Posted by admin on November 30, 2010 under Vietnam Travel in the Central, Vietnam travel News | 
By Thanh Hai in Danang
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| Justova Carmen, from the Czech Republic, plants a tree at the Vinpearl Danang Luxury Resort and Residences – Photo: Thanh Hai |
Beauties from the Miss Earth 2010 pageant planted trees at Vinpearl Danang Luxury Resort and Residences and Hoi An ancient city in Quang Nam Province on November 21 and 22.
Part of the “For the Green of the Earth” campaign, the planting aimed to create a green and clean society and raise public awareness of the need to plant trees and protect the environment.
Beauties had a gala party at Palm Garden Resort in Hoi An on Sunday evening with artistic performance from Vietnam and Philippines groups.
on Monday some of the pageant contestants visited orphans in Quang Nam and handed out medicine.
They will also join activities such as bicycling for green environment, Earth Hour, cooking classes and cultural exchanges with local arts troupes.
thesaigontimes
Posted by admin on under Vietnam Food and Drink, Vietnam travel News |
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 Con Dao island ’s unique local specialty is a type of nut that the islanders call mut hat bang (malabar almond jam). |
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| Despite the name (mut means jam) it’s not really a jam, it’s a nut that tastes like walnut. Vendors sell the nuts in jars along the waterfront in the evenings. There are two kinds, salted and sweet.
To make mut hat bang, the ripe Malabar almond fruits are collected after they have been eaten by birds and fallen to the ground. The fruit are dried for four or five days and then peeled and the seeds are removed. Then the seeds are fried with either salt or sugar. Like walnuts they are dark brown outside and white inside. The small nuts are quite expensive because of all the labor to prepare them and are crisp and buttery to eat.
The coastal streets of Con Dao are lined with Malabar almond trees that are all fixed with a sign to identify them.
Malabar almond season is during summer in July or August.
Mut hat bang is sold for VND45,000 per 200gram for sweet nuts and VND55,000 per 200gram for salted.
By thesaigontimes.vn
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Posted by admin on November 29, 2010 under Vietnam travel News |
VietNamNet Bridge – From December, tourists will be able to explore Phu Quoc island at their own pace in a new five-seat Kia New Morning rental car from Vietravel.
To pick up the car when you arrive at the airport, you need to reserve it with Vietravel before departing and must hold a valid driver’s license.
“Initially, we will have a 15 car rental fleet on Phu Quoc and will soon have some cars on Con Dao,” Nguyen Minh Man, the Vietravel spokesman said.
Nguyen Ngoc An, director of
Domestic Department of Fiditour, said, “We predict the number of Viet Kieu coming to Vietnam to increase late this year, so we planned tours early and encourage our customers to book as soon as possible.”
For the Christmas season, TST Tourist has Free and Easy tours to Thailand, Singapore, Brunei for US$200-400 for tourists who want a bit more flexibility on their holidays. Choose your own travel times, hotels and holiday activities, TST will help you design your own itinerary.
Vietnam Airlines will open direct flights from HCMC to Beijing (China), while Saigontourist is offering four-day tours to Beijing for US$545-US$565. Saigontourist has 50 different tours to celebrate Christmas and New Year around the globe, departing from Hanoi and HCMC.
Lua Viet Tours will have five day/four night adventure holiday to conquer Fansipan and celebrate New Year’s Eve on the roof of Indochina at VND3.7 million, departing December 29.
Source: SGT
Posted by admin on under Attractions, Vietnam Travel in the South, Vietnam travel News |
The Mekong Delta region received around 19 million visitors in 2010, up 200,000 compared to last year.
Nearly 1.5 million tourists are foreigners, up nearly 20 percent compared to last year. An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau and Can Tho lead in the number of arrivals.
Based on a tourism development project up to 2020 issued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, provinces have strengthened connections and promoted tourism through seminars and disseminating information.
Can Tho, An Giang, Kien Giang and Hau Giang will develop water, commercial and festival tourism as well as luxury sea resorts while Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang should offer tours of the southernmost areas and step up eco-tourism to visit mangrove forests, and promote cultural tourism and the festivals of the Khmer people. Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh will develop river and farm tours, homestays and visit to craft villages and historical and revolutionary sites.
Source: vovnews.vn
Posted by admin on November 27, 2010 under Vietnam Food and Drink, Vietnam Travel in the Central |
VietNamNet Bridge – Nha Trang City is well known for nice restaurants with hundreds of types of specialties. The most popular of them should be steamed dishes with a long list in the menu. They can be steamed fish rolling with rice pancakes and vegetables, steamed crab with beer, steamed squid with fresh ginger, steamed clam with lemongrass or steamed shrimp in coconut juice. However, people in the city often prefer rural dishes to the seafood specialties.
