PHU QUOC island

Phú Quốc is a large tropical island off the coast of Cambodia, though is part of, and only accessible from, Vietnam.
Phu Quoc is famous for producing the best nuoc mam or fermented fish sauce in the world. Phu Quoc is also famous for its pepper. It also has some of the best unspoilt beaches in South East Asia.
Visitors from any country arriving to Phu Quoc by cruise ship no longer need a visa for stays of up to 15 days. A passport with at least 45 days' validity is still necessary.
Visitors arriving in Phu Quoc by any other means (eg. plane) are still subject to normal visa regulations.

 PHU QUOC island - Introduction by vietnamoturism.org.vn

Ba Bể lake (North East - Part 2)

Sunset over Ba Bể lake

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We arrived at the site at 3:30pm and cruised for
3 hours along Năng river and Ba Bể lake. This shot
 was taken at the end of our boat ride.

It has been exactly one week since I started my 4-day trip to visit 6 provinces in the North East of Vietnam (28 to 31 May 2012). I traveled on a tour as it was very expensive if I rented a car with driver and traveled over 1,000km. There were only 4 tourists on the tour (myself and a family from Sài Gòn), plus tour guide and driver, so there were 6 people in total and we traveled in a 7-seater car. During 4 days of the trip, we saw mountains, rivers, dangerous passes, beautiful waterfall on the Vietnam – China border, lakes, caves, and muddy roads where cars and trucks were stuck for hours, as well as rocks which were fell off from the mountains after the rains before we got there. My 4-day tour cost US$150, but I had to pay extra fees for a single room. My travel companions on the trip are well-traveled Vietnamese, so it was interesting to spend time with them.

Cruising along Năng river

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Amazing limestone karst mountains on
both sides of the river.

After visiting some famous historical sites in Tuyên Quang province, we traveled 190km to Ba Bể lake which is the largest natural lake in Vietnam. This is my second visit to the site.
I made my first trip to the lake 14 years ago (in January 1998). Ba Bể means “three lakes” and they were given names Pe Lam, Pe Lu and Pe Leng, or simply, Lake 1, Lake 2 and Lake 3. The lake is located in Bắc Kạn province, 200km north of Hanoi. There are some villages of the Tày ethnic minority people in this area. The lake has a water surface area of 500ha, and is more than 8km long, nearly 2km at its widest, and 20-35m deep. In 1995, at the world freshwater lake conference in the United States, Ba Bể lake was recognized as one of 20 special freshwater lakes in the world that should be protected.

Musk-cat meat at our dinner

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We stayed overnight in Chợ Rã town which is 16km
away from Ba Bể lake. I ate this food for the first time
(Thịt cầy hương xào lá mác mật trong bữa tối
tại thị trấn Chợ Rã, huyện Ba Bể)

We arrived at Ba Bể lake at 3:30pm and got a boat to cruise for 3 hours. The boat went along Năng river and through Puông cave. We enjoyed great view of limestone karst mountains and trees along the river. Then we walked 500m through a village to Đầu Đẳng waterfall. 14 years ago when I visited the waterfall I could stand by the waterfall for taking photos. Now it seems dangerous for tourists to go down, so there is a steel balcony where we can overlook the waterfall.

We walked back to the boat and continued cruising toward Ba Bể Lake. When we turned left to the lake, it was interesting to see two different colors of the water (red water of the river and blue water of the lake). The beautiful sunset over the lake is one of my highlights on the trip.

Our tour guide suggested us to taste local fishes after we finished the boat ride, so we sat down by the lake and enjoyed simple food while watching the sunset. A local woman baked small fishes over ashes.

A village of the Tày ethnic minority people

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On the way to Đầu Đẳng waterfall.

We left Ba Bể lake when it was dark and moved on 16km to Chợ Rã town where we stayed for a night. My impression was that the site has not been changed much in comparison with my first trip 14 years ago, and the natural landscape was not ruined by tourism. We were all glad as the weather was good and we had done the boat ride on the first day of the trip. Next day would be a very busy day for us, as we would go up north to Cao Bằng province which has a beautiful waterfall right on the Vietnam – China border line. The road is in very bad condition so it takes much time for us to get there.

