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Vietnam Open Tour News & EventsTUESDAY 19 JANUARY, 2010 |
 Ba Ho - a world of primitiveness About 25 kilometers north of the central coast city of
From Nha Trang on Ba Ho is primitive with its tortuous soil paths, grass covers and green trees drooping down to the rock bedded streams. The romance of nature makes travelers forget daily worries. The interesting thing at Ba Ho is that tourists can step over the rocks to get to the banks. The place is perfect for a picnic. Under the glistening sunlight, tourist can relax in the cool water. For young people, relaxing in the water is not enough. With a stick and slow careful steps up the path heading to the peak, tourists can take a panorama of the three lakes. In the immense streams, tourists can swim to feel the pure, clear water. VietNamNet/SGT
Wild Beach Resort & Spa to welcome lovers This year Valentine’s Day is also the first day of
When coming there, couples will be welcomed with drinks and, relax with 20-minute face or body massage, and enjoy a set menu dinner on the beach or by the pool with a bottle of wine. Moreover, you can go trekking in local mountains and join beach activities, read books or watching movies everyday. Located by the sea in The package which starts from January 20 to March 20 costs US$375 per couple. For further information or bookings, guests can call 058-3622-694 or email at info@wildbeachresort.com VietNamNet/SGT
The beauty of Da River Shiny cliffs like giant mirrors, stone blocks in strange shapes and waterfalls with odd names are all part of the magic of Da River. The Da River is 983km long, with 543km of it in With its long slope and powerful flow, experts list the Da River among the fiercest rivers in Dan Tri introduces the unique, wild and gigantic beauty of the Da River.
VietNamNet/Dan Tri
Plum flowers blossom early due to the abnormal weather Plum flowers in Bac Ha, Lao Cai province, have blossomed nearly one month before the In the last two weeks, Villages in Bac Ha have become covered in the white colored plum flowers. Travelers are flocking to Bac Ha to admire the blooms ahead of the usual Tet schedule. However, weather experts, believe it is not a positive sign but instead a worrying signal of abnormal weather changes. Experts said that between now and the lunar New Year (February 2010), the Early plum blossoms in Bac Ha:
VietNamNet/Dan Tri
Into the jungle Duc Hanh boats along the Giang river into the heart of Pu
Who are the Dan Lai? With a population of around 1,000 located in Pu Mat National Park in Nghe An province, the Dan Lai are one of the country’s more mysterious hill tribes. Not one of the official 54 ethnic groups residing in “We discovered the tribe in 1985 while patrolling the forest and border,” says Colonel Hoang Anh Thang from Nghe An province’s Border Patrol. “They call themselves Dan Lai as they are a hybrid of many tribes but not really similar to any of the other ethnic minorities.” The “Dan” is in reference to the village Dan Nhiem, a famous village in Nghe An province, where the Dan Lai claim to hail from originally; “Lai” means hybrid. Twenty-five years ago there were 3,000 Dan Lai but numbers have dwindled. The Dan Lai tribe can be found in Bung and Co Phat villages spread amongst 176 stilt houses. To get there you have to hire a boat and go upstream along the The low thatch-roofed houses of the Dan Lai people are protected from the elements in a dense forest. I’m happy to escape the boat and take cover under the trees as we trek towards the villages. In this part of the country, during the day the sun is scorching hot, but as night falls, suddenly it is cold. The villages only have rather feeble electric lights, which run on small water-powered generators. I’m introduced to La Van Quyet, the village patriarch. He tells me most of the Dan Lai belongs to the La clan as consanguineous marriages are so common. We take a tour of the village. The houses are small and rudimentary. There are no beds, mats, mosquito nets, tables or chairs. There is only a fire in the centre of each house. I notice that a few villagers are sleeping in a near foetal position. Both old people and young grasp their knees or use a bamboo stick to prop up their head. “The people here only lie down when they die, so sleeping on a bed is taboo,” explains Quyet. “Generation to generation, we have slept sitting up and given birth sitting up,” he continues. “Babies are often dipped in the According to Quyet there are many ways to sleep. Some sit on their knees or holding their own hands. Some use a bamboo stick to prop up their head. Others use a sling or a chock to support their neck while they sleep. “The way we sleep decides the existence