The first dish that must be mentioned is banh can. It is made of rice flour with some other ingredients depending on the guests’ taste and the locale where they come from. Different from banh can in Phan Thiet City that is often made of sea food, pork, and beef, Nha Trang’s banh can is made of eggs only. It is always interesting to observe how the cake is being baked and then taste it with special fish sauce and chopped fresh mango.
Banh canh, a kind of white rice noodle soup, is the second rural dish that attracts many eaters. It is served with cha ca or fried fish, fish sauce with chili, onions and soup made of pork.
Banh uot (steamed rice pancake) is also a popular dish. Rice flour liquid is poured on a very thin piece of cloth cover spreading over a pot. When the cake is done, it will be taken out by a bamboo stick. Some fat and green beans are added in at the cake’s centre before being served on a plate. It is eaten with sweet and sour fish sauce. Thanh Town, about 10 km from Nha Trang, is said to be a good venue for the dish.
Tourists coming to Nha Trang should also try many kinds of steamed glutinous rice with different types of beans prepared by street vendors. Sticky rice will be served in green banana leaves.
It is necessary to apply for visa before you enter the country.
Nha Trang also has many other pancake-like dishes, such as banh beo chen, a kind of rice cake made with spring onions and pork fat; and bun bo Hue, a beef noodle soup originated from Hue.
On a trip to Nha Trang City, after visiting stunning beaches, magnificent mountains and ancient pagodas, tourists should take time to taste local specialties, including rustic dishes to know more about the local food.
VietNamNet/SGT
Posted by admin on November 25, 2010 under Attractions, Vietnam Travel in the North, Vietnam travel News |
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The Ba Be Lake in the northern province of Bac Kan
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Vietnam will apply for the inscription of the Ba Be National Park on the Ramsar List of Westlands of International Importance, the government said Saturday.
A report on the government’s website said the Ministry of Natural Resources will apply for the inscription in accordance with the Ramsar Convention – an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands.
The Ba Be National Park in the northern province of Bac Kan was established in 1992, with the 500-hectare Ba Be Lake at its center. The park is home to 299 animal species and 417 plant species.
In 1995, the lake was named one of 20 in the world that needed to be protected at a global lake convention in the US. The lake is also one of the Heritage Parks of the regional bloc ASEAN, the government’s report said.
The Ramsar Convention came into force in 1975. There are now 160 contracting parties, with Vietnam joining in 1989. The Ramsar List includes 1,904 sites, known as Ramsar Sites, with a total surface of more than 186.5 million hectares.
Posted by admin on November 23, 2010 under Vietnam travel News |
Recent archaeological studies have revealed more evidence of the existence of the Oc Eo culture dating back to 2,000-2,500 years ago in the Mekong Delta Province of Ben Tre.
First traces of the ancient culture were discovered by French archaeologist Louis Malleret, who gave it the name of Oc Eo. The Oc Eo culture is believed to have formed and developed in the southern delta, largely in An Giang, from the first to the sixth century AD.
In the mid-1990s, a farmer named Huynh Van Be in Binh Thanh village, Binh Phu commune found several stone graters and axes in his garden. In 2003, a working team from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology (VIA) and the Ben Tre Museum conducted an excavation in the area and discovered more stone tools and over 13,000 pieces of ceramics of all types.
After three excavations and two exploration digs on a total area of 484.5 sq.m, the experts collected nearly 500,000 artefacts, with 99 percent being ceramics, and over 250 kilogrammes of animal and human bones as well as Linga and Yoni objects.
The excavations also revealed vestiges of an ancient village, which scientists named Giong Noi, including a ceremic-burning ground, several large kitchens and big houses. The experts believe that Giong Noi people had their own religious beliefs which might have links with the Brahmanism as seen in the worshipping of stone, tortoise, and the sacred objects of Linga and Yoni.
Recently, the VIA discovered for the first time vestiges of a big ancient architectural work in An Phong village, A Thanh commune, Mo Cay Nam district, drawing special attention of researchers and archaeologists.
VIA experts said the vestiges found in An Phong are an invaluable historical data which reveal the development of the local culture and great achievements made by ancient people here, contributing to the establishment and development of the national culture.
Posted by admin on November 22, 2010 under Attractions, Vietnam Travel in the Central, vietnam beauty |
An Hien is widely considered as one of the largest and most beautiful garden houses in Vietnam’s historical former capital of Hue. It was once the residence of a princess.