Travel tip: The North East route we had done on this trip: Hanoi – Tuyên Quang (Tân Trào ATK) – Thái Nguyên – Bắc Kạn (Ba Bể lake) – Cao Bằng (Bản Giốc waterfall) – Lạng Sơn – Bắc Ninh – Hanoi. The distance for each section: Hanoi – Tuyên Quang (Tân Trào ATK) 130km, Tân Trào – Ba Bể lake 190km, Ba Bể lake – Chợ Rã town 16km, Chợ Rã town – Cao Bằng town 120km (of which 80km on Highway No. 3), Cao Bằng town – Bản Giốc waterfall 90km (road under construction), Cao Bằng town – Lạng Sơn city 130km (road under construction), Lạng Sơn city – Hanoi 150km (Highway No. 1 – good road).

You can go to Bắc Kạn or Cao Bằng by public bus along Highway No. 3. Ba Bể lake is 54km away from Bắc Kạn town. There are many guesthouses by Ba Bể lake.

Other blogs about the same trip:

Tuyên Quang (North East - Part 1)

Hồ Ba Bể - Ngày 28/5/2012

Buffaloes near the boats and Năng river

Đã tròn một tuần kể từ khi tôi bắt đầu chuyến đi thăm 6 tỉnh Đông Bắc trong tour 4 ngày (từ 28 đến 31/5/2012). Lần này, tôi đặt tour của Công ty du lịch New Star Tour. Mặc dù chỉ có 4 khách du lịch là tôi và một gia đình 3 người từ Sài Gòn, nhưng tour vẫn tổ chức đúng ngày như đã lên kế hoạch. Chúng tôi có tổng cộng là 6 người (4 khách du lịch cùng hướng dẫn viên và lái xe) nên công ty du lịch đặt xe 7 chỗ. Giá tour là 3 triệu đồng và tôi phải trả thêm phụ phí phòng đơn. Đoàn của chúng tôi đã đi hơn 1.000km trong chuyến đi này. Trên đường đi, chúng tôi nhìn thấy phong cảnh núi rừng, những con đường đèo với phong cảnh rất đẹp, những dòng sông, hồ nước, thác Bàn Giốc đẹp nhất Việt Nam và các hang động.

Our boat is going into Puông cave

Chúng tôi cũng đi qua những đoạn đường rất xấu, nơi xe ô tô và xe tải bị sa lầy trong bùn đất và ách tắc hàng tiếng đồng hồ, cũng như những tảng đá lớn rơi từ trên núi xuống bên đường sau những trận mưa trước khi xe chúng tôi đến. Những người bạn đồng hành của tôi trong chuyến đi này là những người Việt Nam yêu thích du lịch và đã đi đến nhiều nơi, nên tôi đã có một khoảng thời gian thú vị khi đi cùng họ.

Sau khi thăm một số di tích lịch sử tại Tuyên Quang, chùng tôi đi 190km đến thăm Hồ Ba Bể của tỉnh Bắc Kạn. Đây là hồ tự nhiên lớn nhất Việt Nam. Sau 3 tiếng rưỡi thì chúng tôi tới nơi. Đây là lần thứ hai tôi đến thăm Hồ Ba Bể.

Đầu Đẳng waterfall

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Here I am again. 14 years ago I was here, but at
 the time I took a photo just by the waterfall. Now it's
 dangerous to walk down, so tourists only
 stand here for taking photos.

Tôi đến đây lần đầu tiên vào tháng 1 năm 1998, tức là cách đây 14 năm. Ba Bể có nghĩa là ba hồ và được đặt tên là Pé Lầm, Pé Lù và Pé Lèng, hay đơn giản hơn là Hồ 1, Hồ 2 và Hồ 3. Hồ Ba Bể nằm cách Hà Nội 200km về hướng bắc. Tại đây có một số bản của người dân tộc Tày. Hồ có diện tích mặt nước là 500ha, dài hơn 8km và sâu từ 20-35m. Vào năm 1995, Hồ Ba Bể được công nhận là một trong 20 hồ nước ngọt đặc biệt trên thế giới cần được bảo vệ.

Chúng tôi đến Hồ Ba Bể vào lúc 3 giờ rưỡi chiều và đi thuyền trong 3 giờ đồng hồ. Thuyền của chúng tôi đi dọc theo dòng sông Năng và xuyên qua Động Puông. 14 năm trước tôi được leo lên bãi đất bên trong động, nhưng hiện nay thì các thuyền chỉ đi qua đây. Dọc hai bên bờ sông là những dãy núi đá vôi và rất nhiều cây với hình dạng uốn cong xuống dòng nước. Sau đó, chúng tôi lên bờ và đi bộ 500m qua một bản của người dân tộc Tày và đến thăm thác Đầu Đẳng. 14 năm trước khi tôi tới thăm thác nước này, tôi đã chụp ảnh ở ngay bên cạnh thác. Hiện nay, người ta làm một ban công bằng sắt tại đây và khách du lịch đứng chụp ảnh từ trên cao. Nếu đi xuống phía dưới thì có thể nguy hiểm, mặc dù vẫn có một con đường nhỏ để leo xuống những tảng đá lớn ở phía dưới.

