Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

After the success of the second Hong Kong – Nha Trang international yacht race, together with the construction of a marina for yachts at Phu Quy eco-tourism site, Nha Trang is becoming an attractive destination for international yacht races.

The international yacht race from Hong Kong to Nha Trang bay, one of the 29 best bays of the world, held in early November attracted the participation of 11 teams and 130 athletes.

The athletes were tourists and businessmen form Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the Philippines, Canada, China, the United States, Belgium, Norway, France and Vietnam.

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The highland market is always full of colours

From the primitive age, Tay Bac has been endowed with innumerable marvels by nature. Although many things have been discovered, this area still contains a lot of mysteries.

Going from Hanoi to Tay Bac (the northwestern area of Vietnam), visitors can follow Road 6 to Hoa Binh, Son La, Lai Chau and Dien Bien, and then turn to Lao Cai and Yen Bai by taking Road 3, which also leads to the starting point.

The gates to Tay Bac are Hoa Binh and Yen Bai where the mountains, hills and primal forests prevail. Ranges of high mountains stretch to the central region of the country and connect with the Truong Son Range which runs to the western area of the South. The mountains in Tay Bac are very high, seeming to touch the sky.

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Almost all the hamlets in the Central Highlands have gong teams in service of rituals and festivals

On November 25, 2005, Vietnam’s cong chieng (gong) culture of Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands) was officially recognised by UNESCO as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible culture of humanity after the court music of Hue. This affirms that Vietnam has an age-old culture with many traditional art-forms that should be protected, preserved and developed.

Nobody knows when the gongs appear on the sunny and windy land of Central Highlands. Many people guessed that the gong culture originated from the Dong Son Civilization (3,500-4,000 years ago) with its bronze drums being well known.

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After the success of the second Hong Kong – Nha Trang international yacht race, together with the construction of a marina for yachts at Phu Quy eco-tourism site, Nha Trang is becoming an attractive destination for international yacht races.

The international yacht race from Hong Kong to Nha Trang bay, one of the 29 best bays of the world, held in early November attracted the participation of 11 teams and 130 athletes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Water puppet performance of Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre always attracting a lot of foreign visitors

My dear fellow-countrymen, do I have to introduce myself when coming here?” This is the greeting of buffoon character Teu, who enters onto the water stage from the tormentor to the beat of drums and exciting rhythms of percussion music, starting a water puppet play.

Originating from effigies made to keep birds or mice from destroying crops plus their habits of wet rice cultivation, farmers created the art of water puppetry. The water surface of lakes or ponds serves as the stage while spectators sit at Read the rest of this entry »

Visiting the historical Tan Trao Banyan tree

The residents in Tuyen Quang Province are proud of their native land and its development. Over the past half a century, the province where people of 22 ethnic groups live together has experienced great socio-economic changes that brought a better life to the locals and changed the thinking and working habits of the authorities and people in the new period of time. Read the rest of this entry »

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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Sorcerer Hoang Chung, La Pan Tan Commune, Muong Khuong District, Lao Cai Province, preparing offerings for the ritual.

Visiting hamlets in the Northern mountainous areas when Spring comes, anyone could see with their own eyes not only a captivating beauty constituted by forests of peach and apricot trees in blossom, but also the unique and interesting rituals in the Mong’s Gau Tao festival. When speaking of the distinctive cultural characteristics of the Mong ethnic minority, one can’t help mentioning its Gau Tao festival (lit. going out in mountain) to pray for happiness and fortune. As is the Mong’s custom, house masters must ask sorcerers in their hamlet to communicate on their behalf with their ancestors and the Gods of Soil.

Normally, the house masters will hold the Gau Tao festival for three to five days in three consecutive years and for 10-12 days in case of organizing the festival for only one year. On the 25 -26th day of the Tet, the hamlet’s young and strong men will select and chop down a bamboo tree as cay neu (the New Year tree) and set it up on a hill side or a flat ground where the festival’s solemn main rituals will happen.

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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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