooden stilt houses.

The Thai’s houses usually have space for visitors to spend the night. So the guests can stay up, drinking ruou can (a type of wine made from sticky rice or corn), eating roast meat and watching the Thai’s traditional dance.

During the day, tour-takers will join other activities of the locals. Most Thai women are professional weavers, making tho cam, a kind of cloth. Visitors can stop by their workshops in their houses to observe and maybe join them.

Getting a glimpse of real countryside life, tourists can also help out in the fields, breed pigs and poultry or ride a bicycle around the village to see other locals’ every-day activities.

For lunch, tourists will have traditional Thai-style food in the houses of the locals. The afternoon is the time for two to three hours of trekking around the area.

Those who visit Mai Chau on the weekend will get the opportunities of a colourful local market. The ethnic minority people in Mai Chau organize the market each weekend.

This is an occasion for them to sell their produce, such as bee honey, bananas and grain, and tho cam. But the highland people hold the market not only for trading goods but also to exchange culture and chit-chat. The market is also the place for young men and women to meet their partners or partners-to-be.

Source: Saigon Times Daily

Ha Noi - Picture Album 1

Post office Hanoi

Huong Pagoda

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Welcome!

Sa Pa Culture – Tourism Week to kick off

VietNamNet Bridge - Culture and Tourism Week in Sa Pa northern mountainous province will be held from April 30 to May 5.

The week will see various events such as “Cloud Festival” on Ham Rong mountain which feature traditional cultural and sport of ethnic minority groups of Mong, Dao, Giay; flower festival in Van Hoa Park; photo exhibition “Land and People of Sa Pa”; music and culinary.

Particularly, Sa Pa Love Market will be restaged in old quarter of the town on May 3.

Earlier, a trade and tourism fair was opened on April 19 as an activity to welcome the culture and tourism week. The fair, with the participation of 80 pavilions, introduced specialities of localities such as brocade, garments and aqua-products.

Vietnam to join seven more international tourism fairs in 2008

VietNamNet Bridge - The country will take part in seven more international tourism fairs this year to advertise potential tourism products and attract more foreign tourists, said the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNTA).

The seven international fairs include the JATA tourism fair in Japan, the PATA Travel Mart in Thailand, the Top Resa in France and the Trade Show Fair in the US in September 2008, the Shanghai CITM fair in China and the AITEX fair in Cambodia in October 2008 and the WTM fair in the UK in November 2008.

In the first quarter of 2008, the country joined ATF international tourism 2008 in Thailand, the world’s largest tourism fair ITB in Berlin and the Intour Market (MITT) in Russia.

The country greeted nearly 1.3 million foreign tourists in the first three month this year, showing the effectiveness of the tourism sector’s plan to attract foreign tourists by advertising tourism potential in international fairs.

Waking up cultural tourism

VietNamNet Bridge – For a long time, the cultural value of Vietnam’s ancient villages seems to have fallen into oblivion. Vietnam is considering restoring their cultural value in order to build up more attractive tourism products; however, the work proves to be not so easy.

About 60 km from Hanoi, or one hour by coach, the ancient houses and laterite-made walls of Duong Lam ancient village has made the place well known among tourists from far and wide.

The first ancient village listed as a national heritage also has important historical value as it has a history of about 1,200 years with many houses dating back 400 years. It is the only place in Vietnam where two kings came from.

However, the local residents of the attractive land with cultural and historical value have been criticised for lack of professionalism in developing tourism.

Nguyen Tuan Viet, Director of Hanoi Branch of APEX Vietnam, related that on the occasion Duong Lam organised the ceremony to receive the title of ‘national heritage’, local authorities made a market in front of Mia Pagoda with an iron frame like a place for weddings in rural areas, which was surrounded by canvas and nylon. In the market, colourful commodities were displayed in disorder, most of them made-in-China, while salesmen all wore European-style clothes. A leader of the province also said that he felt ashamed to see such careless preparation for such an important event.

Viet said that he returned to Duong Lam recently, and he found out that the ancient village is in no way ancient. A lot of houses there are built in modern style have inox-made water tanks. On the main road of the village, motorbikes run at all times and honk their horns. APEX Vietnam’s tourists could only enjoy the ancientness of the village when they visited some houses on small back streets.

Viet said that there exist problems in the way of thinking of local tourism developers. “They think that they only need to make some investments to be able to attract tourists. However, the reality is far different from their thoughts,” he said.

In order to preserve and restore historical and cultural values, local residents must not treat cultural and historical values carelessly. Duong Lam is compared to a precious gem; however, it needs refined talent to become bright.

“Every tourism product consists of cultural value, but not every cultural value can become a tourism product,” Tuan said.

According to Dao Duy Tuan, from the Research Institute for Tourism Development, there are now 8,902 festivals, including 7,005 traditional festivals, 1,399 religion festivals, 409 historical-revolutionary festivals, and 25 festivals imported from overseas countries.

Twenty four provinces and cities nationwide have more than 100 festivals, which prove to be an important factor in helping to diversify Vietnam’s tourism products.

In Ha Tay province, a neighbouring province of Hanoi, for example, there are 1,180 trade villages, according to Deputy Director of the Culture, Information and Tourism Department Truong Minh Tien. Some 10 trade villages in Ha Tay have regular visitors, including the silk village of Van Phuc, Phu Vinh village, famous for bamboo and rattan-made products, and Chuyen My, specialising in pearl-inlayed products. Last year, the said trade villages alone received more than 350,000 tourists.