Facing the romantic Huong River, with the main house surrounded by an ample garden, An Hien boasts a perfect harmony of nature and human’s design.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, the housekeeper, said An Hien was originally the residence of the 18th princess of King Duc Duc (1852 – 1883). After that it was transferred several times to different mandarins under the Nguyen Dynasty. It is now kept by the offspring of Nguyen Dinh Chi, who bought it in 1936.
An Hien is built on an area of 4,608 sqm, with a combination of traditional Vietnamese and traditional Hue architectures.
The gate of the house has an ancient arch design. The gate roof is decorated with a tiger-face figure and stylised designs on both sides. In the middle of the gate, from the outside, under the roof is a book-shaped panel embossed in the wall. A brick board of two Chinese characters meaning An Hien is inlaid with pieces of green and white terracotta in the black background. Above the panel, there are symmetrically two bats spreading their wings and looking down the gate. Right under the book-shaped panel is a colorfully and elegantly tiger-faced figure in a semicircular shape.
An Hien Garden has been described as a fine, sharp, and unique work by many writers. In the garden, many kinds of flowers grow. There are popular kinds of flowers such as jasmine, pergularia, pomegranate, sunflower, climbing rose and indigenous roses.
Aristocratic flowers consist of all kinds of orchids and land orchids. Besides the modern roses imported from the European GauJard and Meilland companies, you can find wild tomentose roses. Particularly, the garden has a big camellia presented by a Japanese Flower Association. In addition to the flower abundance, the garden also has many precious fruit-trees yielding year-around sweet fruits, namely mangosteen, durian, Thieu litchi, and Tien Dien persimmon which is a precious and rare kind of persimmon.
An Hien Garden House is a special cultural characteristic contributing to the beauty of Hue. Entering the garden, you will have a feeling of living in a miniature universe, in a peaceful and charming world. It has an attraction which is always secret as an unfinished book.
Posted by admin on November 19, 2010 under Vietnam travel News, Vietnam's World Heritage |
Viet Nam’s rapid urbanisation during the past several years has produced many benefits, but one of the drawbacks has been the growing threat that modernisation poses to the nation’s heritage.
This month’s issue of our news magazine Outlook examines efforts to preserve the nation’s rich culture – from historical sites to centuries-old art forms.
Outlook, which goes on sale in Ha Noi, HCM City and other major centres this morning, reports that ensuring effective preservation of historically important relics and art forms faces many challenges, including a lack of funds for preservation work.
We travel to Hoi An to report on the threat of urbanisation and a booming tourism sector to the city’s old quarter, while in the Central Highlands, we find that the local gong culture is in danger of being lost as a dwindling number of musicians chose to keep their traditional art alive. We also report on successes in restoring the highly refined and unique art form of nha nhac (court music), and talk to the director of the Institute for Preservation of Monuments, Le Thanh Vinh, about recent successes in heritage preservation.
Elsewhere in this issue, we visit the sleepy village of Lo Hanh, tell the story behind Nguyen Dinh Thi’s revolutionary anthem The Hanoian and meet an English singer who has been wowing local audiences with his fluent performance of Vietnamese songs.
Readers can also catch up on what’s hot in the country’s culinary, sports and arts scenes – and check out our listings for everything from bars to embassies.
Outlook retails for VND15,000 at news-stands, major hotels and restaurants, at the head office of the Viet Nam News at 11 Tran Hung Dao Street, Ha Noi, or at our HCM City office at 120 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street.
Posted by admin on November 18, 2010 under Vietnam travel News |
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has announced that “Exotic Beaches and Islands” will be the theme of the National Tourism Year 2011.
The National Tourism Year is considered the most important aspect of the country’s tourism calendar and is intended to encourage investment in infrastructure, tourism facilities and services.
In 2011, the government’s series of organized events designed to woo tourists will focus their attentions on Phu Yen Province. Da Nang City and other provinces in the region will also participate, VNAT announced.
Major events of the National Tourism Year 2011 will include an international mountaineering tournament at Da Bia Mountain in March 2011, the Vietnam-South Korea Cultural Exchange in April, and the ASEAN Traditional Music Festival in June.
Prior to the announcement, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released a list of provinces and cities that will share the honor from 2012 to 2017.
Thua Thien-Hue will be the host in 2012, Hai Phong City in 2013, Lam Dong in 2014, Thanh Hoa in 2015, Kien Giang in 2016, and Lao Cai in 2017.
Launched in 2003, the designation has focused on cities all over the country – from Can Tho to Dien Bien. This year it focused on Hanoi to mark the city’s millennial anniversary.
