vietnam travel guide

Halong bay

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:08:54 +0100

History of the name "Halong"

"Ha Long" is literally translated as "Bay of Descending Dragons." Prior to the 19th century, this name was not recorded in any document or archive. When mentioning the present-day Quang Ninh Sea or Ha Long Bay, old historical books often referred to them by the names of An Bang, Luc Thuy or Van Don. Not until the late 19th century did the name of Halong Bay appear on a French Marine Map. "The Hai Phong News", a French newspaper of the time, had an article, "Dragon appears on Ha Long Bay", reporting the following story: In 1898 a sub-lieutenant named Lagredin, captaining the "Avalanse" reported seeing a huge sea snake on Ha Long Bay. This was also witnessed by many of the crew. Thus emerged the European image of the Asian dragon. Whether this appearance of a strange animal looking like a dragon resulted in the name of Ha Long Bay is not known (Reference Quang Ninh: Art and Culture published in 2002).

Indochina Sails on Halong bay

There is also a local legend, which has been handed down, relating to the name Ha Long Bay, which tells the following tale:

Long ago, in the first founding days, the Viet people were attacked by foreign aggressors. The Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon and her band of Child Dragons to help the Viet people fight the invaders. While the enemy vessels were launching massive attacks against the mainland, the dragons descended in flocks from the sky. They spat out innumerable pearls which changed into jade stone islands the moment they touched the water. These islands linked together to form firm citadels that checked the enemy's advance and smashed their vessels to pieces.

After the invaders were driven out, Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons did not return to Heaven but stayed on earth, right at the place where the battle occurred. The spot where the Mother Dragon landed was Ha Long, and where the Child Dragons came down was Bai Tu Long. The place where their tails violently wagged was called Long Vi, the present-day Tra Co Peninsula with its soft sandy beach stretching many kilometers.

Source: Thingsasian

Supported by: Indochina Sails

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Phu Quoc, Vietnam: the coast is clear

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:37:38 +0100

Phu Quoc island in Vietnam offers chances to relax on the beach, explore fragrant countryside, marvel at wildlife – and enjoy sumptuous seafood. Just get there before mass tourism, says Sam Llewellyn.

The plane crawls high above the Mekong delta – flooded paddy, intestinal loops of river, roads crammed with Honda 50s and lined with shops selling rice and Marlboros. Then suddenly there is sea, muddy at first, then a cheerful turquoise. The propellers change pitch. The nose drops. A green mountain flicks past the wing, then a white beach. We bank steeply, lining up with a runway on which two people seem to be riding bicycles. And down slams the plane on the pockmarked concrete of Duong Dong airport, gateway to the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc.

Phu Quoc beach, Vietnam - Photo by Getty

Outside the terminal a little group of drivers are whisking red dust off Japanese four-wheel-drive taxis. In Duong Dong high street, our driver carefully skirts a cow and calf, who regard us with soulful Jersey eyes. "Manchester United," says the driver, using the universal language of south-east Asia. He grins. His English gives out. So does the tarmac. Towing a lofty plume of red dust, we pass a memorial bearing a star and the likeness of Uncle Ho, and jounce into the interior.

Phu Quoc is the biggest island in Vietnam. It sits in the Gulf of Thailand, minding its own business. Until recently, this consisted of the manufacture of a world-beating nuoc mam fish sauce, the cultivation of black and white pepper, and the maintenance of a nature reserve occupying most of the northern part of the island. The fish sauce is so pungent that Vietnamese Airlines is reputed to have installed special sniffers to prevent passengers taking it in their luggage and endangering the purity of the baggage hold; the pepper is undeniably delicious, growing in palm-shaded vineyards in the sandy interior. During the Vietnam War, a camp on its east coast held 40,000 North Vietnamese prisoners, but little trace now remains. As Ho Chi Minh's tanks drove into Saigon and Americans scrambled into choppers on the Embassy roof, the population of Phu Quoc got on with its farming and fishing.

The island's northern extremity lies less than 10 miles from Cambodia, and in 1975 it was briefly invaded by the Khmer Rouge. Soon after the Khmer Rouge had been chased away, backpackers started to arrive. A few hoteliers followed. The four turboprop flights a week became four 64-seater turboprop flights a day. And there they seem to have stuck, for the moment. "We are roughly where Phuket was 25 years ago," said one of the co-proprietors of the Mango Bay Resort, leaning back in his armchair as the sun plunged into the sea.

Phu Quoc now has many hotels, mostly of the beach-bungalow type. Most are concentrated on Long Beach, a 12-mile strip of white sand running south from Duong Dong. Those closest to the town back onto a dusty dual carriageway studded with melancholy hawkers' stalls selling cans of green tea and the aptly-named Harpoon Gin. A safer distance down the beach is La Veranda, an elegant air-conditioned establishment with a swimming pool, cooled towels and sorbets delivered to sunloungers at noon. La Veranda is the poshest spot on the island and appeals to colonial nostalgics with deep pockets. A charming hotel at the opposite extreme is the Bo Resort, on Ong Lang beach well to the north of Duong Dong. Bo is a group of cottages dotted around a beautiful garden on a headland with splendid views over wild sea and empty shore, and knock-down prices.

