Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

Bac Giang – the mid-land region well-known for cultural, historical and human beauties and traditional crafts – has seen big changes and developments over the years.

Land of farms and orchards

Luc Ngan litchi is famous for its sweet and tasty flavour

Not only the native land of peasant-turned hero De Tham, the historical Yen The District is also a concentration of cultural, historical and human beauties, and the origin of Thuong River that cuts through Bac Giang Province. Currently, areas well known for fruits like litchi-rich Luc Ngan and other perennial industrial crops are expanding to 45,000 ha together with fields yielding up to VND 50 million (over USD 3,000) per ha annually. Nearly 1,700 farms have mushroomed in the province, Read the rest of this entry »

Khmer girls performing a folk dance.

Soc Trang Province is a land bearing many imprints of reclaiming land and fighting against foreign aggressors by people of Kinh, Khmer and Hoa (Chinese) ethnic groups, who have always united together in good and bad times and are now joining their efforts to improve their socio-economic life and preserve their unique cultures.

Soc Trang Province People’s Committee President Huynh Thanh Hiep gave us a warm welcome when we met him. He told us about the bumper harvests, good prices for rice and the happiness of the people, especially the Khmer ethnic people. Talking about the last shrimp harvest, he said merrily: “There is a shrimp farm in Vinh Chau that harvested 22 tonnes of shrimp per ha, making it a record in Vietnam. Before the year 2000, one could hardly imagine of golden harvests on Soc Trang land.” President Hiep spoke so positively about the improvements that it inspired us to visit the whole province.

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In Soc Trang Province as well as surrounding areas in the delta, there is the Ooc Om Bok festival, which usually falls in November. The Khmer people prepare an offering feast to the moon comprised of farm produce like ripe bananas, freshly peeled coconuts, mangos and green rice paper – a specialty of the local people.

The traditional ceremony is usually carried out as the moon rises with all attendees sitting on the ground, clasping their hands and listening to an elderly man express the people’s gratitude to the moon and saying prayers for continuous good crops and good health.

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The pieu headscarf is one of the typical features of the Thai women’s costume. It is made delicately with colourfully embroidered patterns deeply imbued the wild nature. Pieu not only represents the beauty but also reveals the skillfulness and talent of Thai women.

On the black background material, Thai women weave pieu in different styles from various threads which are dyed by a substance extracted from trees’ barks or fruits’ seeds. The patterns on pieu headscarves are embroidered differently, much depending on weaver’s personality, feelings and tastes. Normally, it is made with complicated fringes and harmonious colours of red, yellow and indigo. Particularly, it is decorated with refined embroideries of lozenge-and- zigzag shapes, flowers, streams, etc.

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Apart from Hoi An, Hanoi is Vietnam’s only city where ancient streets can be found. These streets still keep the same appearance that they had at the end of 19th century. According to historical sources, they have been the true core of Thang Long since its foundation about a thousand years ago.

The area occupied by these ancient streets forms a triangle with its top at Hang Than street and its base at the axis of Hang Bong - Hang Gai - Cau Go street, the eastern side being a section of the Red River Dyke and the eastern side being Hang Cot, Hang Dieu, and Hang Da streets.

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The family of Tien and Loan is the biggest lotus stamina supplier in Hanoi.

In one of his writings, Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu - Trac, a well-known Vietnamese scholar and physician in the 18th century, described the lotus plant as follows: “Though it grows in mud, the lotus plant is never affected by the bad smell arising from the mud. Instead, it absorbs the fresh and pure air from nature that makes its stem, flowers and leaves valuable herbal medicines”.

Ngo Thi Trinh, a woman who owns a lotus scented tea shop named “Ninh Huong” at 22 Hang Dieu Street in Hanoi, is widely known to both Vietnamese and foreign tea lovers. Trinh has processed lotus tea for quite a while and her skill in this field is unparalleled. Talking with her about how she makes scented tea, one realizes the reason why her product is in so much demand by her devoted customers.

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The Muong ethnic people’s calendar
used for calculating production cycles.

About 70km northwest of Hanoi is the prosperous region of the Muong people. Together with Hoa Binh town, the four surrounding areas of Muong Vang, Muong Bi, Muong Thang and Muong Dong are described as the cradle of the Red River civilization. Living in the valleys along major streams, the Muong people engage in wet-rice farming and hunting.

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Tay Phuong Pagoda’s
foundation built of laterite.

Red houses built of laterite are seen concentrated in ancient villages dotting stretches of highway measuring hundreds of kilometers in the northern hilly region. Raw as it is, the material is still braving the erosion by time and harsh weather conditions and preferred by locals.

A layer of laterite, hundreds of metres thick, is found deep underground in the basaltic northern hilly region. From time immemorial, Vietnamese people have been using laterite to build their houses which are warm in the cold winter and cool in the hot summer under the tropical weather conditions.

Thach That (literally meaning rock houses) District in Ha Tay Province is described as one of the major concentrations of laterite. Laterite has been long associated to the life and sentiment of locals here for generations now, evidenced by the use of hundreds of laterite blocks as the foundation of and the 237 steps leading to Tay Phuong Pagoda (865-873). Read the rest of this entry »

Foreign tourists feeling happy with
“Sans Souci” pedicab

For many years, Sans Souci pedicabs have become the favourite and unique means of transport for foreign visitors when they make a tour of Hanoi, but only few people know about its origin and owner.

Located in a small alley called Phat Loc in Hanoi’s ancient quarter, the office of Sans Souci Tourist Service Company is only a small house covering an area of 20 sq. m. The owner of the house is Do Anh Thu who is also the director of the company running almost all of tourist pedicabs in Hanoi.

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From the night market, flowers are transported
to many places in the city.

Saigon by night is bustling with not only discotheques, bars, culinary streets and night clubs but also the city’s colorful and aromatic flower market with rural features which remains a fantastic place to city-dwellers when darkness falls.

Originally known as Ho Thi Ky flower market, this market has existed since 1987 and was then the biggest wholesale bazaar in the city. Every night, flowers, vegetables and fruits were brought here from Da Lat, the Southwestern and Central regions to be distributed to many other markets in the city the following morning. Since 1996, however, only flowers have been sold here.

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