At Dinh Cac wharf.

The Tree Caves belong to the historic limestone mountains of Ninh Binh Province, which is known as Halong Bay on land, and are located in Hoa Lu Commune, about 100 kilometers from Hanoi.

The best way to enjoy the magnificent Tree Caves is hiring a small boat for four people at Dinh Cac wharf. For only five U.S. dollars, tourists will have a two-hour trip down the Ngo Dong River.

Twenty minutes from shore, the boat takes in the first cave formed by the flow of Ngo Dong River into a limestone mountain for hundreds of thousands of years. The river’s name is said to have come from the cultivation of corn on both sides of the river.

The third and most beautiful of the Tree Caves.

Further on, tourists will be faced with a second cave, lying between the standing mountains on the left named Ben Thanh and on the right is one shaped like a landing eagle. By the river is a large, flat stone that is said by local people to be the resting place for Tran Thai Tong, an ancient Vietnamese king.

The last cave is no doubt the most beautiful. The water running through limestone has formed many magnificent, living stones and local people have used their vivid imagination to link these stones with mythical characters.

Along the river is many layers of green mountains, they seem to have grown from the deep water and cast shadows on the surface from the dawn of time. Somehow, tourists will spot a single stone house under the mountain where a local family raises goats, plant rice and fish to feed their family. Isolation is a way of life here.

source from: vietnamnet

 

Lost world: The picturesque magnificence of Ba Be Lake within Ba Be National Park attracts a large number of visitors every year. (Photo: VNS)

My three-day visit to the park exceeded my expectations and fed an intense curiosity about the area, as well as letting me enjoy fresh air which can’t be found in the city. 

On the first two days, local guide Nong Van Hieu led me to discover such special landscapes in the park as Ba Be Lake, the Nang River, Puong Cave, and Dau Dang Waterfall.

“Ba Be National Park is not only famous for its scenery but also for its daily lifestyle,” Hieu said. “It’s impossible to experience all the interesting traditions and cultures here in only three days.”

What he said was true. The final day of my visit broadened my horisons and left an impression of the daily lives of the ethnic minority people who are allowed to reside in the park as unique from any others I have encountered across the country.

I was lucky to be taken to one of the villages that border the lake called Pac Ngoi. The Tay ethnic village, with about 80 households, is remarkable for its traditional stilt houses built on stable mountain cliffs.

On the way to the village, Hieu told me a great deal about Tay cultures and traditions.

 

Delicacy: Charcoal-grilled muong fish is the most delicious food in the region.

“Most of clothes here are handmade,” said Hieu. “The locals continue to use looms to create fabrics. The most popular is 2m long and 80cm wide. They also plant and harvest their own cotton before dying and weaving it to create the finished fabrics. 

“Tay people used to hunt and trap forest animals, but now they have moved closer to the lake to catch fish. Fishing is their daily work apart from farming and raising cattle.”

We reached the village when the sky was getting dark. I found that half of the households in Pac Ngoi offered home stays. I chose the house of Nguyen The Gia, 47, to stay the night at a cost of US$15. By 10pm, all of the people were asleep.

My deep sleep was broken at the crack of dawn by the tour guide. It was 5am, and we quickly had a breakfast of bread and fresh milk and continued our journey. Amazingly, we saw many local fishermen already out fishing along the bank of the Nang River

Their method of catching was different from any I have ever seen. They throw nets while wading in the water, which is too shallow to fish by boat. The nets are designed very uniquely and are a bit tricky to get ahold of, but the fishermen bring in a haul of various kinds.

Fisherman Tran Trong Kien, 54, satisfied my curiosity about the fishing methods by asking me to jump into the river. He guided me to use the nets, and the cool water motivated me to get familiar with the unusual way of working. I caught five small and medium fishes in my first throw. We stopped fishing at 6am with 15kg of fish.

“Usually I can sell this much fish for VND200,000 ($10),” Kien said. “It’s rainy season, so there is a lot of fish as the lake builds up in size. In the winter, when there’s less rain, there’s less fish.”

Muong fish, according to Kien, is the most delicious food in the park. The people often select muong fish, clean them, then bind them between two pieces of wood and cook them over hot coals for about 10 minutes, turning them a couple of times.

We ate our fish, which was soft and flavourful, and chased it down with maize wine. We sat around a wooden table and sang some of the songs of the ethnic group with poetic and thoughtful lyrics, leaving us with a feeling of the colourful lifestyle of the place and a sense of pride in the country’s valuable traditions and cultures.

source from: vietnamnet

So far, the numbers of travellers booking air trips only account for one third of the number of available tickets.

This is the first time travel companies in Ho Chi Minh City are experiencing such a gloomy holiday phase. Looking at earlier forecasts, travel companies did not imagine that they would go through such a slump in the first quarter of this year, especially when the situation was rather optimistic with high growth earlier.