Somewhere between la Veranda and Bo in both style and location lies Mango Bay. This is an eco-friendly straggle of elegant cottages with verandas, sprawled along three quarters of a mile of wooded coast. More than half the Mango Bay's guests do not leave the resort, and as you lie in the warm, glass-clear water watching a squid boat on the horizon, it is easy to see their point. The restaurant is simple and excellent, the cocktails cheap and powerful, the massages deeply relaxing. One of the three owners has started a butterfly breeding programme and a propagation scheme for endangered orchids that grow wild in Phu Quoc's jungly interior. The cottages are not air-conditioned, but they are made cool and airy by the sea breeze. We lay in the gauzy cloud of our mosquito-netted four-poster, breeze wafting in at the linen-curtained windows of the hardwood bungalow, watching a fat lizard patrolling the bamboo ceiling for stray mosquitoes. The only sounds were the brush of waves on the beach, the distant thud of a fishing boat engine and the hoot of an animal in the far wooded distance. It might have been one of Phu Quoc's resident gibbons. Whatever it was, it was calling us forth to look at the world beyond Mango Bay.

There are rumours (unsubstantiated by recent sightings) that Phu Quoc is one of the few places in the world where dugongs still live. I asked the French hotel manager. "Dugong? Non," he said. "They keep very much to the deep forests of the nature reserve." Suppressing a well-founded suspicion that the dugong is a marine mammal, I asked how we could visit the nature reserve. "You cannot," said the Frenchman, with powerful Gallic finality. "It is for nature, not people."

This was a good point, and unanswerable. So we rented a Honda 50 from one of the Mango Bay's gardeners and set off into a land without tourists.

Red dust rose behind us. Peppercorns wafted spice from the roadside, where they lay drying on blue tarpaulins watched over by Buddhist shrines. The road narrowed to a five-foot path. It wound behind the beach, threaded fishing villages studded with reeking piles of anchovies, crossed causeways through mangrove swamps, passed mile after mile of empty beaches. Farmers had limed their mango orchards with shell-sand. Fish pens the size of kitchen gardens lined the sides of creeks. A watchtower stood in the forest, flying the red flag of the People's Republic, the guard keeping an eye on things from a hammock strategically slung in the gun emplacement. We paused to let two wild bulls fight it out in the middle of the road. A feathery-trousered eagle sailed out of the clouds on the mountains and sat gigantic in a tree, regarding us with a fierce yellow eye.

In the early afternoon we arrived at Cape Ganh Dhau, the island's northwesternmost corner. Howling and clanging emanated from a rickety building overhanging the beach. This turned out to be the proprietor of the local restaurant, a noted poet and electric guitarist. He laid down his guitar to show us to a table on the shaky terrace. Five miles across the sea, the first islands of Cambodia loomed out of their thundercloud. This is smuggling country. Some of the islands in these seas are no-go areas, full of drugs and guns, gangsters and brothels. Another is one of at least six islands on which Captain Kidd is said to have buried his treasure. Lunch arrived.

This consisted of a saucepan of boiling broth on its own gas stove, and slabs of raw fish to cook in it. After a mighty repast of squid and sea snails I waddled onto the beach. Small boys were walking past, eating white berries off sprigs of greenery. A polite child gave me a handful to try; they tasted a little like myrtle. At this point the restaurateur picked up his radio mike and launched into a poem for the benefit of our five fellow lunchers. They clapped politely when he had finished. "What was that?" I said to the slightly bilingual waitress.

"Hymn to Sea Insect," said the girl, watching apprehensively as her boss headed for his guitar.

We drove back to Mango Bay and soaked off the road dust in the warm sea, watching a remora trying to attach itself to a bather until it was time for cocktails at sunset. It had been a day fraught with interest.

Naturally, there are plans to make Phu Quoc even more interesting by bringing in mass tourism. A government minister appeared recently and inaugurated the building of a new international airport capable of accommodating full-sized airliners. Completion is promised for 2012. "Which means 2015," said an Australian in the bar. "If at all." Before the world financial system caught flu, tourism entrepreneurs had parcelled up the island into lots and erected billboards showing vast developments with canals, marinas and thousands of villas. These schemes are now in abeyance, but they may return. Phu Quoc is one of the world's great islands. Go now, while the going is good.

Best time to visit

Between October and April. May and June can be ferociously hot. In July, August and September there is a slim chance of good weather (and a high chance of cut rates in hotels) – but torrential rains turn the roads to red slime and the sea to soup.

How to get there

Vietnam Airlines flies from Ho Chi Minh City and Rach Gia; then get the fare from Ho Chi Minh to Phu Quoc. It is wise to get return tickets, as the small number of daily flights makes it possible to get stuck on the island.

Singapore Airlines offers London to Ho Chi Minh return inc tax from March 3 to April 3. Less frequent ferries are also available from Rach Gia (six hours, daily) and Ha Tien (four hours, every other day). Both these mainland ports can be problematic of access.

Source: by Sam Llewellyn/Telegraph.co.uk

Recommendation in Phu Quoc, Vietnam
- Hotels and Resorts in Phu Quoc
- Beaches in Vietnam

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Asia Adventure holidays: hot tips for 2010 in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:20:49 +0100

We asked the experts to reveal the trips they are most excited about – from Vietnam's Fansipan Mountain to Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake.

1. MOUNTAIN TREKKING, SAPA, VIETNAM

Mount Fansipan is Vietnam’s highest peak located in the far north just outside of Sapa. Mt. Fansipan a very steep mountain that gets a lot of moisture. Those looking to climb it should be in good shape and prepared to to have muddy wet feet. The scenery is incredible remember to bring a camera. For most of Vietnam having a rain coat is a little excessive because it is so warm. On the mountain having a rain coat is not a bad idea especially at night. The trails around Sapa are a lot of fun. You will get the chance to go through some minority villages if you have the time to explore. There are well-marked trails, both long and short, for all skill levels.

Conquer Fansipan Mountain, the highest mountain in Indochina- Vietnam.