of the tribe,” says Quyet mysteriously. But there are also more practical sounding sleeping habits. “We live in severe weather conditions in the midst of dangerous forest full of wild animals,” says Quyet. “The fire keeps us warm and keeps animals away, too.” When I ask where the Dan Lai come from, Quyet answers by saying: “Our forefather may be Kinh ( He tells us a story about a family from Nghe An in ancient times who were oppressed by a cruel Land God. He forced the family to find 100 golden bamboo trees and a magic boat. The request was impossible to fulfil. But the Land God threatened to kill the family if they failed. The family searched high and low but in the end they decided to was better to run and so they fled deep into the forest where they would not be found. Looking at the villagers sleeping while hunkered down, it’s as if they’ve ready to jump up and run, as if they still think the Land God might be coming. VietNamNet/Timeout
Dalat flowering on It was Dr. Alexandre Yersin who first put Dalat on the map. Yersin departed the port of
Despite the precipitous mile-high slopes, Dalat was established by 1912 and has pretty much continued to serve its initial purpose ever since. With cascading waterfalls, rolling mountains and a year-round cool climate, the city was naturally endowed and attractive to tourists. The area was also blessed with stunning biodiversity with wild flowers and cherry blossom trees lining the streets. Wealthy French émigrés built vacation homes in Dalat, which remain standing today giving the city a distinctly Mediterranean feel. The photographer Dang Van Thong remembers in 1947 how Dalat was still in a relatively “primitive form”. “The population was sparse and pine forests were thick and endless. The literati described it as a ‘city in a forest and a forest in a city’. Even in the late 1980s, Dalat’s landscape was still poetic and dreamlike,” says Thong. Today there are now top class golf courses and luxurious resorts catering for tourists, who can fly into Dalat’s Lien Khuong airport. But the city still knows which side its bread is buttered on. People flock here for the crisp, cool mountain air and the stunning views. Dalat has also quite literally blossomed into the “Flower capital of The annual Dalat Flower Festival is a chance to celebrate the city’s natural beauty while showcasing the locality’s prized products: flowers, wine and coffee. It’s also a party. This year there was a festival within a festival: the Dalat Wine Festival offered guests 5,500 litres of Vietnamese, Old World and Over 60,000 tourists attended the week-long event. Visitors could last week marvel at some spectacular floral arrangements: a 3,200sqm-flower arrangement made by Lam Dong Flower Association’s 20 member companies and 6,000 tulips provided by Viet Dang Company at Xuan Huong Lake; a chrysanthemum-tiger made by Agrivina Dalat Hasfarm Company; 100 peach trees provided by Dalat Peach Flower Valley on Ba Huyen Thanh Quan street; flowers and ornamental plants associations from Holland, South Korea, China and There were also several records set to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi at the flower festival with a giant flower vase titled VietNamNet/Timeout
Reflecting on life The water surface is so still you can see the veins of the leaves of the trees above reflected in it.
Drive 30km from the ancient citadel Hue, take a right turn after Truoi Bridge in Phu Loc District, then go 10km on a road bound on both sides by bamboo to reach the lake. The banks of the two-hectare lake touch the feet of four mountains. The mountains, which are foothills on the northern side of Bach Ma (White Horse) Mountain Range, are covered by primary forest. Bach Ma, reaches 1,444m above sea level and is slightly cooler than Da Lat City in the Central Highlands. The French started building their resort villas in Bach Ma since 1925. The mountains now serve as a tourism site and a nature reserve – known as Bach Ma National Park, famous for its amazing white clouds that look like horses on the mountain peaks all year round.
Le says the lake’s crystal clear water is thanks to the mountain streams, which feed it. "The water is extremely cool as well," the 56-year-old boat-woman says. Water from the lake now supplies an adjacent reservoir in the district’s Loc Hoa Commune that supplies water for households and farming. To control the water level in the reservoir a unique dam with a tower built in the Nguyen dynasty style has been constructed at the lake mouth. "I have never seen any kind of water in my hometown as clear as in this lake and the water is really cool," says Nguyen Hong Linh, a Because the lake supplies the reservoir, residents hope it will stay clean forever.
