Cu Lao Cham - a wonderful maritime paradise

Cu Lao Cham (Cham Island) is a must-see destination for visitors to Hoi An City in the central region. 

If tourists do not buy a tour at a travel firm, they can depart from the ancient town of Hoi An and head for Cua Dai Beach where they take a 20-minute motor boat ride to Cu Lao Island, or a wooden boat ride which costs less but lasts an hour.

Cu Lao Cham covers 500 hectares and has eight islets – Hon Lao, Hon Dai, Hon Mo, big and small Hon Kho, Hon La, Hon Tai, and Hon Ong. It is home to around 3,000 people.

The two most beautiful beaches on the island are Xep and Chong. If travelling in groups, tourists can set up a camping site, a fire and enjoy barbecued seafood on the beach. At night, the island is very peaceful and safe for visitors.

Those who want to learn about the daily chores of islanders should choose to stay at a local family at a cost of VND50,000 (US$2.23) per person per night. Tourists can get up early in the morning to buy fresh seafood which can be cooked by themselves or the home owner.

Life on Cham Island is tranquil and slow while local people are friendly. Especially, they are aware of environmental protection. 

No nylon bags can be found on the island, so banana leaves, newspaper and carton paper are used for wrapping instead.

The ideal time for visiting Cham Island is summer when tourists can dive and snorkel to admire coral reefs and take a boat tour of beaches and fishing villages around the island.

Another destination that tourists should not miss on Cham Island is Bai Lang archaeological site where tourists can admire pottery and glass artifacts. 

It is an important site in the relic system of Cham ethnic people in Hoi An City and the central region.

Source: saigontimes

Shopping at Hanoi Old Quarter

A trip to the Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam is a must for any first-time visitor to Vietnam’s capital. Set just a few minutes’ walk from Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter is an intricate warren of streets laid out in a millennium-old plan, selling almost everything under the sun.

The Old Quarter’s narrow streets are packed with family-owned shops selling silks, stuffed toys, artwork, embroidery, food, coffee, watches, and silk ties.

There are plenty of great bargains to be had in the Old Quarter: you simply need to haggle the price down.

The Old Quarter’s shops attract tourists and locals alike, making this place a great destination to see the local color.

The high tourist traffic has also developed a high concentration of travel agencies and hotels as well.

Shopping in the Old Quarter

Silks. Vietnam in general offers great value on silk. Lower prices and cheap labor go hand in hand to offer unbeatable bargains on meticulously-crafted silk dresses, trousers, even shoes.

Hang Gai Street is the best place in the Old Quarter to scratch your silk itch, especially Kenly Silk on 108 Hang Gai (Phone: +84 4 8267236; official website). Its shop in the Old Quarter has three floors offering a wild variety of silk goods, including ao dai, dresses, throw scarves, pajamas, suits, and shoes.

Embroidery. Embroidery is a common cottage industry in Vietnam, which means you’ll find plenty of bad embroidery.

For the absolute best of the craft, I can only recommend you visit Quoc Su on 2C Ly Quoc Su Street. Established in 1958, the company was founded by embroidery artist Nguyen Quoc Su, and now runs with more than 200 skilled embroiderers turning out almost photo-perfect stitched artwork.

Lacquerware. “Son mai” is the art of applying resin coating to wooden or bamboo objects, then polishing them to a deep shine. Many of them are also inlaid with eggshells or mother of pearl. These objects can come in the form of bowls, vases, boxes, and trays.

The streets of the Old Quarter offer plenty of examples of the art, not all of them good – you’ll need a good eye (and nose) to spot excellent handiwork from the abundant dross in the market.

Propaganda Art. The Vietnamese aren’t above capitalizing on Communist propaganda, and several shops in the Old Quarter are particularly renowned for their Red media material. Old propaganda reproductions are sold on Hang Bac Street.