Photograph: Active Travel Vietnam

When? October to May are the best months

Book it: Trek Fansipan (00 84 4 3573 8569; trekfansipan.com) offers a year-round, four-day guided mountain-trekking tour of Vietnam from $ 219 including hotel accommodation, some meals and travel gear rent. Flights extra

2. MOTORCYCLING HO CHI MINH TRAIL, VIETNAM

The legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail was the supply line used by North Vietnam to link North and South Vietnam during the American War. Soldiers, ammunition, weapons and supplies were carried by hand, bicycle and truck for hundreds of kilometers through the otherwise impenetrable jungle that covered Vietnam’s mountainous border with Laos. A testimony to the ingenuity, fortitude and commitment of the northern Vietnamese, the trail slipped from use at the end of the war and was taken back by the jungle.

Ho Chi Minh Trail Motorcycling tour - Photo by ATA

When? October to April

Book it: Active Travel Vietnam (info@activetravelvietnam.com; activetravelvietnam.com) offers a 18-days trip with 11-days motorcycling guided trip from $1,951, including accommodation, all meals and transfers. Flights extra.

3. KAYAKING HALONG BAY, VIETNAM

Ha Long Bay (also “Halong Bay”) is in northern Vietnam, 170 km east of Hanoi. The bay is famous for its scenic rock formations.If you thought the hideout in the James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun” was spectacular, imagine a place where there are 3,000 such limestone islands clustered together in the East Sea of Halong Bay. Paddle through caves into secret lagoons, drift down channels surrounded by cliffs and forest and sail out into the open sea.

Kayaking on Halong bay, Vietnam

When? October and early January

Book it: Kayak Halong Bay (info@activetravel.asia; kayakhalongbay.com) offers a 3-day trip from $ 299, including meals, accommodation and transfers

4. EXPLORE MEKONG DELTA

A holiday in Vietnam would be incomplete without a trip to the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Popularly known as one of the ‘Rice Baskets’ of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta is located in the South Eastern region of Vietnam, where the Mekong River meets the sea. A pride of the Vietnamese and the one of the most popular of the Vietnam tourist attractions, the Mekong Delta is exceptionally rich in scenic beauty. It is a place unique in itself.

Float market in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

When? October to June

Book it: Active Travel Asia (info@activetravel.asia; activetravel.asia) has a 4-day tour with over 3-day biking from $ 312 including full-board accommodation and transfers. Flights extra

5. CYCLING ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA

Let’s discover the world’s remarkable awesome historical site through this adventure trip and grasp the reasons why the Tomb Raider’s film maker team chose the Angkor Complex in Siem Reap for its screen backdrops. Also experience the biodiversity of Tonle Sap listed as the World Ecological Wonder.

Monks and Angkor Wat, Cambodia

When? October to June

Book it: Active Travel Cambodia (info@activetravelcambodia.com; activetravelcambodia.com) has a 7-day tour with 5-day cycling from $ 685 including full-board accommodation and transfers. Flights extra

6. CYCLING LAOS

Cycling is a great way to get off the beaten track in this increasingly popular country. Start in Luang Prabang, in north central Laos, and head to Hanoi, in North Vietnam, travelling along the banks of the Mekong River and past the intriguing Viengxay caves.

On the way bike Luang Prabang, Laos - Photo by ATA

When? October to March

Book it: Active Travel Laos (info@activetravellaos.com; activetravellaos.com) has a 17-day tour with kayaking, trekking, biking and elephant riding Luang Prabang to Hanoi cycling trip from $ 1,553, including most meals, bike hire and sightseeing. Flights extra.

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Vietnam: the rewards of peace

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:05:18 +0100

Modern Vietnam has many attractions, says Tim Jepson, but one event from its recent past still looms above all others.

Don't mention the war. This, more or less, is the gist of my Rough Guide to Vietnam. Or, more accurately – and I'm paraphrasing here – don't become obsessed by the war. But it's hard when visiting a country where the association, for me at least, is immediate and inescapable: Vietnam – war.

Countryside in Dalat, Vietnam - Photo by Getty

The closeness of the real world must have been the strangest thing, I think, as I sit reading the guide and looking down on miles of jungle during my flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, better known by its former name, Saigon. It's just an hour from the Thai capital to a city synonymous with war: just an hour for all those GIs between fighting and the various pleasures afforded by a few days' leave in Bangkok.

Returning to who knows what, doubtless in far less comfort, they would have looked down on the same landscape: the jungle-covered hills, the numerous tiny villages, the sudden, sprawling urban scar of Phnom Penh, and then the majestic, churning waters of the Saigon and Mekong rivers, sweeping in vast brown meanders through emerald paddy fields.

As we come in to land, it's impossible not to note that Saigon's airport was obviously once much larger – the outlines of buildings long gone are still clear from the air. Nor to ignore the rows and rows of bunkers once used to shelter assault helicopters, their ageing concrete, for now, resistant to the effects of time and tropical weather. In this part of Vietnam, the war is right there, right from the start.

Impossible, too, not to notice the victors' symbol, the red flag and hammer and sickle – not an image one often sees these days – adorning the airport and most of the streets and larger public buildings as we drive through Saigon.

And so to hot, humid Saigon itself, a place that manages to be modern and moribund at the same time. I know you shouldn't judge a place solely on its sights, but the city, as far as I can make out, has just two things to see: the swarms of motorcycles, weaving and jostling on every street as if in some exhaust-filled ballet; and Vietnam's most popular tourist "attraction" – the War Remnants Museum.