We started our boat ride from here

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We just arrived at the site and were going to
 take a small boat and cruise along the river.

Chúng tôi quay trở lại thuyền và đi tiếp về hướng Hồ Ba Bể. Khi thuyền chuyển từ sông Năng sang khu vực hồ, nước sông màu đỏ lẫn với màu xanh của hồ và sau đó chỉ có màu nước xanh biếc. Bức ảnh chụp hoàng hôn trên Hồ Ba Bể ở khu vực đảo Bà Góa được tôi chọn làm bức ảnh đầu tiên trong Blog này.

Cậu hướng dẫn viên dẫn chúng tôi đến một quán nhỏ bên hồ sau khi chúng tôi lên bờ. Từ đây nhìn ra hồ phong cảnh rất đẹp. Chị chủ quán là người dân tộc Tày nướng mấy con cá nhỏ trên tro bếp. Chúng tôi ngồi ngắm hoàng hôn, ăn cá nướng, trứng luộc và uống rượu. Sau đó, cả đoàn lên xe đi 16km về thị trấn Chợ Rã, nơi chúng tôi ăn tối và nghỉ qua đêm. 14 năm tôi mới quay trở lại Hồ Ba Bể và thấy cảnh vật vẫn như vậy. Thật tốt vì du lịch đã không làm hỏng phong cảnh hoang sơ ở đây. Mọi người đều hài lòng vì thời tiết hôm nay rất tốt và chúng tôi đã kịp hoàn thành
chuyến thăm Hồ Ba Bể ngay trong ngày đầu tiên của hành trình. Ngày mai sẽ là một ngày thật dài vì chúng tôi sẽ đến thăm thác Bản Giốc và đường đi rất xấu nên sẽ mất rất nhiều thời gian cho việc di chuyển.

Inside Puông cave

Ghi chú: Cung đường Đông Bắc mà chúng tôi đã đi trong chuyến đi 4 ngày như sau: Hà Nội – Tuyên Quang (ATK Tân Trào) – Thái Nguyên – Bắc Kạn (Hồ Ba Bể) – Cao Bằng (Thác Bản Giốc) – Lạng Sơn – Bắc Ninh – Hà Nội. Khoảng cách từng đoạn như sau: Hà Nội – Tuyên Quang (ATK Tân Trào) 130km, Tân Trào – Hồ Ba Bể 190km, Hồ Ba Bể – thị trấn Chợ Rã 16km, thị trấn Chợ Rã – thị xã Cao Bằng 120km (trong đó có 80km đi theo Quốc lộ 3), thị xã Cao Bằng – Thác Bản Giốc 90km (khoảng 30km đường rất xấu), thị xã Cao Bằng – thành phố Lạng Sơn 130km (đoạn qua huyện Tràng Định đường rất xấu), thành phố Lạng Sơn – Hà Nội 150km.

Cruising along Năng river

Hồ Ba Bể cách thị xã Bắc Kạn 54km. Có nhiều nhà nghỉ ở khu vực bến thuyền Hồ Ba Bể, tuy nhiên khi chúng tôi đi ngang qua đó vào lúc chiều tối thì thấy rất vắng vẻ và khá buồn. Thị trấn Chợ Rã thuộc huyện Ba Bể tuy nhỏ, nhưng có vẻ đông vui hơn một chút. Trước đây đường Quốc lộ số 3 rất hẹp, nhưng hiện giờ thì đường rộng và rất tốt, nên có thể dễ dàng lên Bắc Kạn và Cao Bằng.

Hanoi_girl

Source: http://www.travelblog.org

Folk Paintings

Folk paintings are a combination of traditional cultural values with ancient artistic methods that have been created through the labour of past generations. There are two types of Vietnamese folk paintings, Tet (Lunar New Year Festival) paintings and worshipping paintings.