You certainly don’t need to explore all 70-odd streets of the Old District to get the complete shopping experience – you can limit yourself to making a circuit of Hang Be, Hang Bac, Dinh Liet, and Cau Go. If you’re looking for specific merchandise, some Old Quarter streets may specialize in your object of desire:

Hang Can for stationery

Hang Dau for shoes

Hang Buom for candies and wine

Thuoc Bac for tools

Cau Go for women's accessories.

Hang Gai for silk

Hang Hom for lacquerware and bamboo

The Old Quarter’s “36 Streets”

The Old Quarter is a reminder of Hanoi’s storied past – its history has long been tied to the ebb and flow of conquerors and traders over the past thousand years.

When the Emperor Ly Thai To moved his capital to Hanoi in the year 1010, a community of craftsmen followed the imperial entourage to the new city. The craftsmen were organized into guilds, whose members tended to stick together to protect their livelihoods.

Thus the streets of the Old Quarter evolved to reflect the different guilds that called the area home: each guild concentrated their business along an individual street, and the streets’ names reflected the business of the guilds that lived there. Thus are the Old Quarter’s streets named to this day: Hang Bac (Silver Street), Hang Ma (Paper Offerings Street), Hang Nam (Gravestone Street), and Hang Gai (silk and paintings), among others.

Folklore pegs the number of these streets at 36 – therefore you’ll hear about the Old Quarter’s “36 streets”, when there are certainly far more than this number criss-crossing the area. The number “36” may just be a metaphorical way of saying “plenty”, i.e. “plenty of streets here!”

The neighborhood is no stranger to change. Most of the craftsmen have left, leaving the shop spaces to the restaurants, hotels, bazaars, and specialty shops that now line the ancient roads. Other, newer merchandise has taken over, too – the street called Ly Nam De is now the Old Quarter’s de facto “Computer Street”, offering cheap items and repairs.

The shophouses in the Old Quarter are long and narrow, owing to an ancient tax that charged shopowners for the width of their storefronts. Thus homeowners did a work-around – keeping storefronts as narrow as possible, while maximizing space in the back. Today these are called “tube houses” owing to their shape.

Getting to the Old Quarter

If you’re not staying in one of the Old Quarter’s hotels, you can easily get a cab to take you there – you can simply ask to be let down at at Hoan Kiem Lake, preferably close to the red bridge. From there, you can cross the street north to Hang Be, and begin your voyage through the Old Quarter by foot.

Use Hoan Kiem Lake as a point of reference – if you feel lost, ask a local where Hoan Kiem Lake is.

By Michael Aquino - goseasia.about.com

Dong Xam silver village in Thai Binh

Thai Binh Province is not only acknowledged as a rice field in the North, but also as home to traditional craft villages. Dong Xam Silver Village is one of the most famous ones...

Throughout centuries, traditional crafts and craft villages have been existed and developed as an integral part of Thai Binh’s history, for instance: weave fabric in Phuong La, silver carve in Dong Xam, copper casting in An Long, lace embroider in Minh Lang, “cáy” cake making in Nguyen Xa. Of which, Dong Xam is a village whose population is skilled in metal carving and attracts a large number of visitors from other provinces.

Dong Xam Silver Village

Dong Xam Silver Village is located in Hong Thai Commune, the north of Kien Xuong District, Thai Binh Province. Dong Xam is a village whose population is skilled in metal carving. The craft of silver processing in Dong Xam Village has existed since the 17th Century.

As of March 2003, the village has been acknowledged as qualified craft village and has a wide range of consumer’s favorite handicrafts. Dong Xam Silver Village is known not only in the Vietnam, but also overseas. The handicrafts are produced for both domestic use and export to foreign markets, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Netherlands, and Spain.