The latter is a nasty, graceless old-fashioned sort of museum, housed in a bleak, crumbling Eastern Bloc-style building and a few ramshackle Fifties huts around a courtyard full of hawkers, beggars, tanks, bombs, howitzers, a US helicopter and other twisted-metal memorials to the events of 35 years ago.

Nasty and graceless, but utterly compelling. Especially the helicopter, of a sort you've seen in all those war movies. Its interior is virtually bare, utterly stripped down to basics, its battered, dirty, spartan appearance strangely, eerily redolent of combat. For some reason, I've assumed the equipment of war would somehow be polished, pristine, hi-tech. It very much isn't, at least once it's seen combat. The helicopter interior powerfully evokes the utilitarian grime of war in a way I've never encountered. The battered, scratched and dented rifles and other guns elsewhere in the museum have the same effect. Written down, these are platitudes, but the effect on the spot is revelatory.

There's more, of course, all worse, if anything (the guillotine used by the French, the instruments of torture used by the South Vietnamese, the deformed foetuses almost certainly caused by Agent Orange), and somehow it's all the more harrowing because of the ramshackle setting.

It's also the victors' museum, of course, and skewed in their favour, but the Americans looking around with me – and there are many of them – are talkative and engaged. The equally large number of elderly Vietnamese men, by contrast, are silent and inscrutable. You can't help but wonder: where were they and what they were doing 40 years ago?

Give Saigon a day or so. Stay in the wonderful Grand Hyatt, maybe visit the famous Cu Chi tunnels (where the Viet Cong – incredible this – hid for years just 15 miles from the centre of the city); see the markets (Ben Thanh especially); climb the Jade Emperor Pagoda; take on the mopeds at road junctions. And eat the fantastic food – the French, who contributed so much to the mess of the Fifties and Sixties, at least left a gastronomic legacy.

Then do as we do, and as the Rough Guide implores – forget the war and head out, being sure to avoid the usual dash from Saigon to Hanoi, or vice versa, preferred by most visitors.

The Vietnamese government, belatedly, and still half-heartedly, awakening to the possibilities of moneyed tourism, is keen for you to visit Da Lat, a 40-minute hop by plane from Saigon. We obliged, helped by the presence of the
Ana Mandara Villas, among the first of only a handful of upmarket resorts in Vietnam (but surely, if – as everyone tells you – Vietnam is like Thailand was 15 or 20 years ago, not the last).

A hill station pioneered by the French in the early 20th century, Da Lat largely escaped the war; a town so pretty the US and North Vietnamese tacitly agreed not to bomb it. But that was then. Even in the Fifties, travel writer Norman Lewis found parts turning into a "drab little resort", and Lewis is the kind of writer who was invariably right. Today, the town's popularity with Vietnamese visitors, honeymooners in particular, has rendered it largely a mixture of kitsch and concrete.

But there are compensations. The Ana Mandara resort, for one, built around a series of French colonial villas saved from the Communists' progress-is-all wrecking ball. Perfect in every period detail, it makes a cosseted and tucked-away base for forays into the surrounding mountains, which are superb, and where you can hike or make fascinating visits to the villages of the area's minority peoples.

Vietnam has 52 ethnic minority groups, many of them splintered into hundreds of much smaller groups – 11 million people in all out of a population of 82 million. Many are mysterious of origin, semi-nomadic and highly resistant to the attempts of successive rulers to tame them – even the current Communist government. Many mountain areas have been off-limits to visitors in the past two or three years as the Vietnamese army – in an ironic echo of the war it fought and won against the Americans – struggles, unsuccessfully it appears, to quell the guerrilla uprisings of disgruntled and intransigent mountain "rebels".

Trips to these villages alone, however, would probably not have made the detour to Da Lat worthwhile. What did was the spectacular new road (built for those hoped-for new visitors) from Da Lat through the mountains to the coast. It's a glorious drive, offering a window onto some of the country's most dramatic scenery, from soaring crags and mist-shrouded jungle, still home to tigers, to the gentler hills and fertile lowlands close to the coastal town of Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is another place for which the government has high hopes, and here they're on to a far better thing – as is Six Senses, former owners of Ana Mandara, which has opened a second and, for me, more enticing resort, the Six Senses Hideaway at Ninh Van Bay, sequestered on a pristine cove well away from the town.

This really is a hideaway, built on a crescent of white sand framed by steep, jungle-covered mountains, its combination of stylish beach, hill and water villas reached only by boat. Six Senses' mantra is "intelligent luxury", exemplified here by the clever use of wood, stone bamboo and the exemplary rendering my "four-S" requirement of a resort: Sea, Sand, Setting and Service.

The last is wonderful: the Vietnamese really are an exquisite people, exemplified by the young women who take us around the resort on bicycles. Charming and friendly, they are proud and happy as they tell us how they have just passed their English exams.

For much of my stay, I am prone, but lever myself up to visit Nha Trang, a spotless, trim resort town with an extraordinary four-mile beach and a wonderful palm-lined promenade that (seriously) puts Nice to shame. The sand and waterfront are immaculate and busy – but not too busy – with locals and Vietnamese visitors. If this is the new Vietnam, and the one the regime wants us to see, then I'm all for it.

Even so, it is still nice to return to the sanctuary of our resort, and the soft beauty of sand and jungle. The war seems a long way away here, the smiling young staff the bright embodiment of a new generation; the baby boomers of their particular war. And it should seem distant, of course, for it was 35 years ago.

But as I walk from the restaurant one evening along the sandy trails cut through the jungle, I can't help but imagine a US soldier walking this same, silent path. Here, the jungle has been thinned, the paths cleared. Yet in the gloom, even in this manicured enclave, I can barely see a few feet into the undergrowth. Suddenly everything seems eerie, ominous: 35 years ago, anything, or anyone, could have been concealed, watching, waiting, tracking, trailing.

