Exploring Vietnam’s resort town of Nha Trang

It is a striking contrast from the cool, misty town of Dalat high in southern Vietnam’s central highlands — built by the French as an escape from the sweltering heat and humidity of Saigon to the glittering seaside resort of Nha Trang, which is barely a three hour drive away.

Leaving Dalat in the cool of the morning, we wound our way down through the forests and sub-tropical jungles of the Truong Son mountain range. We passed endless villages and small towns — all a hive of activity — before finally hitting the coastal lowlands and the warm sea breezes of the East Sea and Nha Trang Bay.

Nha Trang, at first look, is certainly a touristy beachside holiday town with its wide seaside boulevards, high-rise hotel towers, tourist shops, flashy bars, restaurants and streams of motorbikes and cars.
The hustle is only exacerbated by the heat of the day and thousands of holidaymakers. But this is a resort town Vietnamese-style, where more than a millennium of history, culture and tradition combine with hectic local markets, night food stalls and a myriad of small family-run restaurants and cafes. These generate an atmosphere way beyond that of your typical Western beachside destination.

Nha Trang is certainly a town to shop, to eat on the streets and to wander, soaking up the atmosphere along the way. It is also very friendly; the locals busy making a living and getting on with life as fast as they can, after enduring so much turmoil in their recent past.

For shopping head for the Cho Dam central market near Nguyen Hong Son Street, which is a maze of stalls stacked with brand name bags, shoes, jeans, leather, silk and plenty more, and a place where bargaining is the name of the game.

Nearby is the busy Phan Boi Chau Street, full of shops, and lined with colonial-style shuttered houses. It is this constant juxtaposition of the old and the new — from colonialism to ancient temples, to modern Vietnam, that makes the place so interesting. It all fits in together nicely.

Perched on a hill overlooking the city, Xong Bang Bridge and the vast Cai River estuary, is an incredible temple complex known as Cham Pongar that dates back to 700AD. The four temples, intricately carved, are dedicated to the gods and are a place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese; the chanting of monks and incense filling the air. Families, couples and school children all come to pay homage and pray.
Below, in the Cai River estuary, Nha Trang’s traditional wooden blue fishing boats, trimmed in red, line the shore. Nha Trang, at its heart, is a fishing village and the boats still head out daily in their hundreds to the East Sea — their catch filling restaurant plates every evening. In the dark of night you can see their lights twinkling way offshore.

Unlike Thailand, there isn’t a huge massage industry in Vietnam, but one excellent way to relax is a soak in the mineral and mud baths of the Thap Ba hot springs. And for a group all in a hot mud bath together, it is loads of fun — though rather intimate.

The bubbling mineral water is 40 degrees and rich in sodium silicate while the mineral mud — a glorious thick, hot brown — stimulates the nerves. And yes, you do feel bizarrely rejuvenated when you finally wash it all off.

Nha Trang is, of course, changing. On the way to the airport the big Western-style resorts are now gaining a foothold. But hopefully, with so much imbedded history and culture, Nha Trang will not lose that individuality that makes it so attractive.

Source: travelweekly

Vietnam remains a “hidden beauty” in the eyes of foreign tourists

Vietnam has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to show its beautiful landscapes on famous television channels CNN or BBC, or to advertise on taxis in London. However, Vietnam remains an unknown and hidden charm to foreign travelers.

The arrow that failed to reach the target

In recent years, Vietnam has been paying more attention to promoting tourism. However, the result remains modest. In the second half of 2010 alone, Vietnam spent 5.3 billion dong to run advertisement campaigns on CNN, which gobbled up 12 percent of the total budget for the yearly national tourism promotion program.

A mini survey conducted by the Vietnam Economic Forum conducted on 200 foreign travelers showed that 77 percent of foreign travelers have never seen information about Vietnam travel in mass media, advertisements or at tourism trade fairs. Ninety-three percent of polled tourists said they never see the advertisement pieces on BBC and CNN.

Vietnam also spent money to place advertisements on 27 taxis out of 10,000 taxis in London in the UK for six months. However, local dwellers said they never see the advertisements.

Vu Huy Vu, Deputy General Director of Saigon Tourist, said Vietnam needs to do many more things to popularize Vietnam travel in the world. “Vietnam needs to have more and more publications introducing Vietnam’s tourism potentials. It needs to set up tourism representative offices in other countries to promote tourism,” he said, adding that other regional countries like Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines all have representative offices in Europe and the US for tens years.

Meanwhile, a cheap but effective communication channel – Internet – has been ignored.

Ben Chua is a Singaporean person who builds and runs vietnam720, an website that uses interactive products like videos, audios to introduce attractive destinations in Vietnam.

“If you access to yoursingapore.com, you will find everything about Singapore. For example, if you type “art”, the website will show all the information about arts, from the events to places for excursions or the hotels near art centers,” he said.

Ben Chua said he has an account on Twitter to listen opinions from people about Vietnam. There is a tweet posted in every 10 seconds, which means 36,000 opinions come every hour. However, no official agency has replied to the opinions.

What is a new image for Vietnam?

In mid January 2011, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VNAT officially announced the result of the logo creation competition for the new period. The slogan “Vietnam – a different Orient” has won the competition. However, after two months, the slogan has not been approved to become the new slogan of Vietnam’s tourism in the new period.

It seems that foreigners still see Vietnam as a war torn country, rather than an attractive destination in peacetime. It is because Vietnam is still busy looking for a new suitable slogan to be introduced to the world.

“Vietnam is a friendly, joyful country, where the prices are reasonable. However, the images Vietnam introduces to the world do not reflect these things,” said Tim Russell, Managing Director of Come & Go Vietnam travel firm.