Silver has been used for many centuries, going back to ancient times. Periodically, it enjoys great popularity as it does currently. Silver is the most common of the precious metals. It is working qualities are very similar to gold. In fact, silver shines above all other metals in this respect. Silver carving products of Dong Xam village is so different from the ones of other places. Dong Xam’s products are characterized by strange styles of cube and appearance, by sophisticated and well-proportioned decorations, by delicate and perfect skill. It can be said that the skill and carefulness of Dong Xam artists have been able to satisfy all the demands for using silver carving products of customers who are difficult and knowledgeable about silver carving art. Dong Xam artists always think high of “faithfulness” and “talent”. Therefore, their products, which are always genuine and carefully-made, keep maintaining customers’ confidence.

According to the local people, 300 hundred years ago, there was an artist named Nguyen Kim Lau, who travelled downstream on the Tra Ly River by boat to Dong Xam to make a living. He transferred his silver carving skills to the local people. Over time, silver carving has been Beautiful silver carving products maintained and developed. After his death, the Dong Xam Temple was built in appreciation of his contributions to the village and the festival in the temple is yearly held to mark the anniversary of the progenitor Kim Lau’s death.

Dong Xam Temple Festival

Dong Xam Temple Festival annually takes place from the 1st to the 3rd day of the fourth lunar month and attracts many tourist from everywhere. The most exciting program is the boat racing contest on river with the participation of youth men in the hamlet and neighboring communes. Besides, there remains interesting traditional games and folk cultures like ca tru and cheo singing.

In the days of Dong Xam Temple Festival, a great deal of beautiful silver carving products are displayed and sold as souvenir for tourists.

Dong Xam Silver Village is expected to make a positive contribution into the implementation of provincial socio-economic targets and help Thai Binh Province to make rapid advances on the course of industrialization and modernization.

Source: vietnam-beauty.com

A windy night in Dong Cao highland

I heard my friends raving about a peaceful land not far from Ha  Noi, with green grass, blue skies, wind blowing and clouds up in the sky.

They said it was a perfect location for an overnight camping trip, and that got me tempted.

Without any hesitation, I packed my bags, bringing along food for other four friends who joined me, with tents, sleeping bags, outdoor stove, and battery operated torches. We were determined to head for Dong Cao on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The highland, which is nearly 1000m above sea level, is located in Ga Village in Thach Son Commune in the northern province of Bac Giang, about 150km from Ha Noi.

The way from Ha Noi to Chu Town in Bac Giang Province was pretty smooth, but the closer we approached our destination, the more scattered the houses were, and the tougher the path became.

It got darker as we drove deep into the forest, so we had to speed up, as we followed the small concrete road. However, we still had a rough 5km pathway ahead to get over before we reached Dong Cao Highland.

It was not an easy drive at all, as we had to constantly battle against the muddy ground below and thousands of "skinny hands" jutting out from the trees around us. We had to grope our way with the assistance of the lights of our motorcycles to venture through the dark.

After an hour of groping around on the slippery path, we finally saw a flickering light coming from several houses. It is estimated that there are only over 20 households scattering within Dong Cao highland, most of them are poor and lack electricity.

It was a very hot summer day, so our T-shirts were wet with sweat. But as soon as we reached the area of Dong Cao, we were instantly struck with a cold feeling of the typical cool climate of the highland.

We stopped on a flat surface on the highland to erect our tents and started a fire to warm ourselves and prepare for dinner. What an unforgettable night it was to enjoy the freshly grilled meat in the feeble light of the stove with endless, untold stories while contemplating the twinkling lights above.

The wind kept blowing hard through the grass, but I could not visualise the surroundings as it was pitch-dark. We were soon lulled to sleep with the pleasing sound of insects chirping.

Then the moment that we looked forward to most finally arrived. It was when the sun rose to clear the mist and clouds and the overall picture of the highland started to appear clearly in the brilliant sunlight. Dong Cao suddenly woke up to become a charming fairy land, especially attractive to photographers.