As in the war museum, the moment is revelatory. It makes me realise with sudden clarity the futility of the whole US venture in Vietnam. An American soldier would have had little chance here; at the mercy of an opponent completely at home in this environment. A child could have walked down this path and told the US generals their project was doomed.

An odd thought, I admit, after a sumptuous dinner, with the creamy comforts of a luxury villa waiting farther down the beach. But Vietnam does that. Vietnam – war. It's a tough link to break.

Source: Tim Jepson/telegraph.co.uk

Related sites
- Vietnam Travel Guide
- Short Excursions in Vietnam
- Adventure tours in Vietnam

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Exploring water lifestyle of Mekong Delta Vietnam

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:35:42 +0100

When the conversation is about the Mekong Delta, people immediately think of tropical rivers, interlacing canals, immense rice fields and the floating homes.

A view of floating Market in Mekong river, An Giang province.

Lazing on a small sampan, tourists can feel they are so tiny on the boundless river and under the shade of countless trees. Witnessing the trade on the floating markets surely makes an impression on those in the delta for the first time.

Upon reaching the raft village, tourists are introduced to the structure of the rafts which are designed as homes and as floating fish farms. Tourists can catch a view of farmers feeding fish and can be served indigenous dishes made from local fish.

Tourists should not miss a visit to a weaving village of the Cham people. Here, tourists can witness the dexterity and talents of Cham ladies who painstakingly weave on looms by the riverside.

On the way back, tourists should not miss the floating restaurants to enjoy specialties of the Mekong Delta in tide-water season. Floating on the immense rivers and taking a look at the lifestyle in the delta are unforgettable experiences.

Chau Doc town is about 300 kilometers from HCMC.

VietNamNet/SGT

Related to Mekong delta, Vietnam
- The Mighty Mekong delta Vietnam

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A memorable trip to Fansipan by Sapa, Vietnam

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:56:10 +0100

We are a group of Malayan, We often take adventure tours and this time to Vietnam is Fansipan.

Get pick up at Laocai train station and transfer to Sa pa, we stopped at Hotel, got a room for shower, breakfast, prepared our gears for the coming trek.

On the way trekking Fansipan Mt, Vietnam

Driving by Jeep along a up-down, zig-zag road to get the mountain pass to start our hike. The first sight to us is the large mountain, the trek at the beginning is quiet easy. we are all eager to conquer.

Lunch was good, much better than I had expected. We had baguettes, tomato, cucumber and cheese followed by pear. I had read someone else's blog about their trip up Fansipan and they had eaten rice, noodles and an increasingly rancid piece of pork for 4 days.

After lunch we actually had to loose high to get to the camp to where we were going to sleep. There was another big river to cross but this time there was a bridge so we got across with dry feet. Camp 2 was just on the other side and consisted of a couple of wooden buildings.

After getting cleaned up and changing into dry clothes we were served up a massive banquet of really tasty food. We had stir fried chicken and mushroom, beef and onion, tofu, potatoes, cabbage, rice and more.

There was twice as much as we needed.

After that it was straight to bed. We slept in the camp that our guide and porter had made, it is really fun, the camp is bigger enough for our group. Our place to sleep was well prepared, we had thick mattress and sleeping bag. It was fairly comfortable and it didn't get cold during the night.

In the morning we were served up a really massive bowl of vegan noodle soup with a fried egg on top. It was tasty but way too heavy for 6:30 in the morning. None of us managed to eat more than half of it.

Another hard day to conquer the roof of Indochina, this day We had to head up to the top from 2200m, then down to the camp at 2800 for the night. The hike was really true for mountain climb, the higher we climb, the better landscape we enjoy.

We were at the top at about 1pm, had a lunch on a big rock in windy and sunny noon, Life is fantastic!
Back to the camp at 2800m at about 5pm, we spend this night in a cottage make by the national park. To congratulate the winners of Indochina roof, our guide killed a pig that they had carried all the way up from Sa pa to make barbecue, we had some wine too.

The last day seemed to be easier to us, we went all the same way down to Tram ton Pass then took a Jeep to Sa pa. Got a room with hot shower.

This was the best trip I had done in Vietnam.

Source: Petercampel's traveler from TravelPod Blog

Recommendation for Trekking Fansipan , Vietnam:
Sapa Travel Guide
Trekking Travel Guide
Trek Fansipan Tours

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Celebrating the New Year 2010 at the Dalat Flower Festival, Vietnam

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:38:24 +0100

The 2010 Dalat Flower Festival will be held in Dalat from January 1 to 4. This is one of the biggest festivals to start those celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

Dalat Flower Field, Vietnam

With the theme ‘Dalat-the Kingdom of Flowers’, the festival is expected to become an international event, so the organizing committee has invited famous flower-growing countries Japan, the Netherlands, the U.S. and China to be part of the festival. Ben Thanh Tourist is offering four day/three night tours to Dalat to experience Flower Festival 2010 that leave on December 31 and January 1.

Tourists pose for a photo at the Dalat Flower Festival in 2008.

Dalat is a place of beautiful waterfalls, tortuous mountain roads and unique architecture in villas hidden under the pine trees. It is popular at Christmas and New Year as the atmosphere here is cool all year round. Moreover, it is the most attractive resort and tourism hub in Vietnam. Coming to the Flower Festival, visitors have the opportunity to see many valuable and rare kinds of flowers.