"Tourists often want a tour to take photographs," Le says. There is another service on the lake banks – a hat renting service for VND3,000 per hat or VND7,000 to buy. The seller is quite faithful and friendly. Pagoda under cloud A pagoda on top of one of the mountains is silhouetted against the sky. Truc Lam Bach Ma is the nation’s fourth Zen monastery belonging to the Vietnamese Buddhist zen sect. It was built only last year and the other the ones are in Quang Ninh Province’s Yen Tu, Vinh Phuc Province’s Tay Thien and Da Lat City’s Phuong Hoang mountains. It has traditional pagoda gates, bell towers and halls for Buddhist practice. It is an amazing experience to climb the 173 stairs to its gates. In Buddhist theory, one of the ways to see Buddha or to be zen is to clear the mind. Climbing up the stairs, while keeping count of the number of steps and breaths, blanks your mind. Amazingly there are no thoughts during the climb. The lake is also used as a tool for Buddhist practice. When you travel on it, thanks to its beauty, transparency and peace, you take light breaths and make gentle movements to not disturb the water surface. That’s a meditative practice in Buddhist theory. Buddhists consider the lake as a place to wash the guilt from their body before seeing Buddha. Looking back at the boat from the pagoda gates before going back down the stairs, one can see the sitting Buddha on a tree covered hill jutting into the lake. The Buddha, who is a welcome to the pagoda, looks at peace in nature. Not far from Hue City and Lang Co Beach Tourism Zone, Truoi Lake and its Zen monastery are a reminder of Hue’s poetry and its Buddhist tradition. VietNamNet/Viet Nam News
New feelings at My Son Sanctuary More than once someone has asked me, “You’ve visited the My Son Sanctuary many times, have you seen the ancient Cham tower complex has something new?” Surprised and embarrassed, I see the question is interesting, so I make a decision to visit My Son again to find something new at the complex.
At the time, there was a tourist group from Japan who were enchanted to the point of being motionless and silent by the legendary space at the tower worshipping the goddess Ganesa. Passionately contemplating the towers sinking down to the darkness, they accidentally missed the moment of harmony between This time, I recognized a newer My Son. Moreover, in the moments between sunset and night, the entire valley was swept by soft breezes and gentle light as the steps of a goddess drifting away. Another time I visited My Son at night. Under the moonlight, the towers seem to be more illusory yet more striking in the darkness. Separated towers seem to join together with groups of towers. At night, there seems to be no limit of space. The valley looks like an installation One morning I woke up with My Son under the glistening and cozy sunlight shining on the legendary valley. The shadows of the towers stretch down and pile up on each other, covering the mossy black rocks. In the morning, My Son looks younger in its tranquility. The My Son Sanctuary, located in the central province of Quang Nam, is famous as a complex of religious monuments of the Cham people. The Chams erected these monumental towers of baked brick and sandstone on square or rectangular foundations. The base represents the world of humans, the tower body represents the world of spirits and the tower head (typically lotus shaped) the realm between the two worlds. The builders of My Son derived their cultural and spiritual influences almost exclusively from India in the form of the trinity of Brahma, The site has been recognized as a VietNamNet/SGT
Discovering traditional martial arts through tours A new kind of tour to discover Vietnam’s traditional martial arts has recently been introduced to visitors.
Joining this tour, visitors will have a chance to visit some martial art clubs such as Y Vo Thien Phuc and Bao Long and the cradle of vovinam in Huu Bang, Thanh That district. Not only can visitors make a tour to martial art clubs, they can also go to see some of the Hanoi’s places of interest such as Bach Ma (White Horse) Temple, Quan Chuong Gate, the historical house at 87 Ma May street. Martial art has been considered as a special During a two-day tour, visitors can have a chance to learn the culture of the martial arts as well as the process of getting access to and Vietnamise the martial arts from outside world. They will also hear stories about famous martial artists and witness special martial arts performances. One of the destinations in the tour is Y Vo Thien Phuc (Thien Phuc Medicated Martial Arts) club which teaches the combination between medicine and martial arts. Martial artist Nguyen Khac Chung of Thien Phuc Medicated Martial Arts Club said “ The club has received many international visitors who have come and stayed here for practising the martial arts for two weeks, but this is the first time the club joins a package tour.” According to him, this kind of tour is very popular in other countries, particularly China. “Visitors can surely discover many interesting things about the Vietnam’s traditional medicine and martial arts,” he said. This new tour is also in response to the National Tourism Year 2010. VietNamNet/Nhan Dan
News for Thursday 14 January, 2010
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