Travel companies are now struggling to find ways to deal with a large number of unsold air tickets, which in previous years was a rare occurrence.

Currently, most travellers prefer short-distance tours to the highland provinces, Phan Thiet and Nha Trang by bus, and are less inclined towards tours by air from Ho Chi Minh City to other domestic destinations. The numbers of travellers have dropped by one third and in some cases one quarter.

One travel company said that it had booked flight tickets three months ago on the expectation of a crowded peak travel season. However, it only sold 60 air tickets for the Ho Chi Minh City to Hue and Hanoi routes, though it had reserved around 200 tickets for both routes.

Other companies were also facing a similar situation, with a huge amount of unsold tickets.

As the holidays approach close, travel companies have little or no chance to attract tourists at the last minute and might lose their deposit on pre-booked air tickets.

According to these companies, deposit for a Jetstar Airline ticket was only VND160,000 for a one way ticket and VND320,000 for a round ticket, so they will be able to handle this loss. But for Vietnam Airlines the deposit is 50 per cent of the ticket value, and if they fail to sell the tickets, they will lose their deposits.

Programme to boost tourism begins in May

Vietnam Airlines has agreed to participate in a programme to boost domestic travel, starting from May to the end of this year. Around 20 travel companies are interested in participating in the programme in Ho Chi Minh City.

Accordingly, prices of full-package tours from Ho Chi Minh City to northern, central provinces, and to Phu Quoc will be lowered by 20-30 percent.

Tran The Dung, deputy director of Young Generation Travel Company, said the fact that Vietnam Airlines has collaborated with travel companies during the current difficult phase is a great encouragement.

Compared with the price of grade K tickets that the company had bought earlier, the promotional price of grade Q tickets was 40-50 percent lower. Combined with service costs at destinations, the company offered a decrease of 20-30 percent on full-package tours on various routes.

This time the flag carrier will monitor closely the promotional plan and help boost sale of tickets, to prevent companies being landed with unsold tickets. Travel companies under the programme will not have to deposit before booking tickets.

In order to get approval to buy low-cost air tickets, travel companies will be required to send their price list to VNA, which will then re-check whether companies have actually lowered their prices.

In previous years, many travel companies had taken advantage of the promotional programme to boost the number of travellers, two or three times more than actual numbers. As the travel industry began to face difficulties, domestic tours lost their competitiveness. However, this new stimulus programme is expected to be a life saver for the local tourism industry.

source from: dtinews

A boat tour on the mysterious Son River to visit Phong Nha Cave

Tourists are impressed by mighty mountains of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park when the boat rides slowly on the green river. The name of the river, “Son,” refers to a faithful love originated from a folklore.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl, who was daughter of a hunter living by the river, and was good at playing flute. Once, while playing the instrument, she saw a shooting star crossing the galaxy to descend in the forest. A young man then appeared and rode a horse towards her. She fell in love with him at the first sight and got on the horseback to stroll around with him. Before saying goodbye to her, the man gave her a ring and told her that he would come by her side when she whispered his name to the ring.

But the girl’s beauty attracted a local landlord, who many times proposed to her. Because she refused his proposals, he locked her up on the top floor of his castle. The girl then looked for the ring but she had lost it. She decided to jump out of the window to the ground, where water from nowhere formed a stream. Wherever the stream passed by, fields of rice, sweet potatoes, sugarcane and mulberry appeared. A hermit from the northern region on his way looking for herbal medicines was surprised by the weird green river, and he named the river “Son.”

On a boat painted with a dragon’s head, visitors will contemplate daily activities of locals by the river banks. At a juncture, they will turn left towards Phong Nha Cave. Upon entering the cave, boatmen turn off the engine and paddle the boat into the dreamland.

According to local tour guides, when water from the ceiling of the cave drops onto someone, he or she will be lucky. Such clever words make travelers exciting though almost everyone is hit by water drops when they go deep into the cave.

The Son River is part of the underground river of Phong Nha Cave, stretching 44km from Laos. The British Cave Research Association has assessed that the cave system is one of the most valuable caves in the world because it has the longest underground river, the highest and largest cave entrance, the widest and most beautiful sand dunes, and the most beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. In 2003, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park with the 7,729-metre-long Phong Nha Cave was recognized as the world’s natural heritage site.

source from: dtinews

Responsible travel is a kind of tourism that binds businesses and the local communities together which build the tourism products associated with the environment protection, help local residents exploit tourism potentials on the principle of mutual benefit and responsibility.

Responsible tourism has been strongly promoted to become a new tendency in the world. Every year, the week of responsible tourism is organized on the biggest websites of the world with the topics put on online discussions lasting seven days.

In Vietnam, responsible travel has also been popularized under the active support of non-government organizations, such as The Netherlands Development Organization, the European Union, the International Fund for Nature Conservation in Mekong Delta.