On the way to Dalat, the tour stops for sightseeing at Damb’ri Waterfall in Bao Loc. This is one of the most beautiful and impressive waterfalls in Lam Dong province. After Damb’ri, the tour takes in Thien Vuong Co Sat Pagoda with its three Buddha statues made of agarwood. After arriving in Dalat and checking into the hotel, Ben Thanh Tourist will hold an evening party with flowers and red wine to celebrate New Year 2010.

On the second day, the tour visits Lat Village at the foot of Langbiang Mountain to conquer the peak and take a panoramic view of Dalat City in the mist. In the afternoon, the tour visits Domain de Marie Church and Hang Nga Villa. Then tourists will share the joy with local people at Flower Festival 2010 at Xuan Huong lake.

The following day, the tour moves to Truc Lam Monastery, Robin Hill, Tuyen Lam lake, Phoenix Mountain and the Valley of Love to contemplate the mystery of Da Lat Su Quan. Tourists will love the horse-drawn carriage ride around Xuan Huong lake. The final stop is the Dalat Market to buy specialties for relatives.

Source: Ngoc Minh/Saigon Times

Related to Da Lat

Da Lat City tour

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The real dirt bike on the northwest, Vietnam

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:13:13 +0200

Motorbike trip is wonderful for those who have good health and like more adventure in their travels. Bike tours to the rugged region offer a more direct experience of the life of its people.

It is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but discovering Vietnam’s rugged and scenic northwest on a motorbike is more than an exhilarating experience.

Motorcycle tours in Northwest Vietnam

Those who have undertaken it say it enables them to see “life as it truly is for the Vietnamese people.”

Dramatic landscapes and sweeping panoramas become more direct and intense when the visitor is not enclosed within a vehicle. Watching the rural population doing about its business also becomes a more intimate affair.

“We started the itinerary to four mountainous provinces – Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lao Cai – in the northwest region with a 130 km ride to Mai Chau,” said Andre Prince, who took the 7-day journey with six friends from Canada.

Together with a tour guide, they left Hanoi at 8:30 a.m. and rode the dirt-bikes (175cc and 250cc Yamaha and Honda) west to Mai Chau, home to the Thai ethnic minority.

They traveled on road No. 6 passing expansive rice paddies and scenic villages and stopped for refreshment before tackling 70km of undulating roads with great views of mountains and valleys before reaching Mai Chau at noon.

“We were really impressed by the traditional stilt-houses, the dances and meals at Pom Coong, a village of the White Thai ethnic minority,” said Andre.

The group left for Son La Province the next morning.

Kien, the tour guide, said the motorbike trip of about 1,000 km is wonderful for those who have good health and like more adventure in their travels. The tour is also great for finding several vantage spots for photography, he added.

Besides the tea plantations in Moc Chau Plateau – the destination of the best green tea in Vietnam that grows along the roads on the hillsides in Son La, the valley of Dien Bien Phu also offers magnificent views.

Here “the ride is more adventurous with more winding roads and longer passes, while offering more colorful minority groups and more stunning scenery,” said Andre, adding that the highlight of Dien Bien Province could be the impressive Pha Din

Pass, which means Heaven-Earth. According to local legend, it was the frontier between Heaven and Earth. Pha Din is some 1,000m above sea-level.

“Climbing and descending the slopes with their many bends and deep gorges is a really unforgettable experience,” Andre said.

The fourth day was scheduled for Lao Cai, where stops at H’mong and Dao villages refreshed the crew after a 225 km ride along stunning gorges and the Nam Na River.

Fittingly, Sa Pa was the pinnacle of the trip, where the group stayed for two days and visited several ethnic minority villages deep in the forest.

“Sa Pa is a paradise for trekking lovers. It has so many routes with views of beautiful terraced fields, diverse minority groups and the highest peak in Indochina, the Fansipan.”

The group also got off their bikes to take a jeep ride downhill to the Muong Hoa Valley, where they trekked on dirt paths through pine forest, terraced fields and H’mong villages. En route they stopped to visit minority schools and had a picnic lunch by the river.

TOUR INFORMATION
Hanoi – Hoa Binh – Son La – Dien Bien – Lao Cai – Hanoi
7-day trip with 5 days of motorcycling
Motorcycling grade: Moderate to Challenging
From US$546 per person
Contact: Active Travel Vietnam
Head office: 31 Alley 4, Dang Van Ngu St., Hanoi
Operation office: 367 Ngo Quyen St., Son Tra Dist., Da Nang
Operation office: 50 Bis Co Bac St., Dist. 1, HCMC
Support number (24/7 service): +84 (04) 3 573 8569

Reported by Hoang Kien/Thanhniennews

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Exploring the Central Highlands, Vietnam

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:32:25 +0200

Gia Lai province in the Central Highlands is famous for its splendid scenery, magnificent waterfalls, poetic lakes and endless forests and mountains. Taking a trip to the Central Highlands to discover the wonders of nature is a worthwhile experience in the fall, according to baogialai.vn.

The most impressive poetic scenes of the province that are recommended for a visit are the Kon Ka Kinh and Kon Cha Rang tropical forests, the Ayun Pa and Phu Cuong waterfalls, Da Trang and Mo springs and Ayaun Ha lake, an extinct volcano.

Topping the list is Ayun Ha lake with its cool air, blue waters and romantic surroundings.

Waterfall in Central highland, Vietnam

Located in the region between Phu Thien and Chu Se districts, about 70 kilometers west of Pleiku city, Ayun Ha lake is a man-made lake supplying the Ayun Ha area and Pleiku city with a big source of aquatic products.

Coming to Ayun Ha, tourists will have a chance to intermingle with romantic scenery and enjoy wild nature and pure air. The atmosphere is jubilant when taking part in water sports or cruising on the lake on holidays or at festivals.