The clouds kept floating above us, at times so thin, but at times so dense that we could only see the top of Yen Tu Mountain from afar. We could hear the melodious sound of the flute coming from somewhere close by. However, as soon as we discovered the source of the sound, the horse herding boys who were sitting on huge stones on the highland, giggled and ran away, shying away from our cameras.

"The life here is so peaceful and pleasing," exclaimed one of my friends, adding, "I would rather be a farmer herding cows and cutting grass!"

Each of my friends started to disperse to discover different parts of Dong Cao. Some of them went hunting for photographs, some paid a visit to the surrounding waterfalls or streams while others energetically climbed other green hills.

Dong Cao has an abundance of both grass and breeze. To me, taking a leisure walk on the lush green grass in the early morning and taking a deep breath with the sweet smell of the forest and mountain was pleasing enough. Suddenly, all our worries disappeared with the gentle wind blowing around us.

We rewarded ourselves by moving around at a slow pace, and enjoying every moment of it. We all felt sorry that the next day we would have to return to the normal fast pace of modern life and its many worries. Then Dong Cao Highland would be our peaceful fairly land with starry nights and cloudy mornings that we would all long to return to someday.

Dong Cao Highland is among those rare destinations that are suitable for camping all year round, especially on weekends. It is recommended that you visit the land on Saturday evening and find flat land to erect the tents before it gets dark.

It is also recommended that you should carefully store enough food and water, as the highland is pretty far from any residential areas, and there are no tourist services available. However, it is the isolation and quiet of Dong Cao Highland that attracts visitors, especially young adventurers.

Source: VNS

Discovery Van Long lagoon

About 80km to the south of Ha Noi, Van Long Lagoon (Gia Vien District, Ninh Binh Province) is an attractive tourist site, especially at weekends. To Van Long, visitors will have the opportunity to admire charming natural landscapes and discover the typical wetland ecosystem in the Red River Delta.

With an area of 3,500ha, Van Long is the largest wetland natural reserve in Red River Delta and is considered as “Waveless bay” with tranquil water surface like a giant mirror reflecting spectacular natural sceneries. Here, the boats will take visitors around the lagoon to contemplate limestone mountains named according their shapes as Meo Cao (Cat), Mam Xoi (Glutinous Rice Tray), Hom Sach (Book Trunk), Da Ban (Rook Table), Nghien (Slab), Co Tien (Fairy)… There are 32 beautiful and specific caves inside these limestone mountains, such as Bong, Rua, Chanh, Doi…, of which Ca Cave in Hoang Quyen Mountain Range is the most impressive. The cave is 250m long, 8m high, 10m wide with half floating structure and has many stalactites of various forms.

Going deeper into the lagoon, the riotousness of modern life is gradually replaced by the sounds of oar, fishes, amphibians, hubbub grass in the wind. Under clear water, mosses and algae winding intermittently according to waves make a charming and lively natural picture.

Van Long is home to 39 species of mammals, 72 species of birds, 32 species of reptiles and amphibians, 44 species of fishes, 39 aquatic species and 79 species of insects, many of which are listed in Viet Nam Red Book such as cobra, chamois, iguana… Especially, Van Long has been by Viet Nam Record Book Centre as “The place owns the largest number of delacour’s langur (trachypithecus delacouri) with 100 individuals in danger of extinction. In the dry season (from November to April), Van Long is the wintering place of numerous birds from the North as Bonelli eagle, gray heron, white stork… It is also home to 457 species of high plants and 35 species of aquatic plants, 8 species of which are listed in Viet Nam Red Book, including chukrasia tabularis, drynaria fortunei, melientha suavis, strychnos nux-vomica, dalbergia cochinchinensis…

Along with its beautiful natural scenery, Van Long Wetland Natural Reverse also has many special cultural relics such as Hong Nuong Temple, Mau Temple, Thung La Temple, Thanh Son Pagoda, Dich Long Pagoda...

Put into operation for tourism since 1998, Van Long Wetland Natural Reverse is a specific ecotourism site attracting domestic and international visitors.