The message of responsible tourism has been conveyed to a part of domestic travelers, especially young travelers. More and more travelers want their journeys to become less invasive to the daily life of local residents and the nature of the land where they come to, and wish to bring more benefits to the local communities.

Travelers nowadays wish to learn more about the culture instead of simply doing the sightseeing.

A recent survey conducted by SNV, a Dutch organization, on five tourism sites, including Hanoi, HCM City, Hoi An, Ha Long and Hue City, shows that 97 percent of interviewed people would agree to spend more money on a responsible tour and bring benefits to the poor people.

The survey showed that every international travel would be ready to spend 47 dollars, if the tours comprise responsible tourism services. The figure would be 27 dollars for Vietnamese travelers. Meanwhile, there would be no limitation on the sums of money to be spent additionally, if the tours’ main goal is charity activities.

In some localities such as Hue and Da Nang Cities, or Hoi An ancient town, responsible tourism groups, comprising of small and medium tourism firms have joined forces to build up the products with high sustainability have formed up.

A lot of eco and cultural tours have been designed, including the ones to the vegetable village of Tra Que in Hoi An, tour My Son holy land, to craft villages and ancient villages in the ancient capital city of Hue.

However, Pham Trung Luong, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development, said that a lot of problems need to be settled when developing this kind of tourism

Luong said in some localities, while local authorities have good knowledge about providing tourism products and protecting the natural environment, travelers do not have necessary knowledge on the issue. A recent survey by the institute at the Phong Nha- Ke Bang Cavern showed that 70 percent of the community joins the tourism services, but more than 72 percent of travelers have not been informed the issues relating to the natural and socio-cultural environment.

An opposite thing is occurring in the northwestern region of the country such as Ha Giang, Cao Bang and Son La. The localities have been attracting a lot of trekking travelers and international tourists who have high demand for discovering and learning about the local culture. However, the increase of the number of tourists to the areas has created a lot of unwanted changes to the local people’s lives.

The Khau Vai Love Market in Ha Giang province, for example, now bears some features of the modern times, while some original beauties have been lost.

Phung Quang Anh, a tour operator, said that the impatience of local authorities to develop local tourism and the low awareness of the sustainable tourism, may lead to the disappearance of the special indigenous cultural features.

source from: vietnamnet

The villa is now the Museum of Da Lat in Da Lat city, Lam Dong province. However, the museum and the local authorities have not made any survey of the tunnel to turn it into a historical relic.

The tunnel in photos:

The villa of Empress Nam Phuong in Da Lat city.

source from: vietnamnet

Themed “Lotus in painting”, the show attracted thousands of visitors, including foreign ambassadors to Vietnam and international friends.

The event aimed to honor the beauty of Vietnamese women’s traditional costume through the image of lotus, which has provided endless inspiration for artists, architects, sculptors and painters.

During the show, Ao Dai adorned with lotus patterns provided invaluable spiritual values and the aesthetic eternity of such a beautiful flower, as well as the perception of the traditional dress in the soul of Vietnamese people.

In the early summer breeze from the Huong (Perfume) River and the sounds of zither, two-stringed violin, monochord and flute played, special Ao Dai collections by 20 leading designers were gracefully demonstrated by 150 top models from across the country.

Following are some pictures taken at the show:

source from: dtinews

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stressed that the tourism industry is not just an economic industry, but is part of a profound human cultural event. Hue Festival 2012 is one of the events for National Tourism Year this year in the Northern Central Coastal Area.

The National Tourism Year will be an opportunity to promote and showcase Vietnamese culture to the world and raise public awareness of the need to preserve ancient cultural heritage sites in the northern central coastal area.

The event is a chance for local and international art troupes to perform and highlight different cultures as well as take advantage of many business and investment opportunities in various fields, added Prime Minister Dung.

This year, the biennial Hue Festival in Hue City in Thua Thien-Hue Province from April 7-15 will have 36 art troupes from 28 countries from around the world participating in the event.

A number of cultural activities such as musical performances, folk games, puppetry, martial arts and dance performances will be held during the event.

Some photos of the ceremony, taken by DTiNews:

source from: dtinews

Foreigners find it interesting to grind rice (Photo: VNA)

In a programme designed by Khoa Tran Hoi An Eco-Tour company, a group of Australian tourists recently joined local farmers in Cam Thanh village to plough the fields, grind rice to make pancakes and learn to cook rice.

Paul Lenehan said he liked to enjoy the delicious dishes of local people, while Barbara Machony said she could feel the hard job of farmers working by hand.

According to tour company director Tran Van Khoa, the company designed the tour to help foreign visitors understand Vietnam’s rice cultivation culture.

Many foreign tourists said they would return to Hoi An some day to learn new experience.

source from: vov

At this time of March the city is adorned with white blossoms, even though drizzles continue with no signs of stopping.

source from: vov