Phu Cuong waterfall, 45 km southeast of Pleiku city, with its height and smooth rock walls, is imposing amid the green jungle carpet. Buses come to the foot of the waterfall and tourists continue their trip on elephant.

Lying on the current of the Ia Pech stream, the waterfall shows off its beauty with a height of 35 meters as a silver carpet amid the green forest.

On the tour visiting Ayun Ha lake and Phu Cuong waterfall, tourists should not miss Ayn Pa which is endowed with attractive landscapes such as Pink Valley-Violet Horizon, Dream Beach and Stone Stream.

Gia Lai province has a long-standing history as an ancient culture bearing traits of the ethnic groups of Giarai, Ba Na, Gie Trieng, Xo Dang and K’ho. This is manifested through the architecture of the communal rong (long house), stilt houses and burial grounds. Visitors to this windy and sunny land can not only admire the splendid landscapes but can see the unique architectural style of the statues in funeral houses, investigate local customs and ethnic cultural features and hear some of the folklore. Another attraction is the performance of gongs, soul of the highlands.

Gia Lai province is 550 kilometers from HCMC. Tourists can book return flights from HCMC, Hanoi and Danang. By road from HCMC, tourists can book at travel agencies in downtown HCMC. Heading on National Road 13 to National Road 14, or on National Highway 1A to Quy Nhon and then to National Road 19 or to Tuy Hoa, National Road 25 leads into the province.

VietNamNet/SGT

Related to Centre Highland, Vietnam
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ActiveTravel Asia upgrades challenging and extends outdoor activities in future.

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:37:57 +0200

Leading local adventure specialist, ActiveTravel Asia (ATA) has announced launch of its upgraded and extended adventure products. Focusing on its adventure tours of the area - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Asia, ATA is now expanding further outdoor packages and tailor-made private itineraries in the 2010 and 2011 with the true value for customers.

Motorcycling Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam with ATA The challenging and outdoor activities of tours with a reasonable level of personal fitness, good health, and interest in the area have been upgraded to be suitable for more customers this year. More cheaply optional tours with adventure guideline and tips have been created for active customers.

ActiveTravel Asia’s local product team has worked hard to create more packages and tailor-made private itineraries through exotic destinations to really experience the culture, history and nature of Asia with local negotiated prices. However, the adventure tours retain their key points of difference without compromising on quality, and provide excellent value for money.

ActiveTravel Asia’s emphasis is on taking travelers to experience the ‘real taste of Indochina and Asia” and, as such, its itineraries stand out from the crowd.

With the active local young team and guide, ATA makes the different outdoor products and activities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Asia include good standard accommodation and local home stay, thoughtfully outdoor itineraries and reasonable price reductions in 2010.

Bobby Nguyen, ActiveTravel Asia’s director comments” In the current outdoor products, we make a desire to show the hidden lands and bring the real taste of Indochina and Asia to customers thus we have created further different outdoor packages and tailor-made private itineraries with price reductions without compromising on quality”

“With local young dynamic team of ActiveTravel Asia and rich local knowledge, ATA's accumulated expertise ensures that travelers can always trust they are maximized their precious holiday time and to experience the very best of their chosen destination, which can really make a difference to what is usually someone’s only visit to a country.”

For more information visit http://www.activetravel.asia/ or our network:
ACTIVETRAVEL VIETNAM
ACTIVETRAVEL CAMBODIA
ACTIVETRAVEL LAOS

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Stalking in the great outdoors, Vietnam

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:20:02 +0200

Tram Chim National Reserve is in Tam Nong district in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

Tram Chim National Reserve, Vietnam

The wetland reserve covers a total area of 7,512 hectares and is home to over 200 kinds of birds, ducks, chickens and more than 150 kinds of fish, 130 species of plants and various kinds of amphibians, reptiles and insects.

The area is also famous for its Redheaded cranes, which come back to the wetlands in dry season, from roughly January to June and leave at the onset of wet season.

A recent fire in Tram Chim burned up 21 hectares of cajuput forest and grass fields, further depleting the cranes preferred habitat.

According to Huynh The Phien, director of the Tram Chim national Reserve, a wide area of co nang grass, the crane's favourite, has been re-planted in the reserve to try and ensure the cranes continue to come back.

At this time of year, with the cranes, the immense capujut forest covered with pink lotus flowers and ponds filled with purple water-lilies the wetlands are simply breathtaking.

You will need a pair of binoculars to see the cranes and the optimum time to go crane-watching is at sunrise or sunset.

Related to Vietnam:

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Cu Chi tunnels one of Vietnam's most popular tourist attractions

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:55:05 +0200

War's reality closes in when you take plunge into underground passageways - Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- The sound of gunshots pierce the thick jungle air. I'm on my hands and knees, crawling through the subterranean darkness, sweating in places I didn't know I had sweat glands.

"Keep on coming! Keep on coming!" urges a wiry Vietnamese man in fatigues, waving me forward.

Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

A Cu Chi tunnel worker demonstrates how villagers and Viet Cong would enter the hidden tunnels during the war. The openings were incredibly small and hidden by leaves. When tourists visit the tunnels today, they go through segments that have been widened to accommodate Westerners' bodies.

If you go

CU CHI TUNNELS: Open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Admission costs about $5.
We're in the infamous Cu Chi tunnels, the Viet Cong's network of secret underground passageways that proved to be one ginormous thorn in the side of the American military during the Vietnam War.