The Vietnamese believe in ancestor worship and the deification of natural phenomena, both of which are reflected in the paintings.
Due to their historical popularity, the folk paintings were produced in large quantities. This high demand was met through the use of the woodblock carving printing technique, which has been practiced by the Vietnamese for many centuries. During the Ly Dynasty (12th century), there were many families who specialized in woodblock carving. By the end of the Tran Dynasty, they were also printing paper money. At the beginning of the Le So Dynasty, the Chinese technique of carving printing boards was adopted and improved. The History Museum and the Fine Art Museum in Hanoi still keep old printing boards as archives.

During the Mac Dynasty (16th century), folk paintings developed quite extensively and were popular among the aristocracy in Thang Long. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the art of folk painting was stable and highly developed.

Depending on artistic style, drawing-printing technique, and the materials used, folk paintings are classified into painting trends according to the name of their place of production.

Each style of painting is different. However, in all the styles, shapes are created based on the concept of don tuyen binh do (single line-simple designs), which uses lines to bend the coloured shapes and to make a border for the picture. Another method used is thuan tay hay mat (easy to draw and to see). With this design form, the folk paintings do not depend on the rules of perspective. The deities are large and take the upper positions, while the ordinary people are drawn on a smaller scale and the size of the animals and the natural scenery depicted depends on their relationship to the sentiment or story being expressed. These unique characteristics make the paintings profoundly impressive.

As a result of cultural exchange, Vietnamese folk paintings have retained and developed certain traditional aspects. As well, the paintings have been influenced and enriched by the genius of other painting styles. One exception is Dong Ho paintings, which continue to exist unchanged against the challenges of time.

Non Nuoc Beach given a Name among World’s Beautiful Beaches

Known as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Non Nuoc Beach with clear blue water and white sand runs for 5 km against Danang Marble Mountains. Tourists in Vietnam travel are mostly attracted to the beach, aiming to bathe and enjoy the seafood. This fine sandy beach with sunshine all four seasons makes it suitable for tourism in all year round.

Danang has a coastline of 30 kilometres long, famous for many beautiful seashores stretching from the north to the south such as My Khe, Thanh Binh, Tien Sa, Son Tra and so on. Non Nuoc Beach also pertains to Da Nang Sea and has been voted as one of the most beautiful and attracting beaches of the planet, 2005, according to Forbes, the leading magazine of America. This beach has gentle slope, mild waves, and purely blue sea water during the four seasons. The unpolluted water source here has attracted a number of tourists coming to bathe, enjoy local special sea foods and take a rest for weekends. The beach Non Nước is also a place that exist precious and rare seaweeds such as gracilarias "yellow thread" and glacilaria "screw" that have high value of exporting.

With green water and white sand, Non Nuoc Beach stretches five kilometers along the shore of Hoa Hai Ward at the foot of Ngu Hanh Son (The Marble Mountains). The beach is famous for its seaweed, which reaches exportation standards. Many five-star hotels were built in Non Nuoc to accommodate the domestic and foreign tourists in Vietnam travel. Together with its feature of wave degree, climate, weather and salinity, Non Nuoc Beach is suitable for water sports, especially surfing. In 1993, there took place an international champion with the participation of nearly 40 athletes from many countries around the world.

Along the beach, on the white sand is a forest of age-old casuarinas which is shady, green and is waving in the whistling wind. This is an ideal place for resting and camping. When the darkness falls and the moon rises, you can set yourself free on smooth benches along the beach to listen to melodious sounds of the waves and enjoy the occult space.

The beach is managed by the Non Nuoc Tourism Company that has  three hotels with more than 100 rooms on the beach. They provide entertainment services including photographs for souvenir, handicraft shops, massage, restaurant, tennis and some gymnastics. A chain of tourism resorts is planned to cater for international tourists including seaside hotels and restaurants, especially an international standard golf court.

Besides convalescence and bathing, tourists to Non Nuoc Beach can also combine their journeys with traveling the relic Marble Mountains, which boast some ancient pagodas and sacred monumental caves go around fine art stone handicraft villages right at the foot of the Mountains or go boating on Co Co River (Stork Neck River) to enjoy peacefulness of the Marble Mountains.

If you, foreign tourists, are making tours to Vietnam, I myself, a Vietnamese, advise you to come to Danang, a city of central Vietnam where there is Non Nuoc beach. It's an ideal destination in Vietnam travel that you should not ignore.

Source:vietnamtourism.org.vn

VN warns China on Hoang Sa stamps

The Department of Post under the Ministry of Information and Communications on Wednesday officially objected to China's Post Office issuing stamps that violate Viet Nam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago.

