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Vietnam Open Tour News & EventsMONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER, 2009 |
 Khmer people cheer Sene Dolta Festival
This year’s Sene Dolta Festival is being held from the 30th day of the 8th lunar month to the second day of the 9th lunar month, which falls on September 18-20. The event is one of the largest annual festivals of the Khmer people, besides the Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) and the Ooc Oom Bok - a festival to thank the Moon for a good harvest. Khmer people will gather together to pay tributes to their ancestors, and enjoy traditional songs and dance performances and other delightful activities after a hard working year. To mark the occasion, a delegation led by Son Song Son, the Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for the South-Western Region, visited Khmer people and monks in Vung Liem and Tra On districts, the southern province of Vinh Long on September 17. He presented gifts to monks and nuns at the Hanh Phuc Tang and Gia Kiet pagodas and urged local authorities to make efforts to improve local people’s living conditions and open more classes to teach the Khmer language to ethnic minority. On the same day, leaders of Soc Trang and An Giang provinces visited and handed over gifts to heroic mothers, families which have great contributions to the country, and over 150 Khmer pagodas in the provinces. The majority of the Khmer population are living in the southwestern region, which has 453 Khmer pagodas. VietNamNet/VNA Vietnam to survey South Central tourist routes The country’s tourism authority and travel companies plan to survey tourist sites in the south central region of the country to combine with local tourism departments to develop products for the region, a tourism official said. Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, told the Daily that the travel department would lead the trip. Along with activities to survey tourist routes there, participants will join a tourism conference to seek cooperation to develop tourism for localities in the region. This is one of the most important survey trips organized by the country’s tourism body this year. The tourism agency hopes that it will help the tourism sector in the important region to make new tourism products. Last month, in a meeting in HCMC, Tuan said that the region, especially HCMC, was the driving force for the development of the country’s tourism. For the reason, the authority needs to spend more effort to develop tourism products there. “We (the department) and travel companies will join hands to make some survey trips and seminars to develop products in the South Central and the Mekong Delta regions,” Tuan said in the meeting. A meeting on river tourism development will held in HCMC later this year. According to a representative of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, over 1.89 million international tourists visited Vietnam during the first half of the year, around 1.4 million to provinces and cities in the South, down 10% year-on-year. Tuan said the tourism agency planned to make one more trip to survey tourist sites as well as a seminar for developing tourism in the Central Highlands. “The tourist road named the World Heritage Road in the central region is up and running so we need to develop similar attractive products to woo more visitors,” he said. VietNamNet/SGT Quang Nam to host international ultramarathon
They have been selected by the Hong Kong-based Action Asia Events. “If rain makes the roads slippery, we will create steps, pave the way using bamboo, and put up signs for the runners so that they don’t lose their way” Ho Tan Cuong, deputy director of the province’s Department of culture, Sport and Tourism, one of the organizers, said. “Hanging and floating bridges will also be built. We can guarantee that the athletes will be safe in case of bad weather” Cao Tri Dung, deputy general director of Vietnam Tourism Joint Stock Company (Vitours), another of the organizers, said. The other organizers are Vietnam Airlines and the Da Nang city Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism. The runners would have to cover 30 km a day, spending the night in tents along the route when they would also take part in campfires and enjoy traditional dancing and gong music by ethnic groups among other activities, the chairman of the Tay Giang District People’s Committee, Briu Liec, said. Some adventure events have been organized in the past in the central region by foreign agencies – like the 25km sea-crossing from Hoi An to Cu Lao Cham Island, held by a Japanese travel firm in 2005. Other events like crossing the Truong Giang River in Quang Nam Province, scaling the Hai Van Mountain, and paragliding down Ba Na mountain in Da Nang cannot be implemented due to various reasons. VietNamNet/SGGP/Tien Phong Touch of history in Vung Tau The hydrofoil from HCMC to Vung Tau gradually reduces speed. I exit through the side door of the hydrofoil and feel at ease with the difference between the windy and sunny world of the coastal city of Vung Tau and the cramped world inside the hydrofoil.