He believes that since Vietnam cannot build up a reasonable tourism brand, only five percent of tourists return to Vietnam for the second time, while 50 percent of tourists come to Thailand for the second time.

He went on to say that Vietnam only has been trying to attract the tourists who are interested in the culture and discoveries, while it has not been trying to attract holidaymakers. Meanwhile, tourism does not only mean discovery, but also means relaxing, sunbathing, playing golf and water sports, meals, nightlife and anything that is a part of a comfortable life.

He believes that Vietnam should look for professional consultants and should carry out surveys in many places in order to build up a professional marketing strategy.

Source:Vietnamnet

Cau Pagoda, symbol of Hoi An City

Cau pagoda, also known as Lai Vien pagoda, is a symbol of the old city of Hoi An.

It attracts many tourists everyday who come to admire the old Japanese architecture and the romanticism of the place.

Cau Pagoda was built by Japanese tradesmen possibly in the beginning of the17th century. It is composed of two parts: the bridge and the pagoda which are all in painted wood.

The bridge is covered by a tiled roof. It is about 18 meters long and spans a stream of Thu Bon River, near the intersection of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Tran Phu streets.

People also call it the Japanese Covered Bridge and it is a beautiful example of the Japanese architecture from the time.

At one end, there is a sculpture of dog and on the other end is a sculpture of a monkey. The two animals are sacred symbols in Japanese culture. According to the Asian zodiac, many Japanese emperors were born in the year of the monkey and the year of the dog. Records also say that the construction of the bridge was initiated in the dog year and was finished in the monkey year.

Cau pagoda has a very particular architectural style. Inside there is no Buddha statue. Instead in the center of the pagoda, there is a wooden statue of the northern god Tran Vo Bac De. This god is the god of weather. People believe that he controls all kinds of weather changes and natural calamities.

The pagoda was renovated many times in 1817, 1865, 1915 and 1986 making it a hybrid of architectures of Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese.

The gate of the pagoda is carved with three words Lai Van Kieu (bridge of friends from afar). That name was given by King Nguyen Phuc Chu during a visit to Hoi An in 1719.

This monument was not just a bridge or a pagoda but it was the former gathering place of villagers who dreamed of a community in harmony.

Unique wood houses in Ho Chi Minh City

Designed with northern, southern and central architectural styles, each house is decorated differently. The row of wood houses in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City is very special.
Running for over 1km along the Saigon River, totaling around 8 hectares, over 30 families, mainly artists, have created a “village of artisans” in mid-Saigon. These houses are made by rare wood, with architectural styles of many regions in Vietnam, for example the house of Muong people in the north, the house of Hue people, charnel-house of the Central Highlands, etc.

Pointing to a house in Hue style, painter Hoai Huong said seven years ago, he and a group of artists traveled around Saigon to seek a peaceful place to build artistic houses. They chose the current place, which was a vast rice field at that time.

Huong said at his painting exhibition, a girl looked at his landscape paintings and said that this was the house of Muong people, that was the house of the Central Highlands, etc. but they were only in paintings.

Hearing the girl’s opinion, Huong thought of building a village of artistic houses. He discussed the idea with his friends and implemented the project to build wood houses.

He bought rare wood such as ironwood, ebony, etc. from the mountainous region to build the first house in three years. So far, six houses have been completed and some are under construction.

“The architecture and decoration of each house is different and they imitate the ancient architecture styles of Vietnam. There are houses on stilts, wood houses, brick houses, etc.” Huong said.

Each house shows the taste and personality of its owner. Hoai Huong’s house is in Hue-style, with a big room in the middle, which is surrounded by four smaller rooms to make a square. These rooms are linked by corridors, running along a fish pond. Along the pond are willow trees, rock-gardens and bamboo trees. In front of the gate is a gate house for passers-by.

If Hoai Huong’s house is a square block in the style of Hue’s wood houses, painter Bach Truong Son’s house dubs the style of Muong people’s house on stilts. The house has big stilts, low roof and a space in the middle for common activities.

There are houses with southwestern architecture. These houses are made of wood but the floor is as not high as northern houses. The kitchens are the most important places in these houses.

“Many people visit this area to learn how to build wood houses in ancient styles. In the future, I and other artists living in this area will open training courses for children and those who like painting and architecture,” Huong said.

Hoi An among top 10 tourist destinations

The ancient town of Hoi An has made it to the list of 10 best cities for tourism by UK’s Wanderlust travel magazine.

Hoi An, in central Vietnam received 96 per cent of the vote from readers and was ranked at 2nd place.

The World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang in Laos has retained its number 1 position in Wanderlust Travel Magazine’s annual list of best tourist destinations with a score of 96.89 percent.

The other places to make it on the list are Kyoto (Japan), Stockholm (Sweden), Perth (Australia), Tokyo (Japan), San Francisco (USA), Vienna (Austria), Cusco (Peru) and Aleppo (Syria).

Hoi An has previously been selected as one of Asia’s top ten destinations for 2010 by the Hong Kong online tourist magazine Smart Travel Asia. The ancient town had retained fifth place and Hanoi was noted as seventh on the tourist magazine list.

Halong Bay welcomes large numbers of foreign tourists

Halong Bay welcomed 48,000 tourists, 94 percent of whom were foreigners in the first months of the year.

This is the largest number of foreign tourists visiting Halong for January-February period so far.

On March 1, 400 visitors aboard the Seabourn Sojourne cruise liner of the US arrived in Halong.

The same day, two cruise ships, Amazara Quest and Costa Classica carried 2,000 foreign tourists to the UNESCO recognised heritage site.

Earlier, the British Arcadia ship anchored at Hon Gai port of Halong city with 2,000 visitors aboard.
More information about Halong tour, please visit website :http://www.footprintsvietnam.com/