According to Thu Giang

Lotus paradise in Long An

For those looking for a short weekend trip, or those who just love travelling, a visit to Tan Lap "floating eco-tourism village" in the southern province of Long An is ideal.

"If you want to visit a wild, natural landscape, visit Tan Lap," a friend who was in Long An recently commented.

"Referring to Long An, everyone often thinks that this province is only the birthplace of the famous nang thom (aromatic rice) and Go Den rice wine, and there is nothing else for tourists to explore," said Nguyen Kim Long, who visited the province earlier this year.

"But in those days, when my friends and I visited Tan Lap, the place really moved me," he said.

Tan Lap floating village eco-tourism area is in Moc Hoa District. The way there is easy. From HCM City, visitors go along National Highway 1 to Tan An District (of Long An Province), then turn right to Highway 62 to Moc Hoa.

When you arrive in Moc Hoa, just ask any resident, and they will enthusiastically show you the way.

The area covers 135ha and has a 500ha surrounding zone. The region has been planned with a budget of more than VND100 billion (about US$4.6 million) to build a tourism area for Long An and the Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) wetlands in future. It will include an immigration wildlife area, a natural reserve, an environmental education centre and houses built on stilts.

After more than an hour's travel by car, Long's group arrived in Tan Lap. A few minutes after passing through the gate, a cool and peaceful scene greeted everyone.

"In this place, you can admire the rustic beauty of lush rice fields, pineapple fields and custard-apple gardens in shimmering yellow sunlight," Long said.

Walking a bit farther, they arrived in the bee-keeping area with countless honey barrels whirring.

Upon visiting the floating village, the group was surprised because they had never expected that a place so close to HCM City would have such a beautiful and peaceful landscape.

"Sitting on a canoe on the river to view the floating village under the blue sky and cool air, this landscape is even much more beautiful than many other destinations," said Khanh Van, a young woman in the group.

Previously, Tan Lap was a large mangrove forest of Long An Province, bordering the wetlands of the Plain of Reeds to form one vast forest covering tens of thousands of hectares.

Because the region is located near the border with Cambodia, it was previously under the strict control of border guards. Over time, the place has been renovated into an ecotourism zone with the distinctive name "Tan Lap floating village".

Visiting Tan Lap, guests can relax by fishing, boating past lotus and water lilies, picking wild vegetables to eat with grilled fish, watching birds and visiting the local farm to see how they grow pineapples.

Visitors are guided to explore the forests flooded in alluvial water, which gives it a reddish tint. They enter the vast cajeput forests and ride power-boats to admire the tremendous lotus lagoons.

"Our boat was drifting in the immense forest, and we heard birds chirping," Long said.

On the waterways that curve like silk bands, the visitors' boats weave between cajeput trees that are hundreds of years old and emit subtle scents from white petals.

Since the cajeput forest is submerged year-round, a concrete road has been built over the water, which passes through the lush mangrove forests.

Cajeput trees are protected and have been planted in the last 10 years, creating a vast green space in the region.

In the flooding season, the surrounding fields are underwater.

If you stand high above to look down, Tan Lap floating village resembles a floating raft or a green island over the water. But that is not how the "floating village" got its name.

As explained by the locals, residents are accustomed to "living with floods", and they have built houses on the high wooden poles.

Today, the resort is no longer inhabited. When the province developed the eco-tourism area, they rebuilt these floating homes to serve tourists.

Visitors can bring tents to stay in the tourism area, or stay in guest houses and hotels in Kien Tuong Town, about 5km from the place.

Prices are quite affordable, between VND50,000 and 60,000 per person per night.

"Tan Lap is pretty quiet, suitable for those who want to relax and experience a life close to nature, and to educate children to love nature and protect the wetland ecosystems," Long said.

"Another good point is, the locals are very enthusiastic and hospitable," he added.

Source: VNS