In May this year, the Chinese State Post Bureau (China Post) issued a set of six stamps featuring tourist attractions, one of which showed images of the islands that form Viet Nam's Hoang Sa Archipelago.
Viet Nam's Postal Department said that Viet Nam has sufficient legal foundation and evidences to claim sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands.
This act by China's postal service does not conform with Article 8 of the Universal Postal Union's Convention, said the department.
It demanded that China respects the truth and stops producing the stamps, envelopes and postcards which were printed with images of the islands in the Hoang Sa Archipelago.
Actions like this should be avoided to help build ties between both postal sectors and countries, said the department.

Hoa Binh

Hoa Binh province is known to be an origin of “Hoa Binh culture” - the cradle of Vietnamese ancient culture. Besides, tourist and humanity resources are diversified, plentiful and attractive with 184 historic sites, cultural sites and natural landscapes together with unparalleled cultures of ethnic groups like Muong, Thai, Mong, Tay and Dao expressed in building architectures, beliefs, customs and traditional festivals.

Hoa Binh is situated in the North west of Vietnam. It is about 75 km of the capital city of Ha noi. This is ancient land - The place where Viet ethnic group used to live thousands of years ago. Here still concentrate many relics and resorts of the worldwide famous Hoa Binh civilization.

Hoa Binh has great potential of tourism that is endowed with many famous landscapes and scenic beauties with gigantic chains of mountains stretching to the horizon, fanciful grottoes, tortuous and rocky stream and impressive waterfalls that look like a fairly land on earth.

Hoa Binh is a multi national land. Apart from Viet group there are 5 ethnic minorities: Muong, Thai ,Tay, Dzao, H'Mong living together. Thanks to the rich diverse tourist potential, together with more than 40 years of experience, Hoa Binh Tourism has become an attractive and reliable address for many tourist groups, both domestic and overseas.

Source: Hoa Binh Tourism

Long cake emits scent of glutinous rice

Different from other kinds of glutinous rice cake, Hai Duong’s Long cake has a light flavor, sweet-smelling, buttery and hot taste of puffed glutinous rice, ginger, roasted peanuts and sugar. The product of An Phu and An Sinh upland communes, though not widely known, is unforgettable for those who have tried it.

It takes a lot of time and energy to make Long cake. And the cake can hardly be made by just one person. Before casting in the mould, some ingredients need to be carefully prepared ahead of time. Glutinous rice is puffed and crushed into tiny fines; ginger is scraped, washed, ground and cooked with sugar and boiled water; peanuts are roasted and the skins removed.

Nguyen Thi Van, an An Sinh villager over 70 years old, remembered that her ancestors did not have a machine to make the puffed rice as we do now. They used to roast glutinous rice carefully until fully popped and used a large, flat basket to remove the chaff.

In the past, people didn’t cook with black sugar (unrefined cane sugar), not granulated white sugar as at present. Thus, they had to skim off scum on the surface of the syrup while cooking, and the finished cake used to have black colour.

Boiled ginger syrup is poured into the basin containing mixture of peanuts and crushed puffed rice. All things then have to be stirred continuously and steadily until well kneaded. This step is very difficult but important. If you do not stir steadily and continuously, or if you pour too much or not enough ginger syrup, the mixture will be either dry or pasty, making it difficult to cast. Consequently, the finished cake will be so tough that you can hardly cut it into small pieces without a cleaver.

After that the mixture is cast in a big steel mould, and cake makers have to pestle continuously until the mixture is well kneaded and becomes a solid block. At last, finished cake is removed from the mould, covered with puffed glutinous rice flourfor anti-stickiness, let cool and packed.

Long cake made in An Phu is characterized by ground powder from puffed glutinous rice. Thanks to this fine powder, the Long cake of An Phu village is softer and not as thick as Long cake of An Sinh village. Besides, cake makers here also put in special ingredients, such as: sesame, cardamom, cinnamon bark, star anise, sweetened coconut and sweetened winter melon.

Based on each family’s taste, people can put in more or less ingredients. Thus, it is hard to say which kind of Long cake, An Sinh or An Phu, is better. Long cake can be made at any time of the year, as a simple gift or snack food to offer guests together with a cup of warm tea.

In the past, Long cake in An Sinh and An Phu communes was so popular that there were even cake makers for hire. However, due to the sophistication and elaboration in making this cake, fewer families in An Phu and An Sinh, Kim Mon district, Hai Duong province, still make it now.

Source:QDND