A giant cannon under the statue of Jesus on Small Mountain in Vung Tau City. Vung Tau has two mountains. Large Mountain, also called Nui Lon, is in the north of the city and has a fortress that was built in 1788 during the Nguyen dynasty to control the sea. Small Mountain, also called Nui Nho, is in the south of the city and has an ancient fortress built by the French colony in the late nineteenth century. Now, I do not want to mention the fascinating experience of bathing in the cool water, playing with the waves or lying on the smooth sand beaches, but I do want to share a moving emotion I felt when I stood before the 23 giant cannons. Perhaps they are filled with the blood and tears of soldiers. You can imagine the ragged fellows bending their backs under the sun with pains of being whipped to encourage them to move the guns which weight 15-30 tons each to the curvy mountain tops at a height of 90 meters above level sea. Eleven guns on Small Mountain are divided into three groups which are about 300 meters apart. The first group is located on the top of Nghinh Phong Cape at a height of 136 meters above sea level and the second includes five guns and is located near a solid underground hideout. The final group includes three guns that are linked together with a communications trench and an underground hideout. Today, it is easy to reach the site. Tourists can hire a car or take a taxi from the hydrofoil station on Ha Long street to Nghinh Phong Cape. After conquering some hundreds of stone steps, tourists can reach Small Mountain where the giant cannons are still preserved as historical relics, lying under the rain and the sunlight. Coming to Small Mountain, tourists can also enjoy the most notable monument in the city, a large statue of Jesus. It was completed in the early 1970s at a height of 32 meters and with two outstretched arms spanning 18.4 meters. It is considered among the tallest statues of Jesus in Asia that has drawed people from around the country. VietNamNet/SGT Emerald Isle
Phu Quoc Island 50 kilometers from the Vietnamese mainland and a 50-minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City is a green paradise that seems to float in the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Thailand. The island is becoming well known for its stunning beaches, untouched natural environment, scuba diving and snorkeling, the easy-going atmosphere, and the friendly locals. Despite the economic downturn, the island has attracted some 200,000 tourists in the first eight months, making an increase of 27.5 percent compared to last year’s figure “In one day, visitors can experience the Vietnamese way of life at the local market in the morning, relax on a remote and stunning beach in the afternoon, enjoy drinks and a delicious dinner at one of the restaurants, and stay at any of the variety of hotels and resorts,” says Tran Thai, a tour guide with the Diem Hoan My Company. Despite the economic downturn, 150,000 Vietnamese and 50,000 foreign tourists have visited Phu Quoc since the beginning of the year, up more than a quarter on 2008, according to Kien Giang Province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The peak season is from November to March. The Vietnamese government has drawn up a plan for developing Phu Quoc into a major international destination by 2020, when the number of visitors will range from two to three million annually and contain a greater proportion of foreigners if everything goes to plan. The island is blessed with more than 37,000 hectares of virgin forest, white sandy beaches, coral gardens, and wildlife in abundance, so its tourist potential is easy to see. Phu Quoc National Park covers more than half of the island and is well worth a visit. Reported by Hoang Kien The park takes up most of the island’s northern half and also has isolated pockets elsewhere. Its main boundary tracks the coastline but goes around the villages of Ganh Dau, Rach Vem and Cua Can. At 603 meters above sea level, the highest point is Mount Chua. Plans are afoot to build a walking track to the summit, according to the park’s director, Pham Quang Binh. The park contains a number of watercourses that flow in the wet season. The most sizable is Rach Cua Can, which flows to the western shore and empties into the Gulf of Thailand close by the village of Cua Can. Previously a Natural Protected Area and Nature Reserve, the bigger national park covering 31,422 hectares of land and gazetted by the central government in 2001. It includes 8,603 hectares of strictly protected area, 22,603 hectares of rejuvenation zones and 33 hectares for administration and services. The protected marine zones are yet to be finalized. VietNamNet/Thanh Nien Fashion designers shine this season
model poses for a photo in an outfit by Do Manh Cuong, a graduate of the Ecole Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. One up-and-coming name, N&M, rose to fame after opening its flagship store on the city’s Dong Khoi Street, a beautiful, historic street that attracts top fashion names, including Louis Vuitton and Versace. The shop offers ready-to-wear designs for male and females of 20 to 40 years of age, and uses quality satin, linen, khaki and jersey. N&M products offer a combination of traditional Vietnamese and modern American styles. Although the designs are high quality and trendy, the prices are reasonable, ranging from VND300,000 (US$17) to more than VND800,000, which makes them popular with young professional women. "We’re sure that we can take the lead in setting new trends in the local market," said Nguyen Huu Phung, founder of Viet Fashion House, which owns the brand N&M. Phung opened its first store late last year, and now has 20 shops under the name N&M scattered across the country. Dozens of new brandnames from local fashion houses and young designers such as Ivy, Eva de Eva, Alcado, Nem and NinoMax have expanded their business in a market where customers often prefer foreign names. Eva de Eva’s managing board said its profit tripled in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period last year. In a recent interview with Ha Noi-based fashion magazine Dep (Beauty), young designer Do Manh Cuong said that his goal was to create styles with quality materials because the country’s fashion industry should respond to customer demand. "My clothes are expensive but people are willing to pay because they appreciate the concepts in my garments," said Cuong, who turned down opportunities in France to work in his homeland. A graduate of the Ecole Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, Cuong loves creating elegant and eye-catching articles for his collections. His designs dazzle customers’ eyes at the first look. Cuong played a role in developing Mattana, a brandname for the male-owned Nha Be Garment Company, one of the country’s leading State-owned garment companies involved in fashion design. He now owns a large store on Suong Nguyet Anh Street in HCM City that provides customers with ready-to-wear and haute couture designs under the name DMC. Most items cost VND1 million and over. His colleague, Ha Truong, also prospered this year by issuing quality collections made of Vietnamese materials through her brandname Mirror Mirror. There is severe competition for foreign and Vietnamese designers, but "I have my own niche," said Ha, adding that her profit is high enough now to fund her own business. Her latest collection entitled As I am will be presented at Dep Fashion Show— this year’s biggest catwalk show organised by Dep magazine in HCM City next week. Veteran designers like Minh Hanh and Minh Khoa say they dream of expanding abroad. Their success has encouraged young people, particularly women, to wear Vietnamese-made products. VietNamNet/VNS News for Saturday 19 September, 2009
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