The claustrophobic tunnel system -- dug by hand -- at one time measured more than 120 miles, stretching from the Cambodian border to the outskirts of what was then Saigon. A virtual city, the web of tunnels was home to local villagers seeking shelter from bomb raids, plus thousands of Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Army-backed guerrillas who battled South Vietnamese and U.S. forces. Here, right under the boots of American GIs, is where the Viet Cong ate, slept, hid and launched deadly surprise attacks.

It's also where a select group of American soldiers -- a k a tunnel rats -- engaged in what has to be the world's scariest game of hide and seek. These tunnel rats inched their way through the cramped, dark passageways, trying to find the enemy before the enemy found them. Something to think about this Memorial Day.

For obvious reasons, not a lot of soldiers wanted to set foot in these booby-trap-filled hell holes. But these days, the Cu Chi tunnels are one of Vietnam's most popular tourist attractions. Some 1,000 visitors flock daily to the site, located about 45 miles from downtown Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

Only a few short sections of the tunnels are accessible today. They've been expanded a bit to accommodate Westerners' super-sized bodies, but that didn't keep me from struggling to hunch low enough so my back wouldn't scrape against the dirt ceiling.

"Are there snakes in here?" I ask my Vietnamese guide, who seems almost comfortable in these ridiculously confined quarters.

"Not anymore," he answers with a big grin, followed by a few more rounds of "Keep on coming!"

Tourists can make their way through three sections of tunnels ranging from 150 to 650 feet in length. If you're claustrophobic or have a bad back or knees, you're probably better off staying above ground -- at least when it comes to the longer tunnels.

And don't worry: There's plenty to see above ground. A display of horrific spiked contraptions once hidden under trap doors in the jungle floor, craters left by bombs dropped from B-52s, abandoned U.S. tanks you can climb in, mannequins of North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas -- it's like the Disneyland of Death and Destruction.

The whole experience gave me a better sense of what American soldiers went through. It's one thing to stand in front of a war memorial or monument; it's another to get down and dirty in the proverbial trenches, especially with the eerie sound of assault rifles blasting in the distance.

"If you want to shoot gun -- AK-47 or M16 -- you can do it ... $13 or $14 buys 10 bullets," says Nguyen Cao Van, my above-ground tour guide at Cu Chi. "If you don't want to shoot gun," he adds, "you can buy ice cream next door."

Just like Disneyland.

Nguyen's uncle was a colonel for the South Vietnamese army. After the war ended in 1975, his uncle spent seven years in a re-education camp.

"And he was a quick learner," Nguyen says.

Nguyen's wife is from North Vietnam. They tied the knot in 2005. Marriages between people from the North and South have become more common in the last few years, Nguyen says, now that animosity between both halves of the country has finally started to die down.

Before I arrived in Vietnam, I was a little worried that I might face lingering animosity over the American War, as they call it. When you carpet bomb a country and spray its landscape with Agent Orange, people might hold a grudge.

But the only accosting this Yank got was from overeager Vietnamese street vendors desperate to sell their bamboo bowls and other tchotchkes.

"What happened has happened," Nguyen says, adding that most people in Vietnam are too young to even remember the war. Some 55 million of the country's 87 million residents were born after Saigon's fall in 1975.

"We don't look to the past," he says. "We look to the future."

Source: suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/asia/

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Ha Long Bay: one of the world’s natural wonders

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:03:53 +0200

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said on October 8 that Ha Long Bay has been ranked as one of the 150 most beautiful natural wonders in the world by a French leading e-magazine.

Indochina Sails on Halong bay

An article portraying Ha Long Bay – a world natural heritage, was published in September in the Voyager (tourism) column of L’Internaute magazine.

The article noted that apart from its thousands of charming islands and beautiful caves, Ha Long Bay is also home to a wide biodiversity that includes eco-systems like mangrove forests, coral reefs and tropical forests.

The Bay, twice recognized by UNESCO for its landscape and geological value, has advanced to the final stage of a campaign to vote for the world’s seven new natural wonders by the NewOpenWorld.

It currently ranks 4th out of the 28 successful landscapes in terms of votes.

Vietnam is making an effort to promote and preserve the Bay to encourage the community, especially friends across the world to vote for it.

Reported by: VOVnews

Recommended for vessels on Halong bay, Vietnam:

Indochina Sails: info@indochinasails.com

Website:http://www.indochinasails.com

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ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA hosts a group of Burrows Red Spider Travel Vietnam in Jan 2010

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:59:55 +0200

ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA (ATA) will host a group of Burrows Red Spider to take the motorcycle trip in Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam. This trip will start from Hanoi and finish in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Jan 31, 2010.

Motorcycle tours in Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam

With 10-day motorcycling tour in Ho Chi Minh trail in total 16 day trip from Hanoi to Saigon, this motorcycling grading of tour is considered as Moderate to challenging by ATA

Recent road work that follows original sections of the trail has changed this. Besides incredible driving, deep in the Vietnamese countryside; this ride takes in the charming ancient trading town of Hoi An, Khe Sanh battle site and DMZ. Travelers also take time to stay overnight in a traditional Thai hill tribe and visit to some tribal villages on the way.

Burrows Red Spider is group of American motorcyclists and love motorcycling travel especially travel to Vietnam War in the past by motorcycling.

Travel Tips
- Motorcycle tips: Viet Nam motorcycle travel tips
- Motorcyle guide & trail: Ho Chi Minh trail & travel guide
- Motorcycle tours: Motorcycle tours in Vietnam

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Ha Giang - A geological park of Vietnam

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:10:22 +0200

Dong Van Plateau in Ha Giang province consisting of Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van and Meo Vac Districts contains great geological values, suitable to developing a model of sustainable socio-economic development.