Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

The traditional ox race festival in Bay Nui, An Giang Province has recently become an interesting event, attracting both home and foreign visitors.

The ox race is usually held once a year in the Dolta festival of the Kh’mer ethnic minority (in the late eighth or early ninth lunar month) that is by no means minor or less attractive to any other sport events when peasants flock to the course with a sport spirit and a desire for victory. The thunderous shouts in both Khmer and Vietnamese languages are an evidence of this fact.

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Location: Lao Cai, Vietnam
Every year when spring comes, the whole district Bac Ha, Lao Cai province, is coated with a white shirt of plum flowers. In the white background stands out a mansion complex of Hoang Yen Chao - Hoang A Tuong (father and son) in the greenery of boundless forests and mountains. For over 80 past years, moss-grown Hoang A Tuong mansion has become a destination for visitors far and wide.

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Son means mountain and La means stream. Son La Province originates from a stream on a mountain. Through 110 years of development since its founding, the stream is still running around 12 fraternal ethnicities who have created great strength, making the province a shining pearl in the North-western region of the country.

Visiting the work of the century

Son La hydroelectric-power work lies upstream on the Da River in It Ong Commune of Muong La District, about 250 km away from the Hoa Binh hydroelectric-power station. With an average electricity output of 10.2 billion KWh per year, it is the biggest hydroelectric-power plant in Southeast Asia. After only six months of construction, the cadres and workers of Song Da Construction Company (LICOGI) have built 120 km of new roads, three bridges over the Da River at the construction site area and the Muong La Port Complex, using more than 80,000 cubic metres of concrete. These facilities have been put to use, serving the transport of materials and equipment.

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Many times ago, Nga Son (Thanh Hoa) has been well known for planting sedge and weaving mat. Even local travelers or visitors all buy the couple Mat of Nga Son as a present. It is cheap, beautiful and comfortable for sleeping… weaving sedge mat becomes the triditional handicraft at Nga Son. The local people at born-time get used to smoking scent, loom and consider the colour of sedge flower as the colour of aristocratic apricot blossom.

The Sedge makes the life of Nga Son�s people less tired. Children go to school and there are always the well pupils at provincial and national levels. Adults is took care more of food and clothes… coming to Nga Son in sedge bloom season, people seem to be lost in the forest of sparkling color. The sedge with 3 edges is planted on a large scale, rising up over the taste of marine soil.

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Da Lat Flower Festival 2005 –the biggest-ever in Vietnam – was spectacularly held in the Capital of the Central Highlands Province of Lam Dong to honour flower-growing and flower growers and affirm the Da Lat flower brand both in domestic and overseas markets.

The 113 year-old City typically featured for its western architecture in Lang Biang Plateau has many nicknames: Mist City; Dreamy City; City of Love; City of Howling Pines, etc. However, the “City of Flowers” was the most common name used during the nine-day festival.

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With renowned landscapes, such as Tam Dao, Tay Thien, Dai Lai, Dam Vac and Thac Bac, Vinh Phuc Province has become a wonderland with innumerable marvels that have left unforgettable impressions on every visitor.

The attractiveness of Vinh Phuc Province, 50km Northwest of Hanoi Capital, comes not only from more than 500 relics, cultural works and many special traditional fetes and festivals, but also from its diverse cultures built up for thousands of years, which are hidden in its place-names and residents, creating the province’s own characteristics.

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Ca Mau – a region reclaimed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries – is the habitat of the three ethnic groups: the Viet, the Hoa and the Khmer. This resulted in the mixed cultural features reflected through the unique and rich customs and practices by the locals.

Ca Mau is a vast submerged region in the Mekong River Delta of Southern Vietnam with criss-crossing rivers and canals of thousands of kilometres long. Hence, water transportation plays an important role in the local commercial activities.

The area is endowed by nature with a great potential in eco-tourism. Visitors to this southernmost locality will have an opportunity to wander through the submerged mangrove forests, to visit the islands, bird sanctuary, human dwellings and wild nature conservation areas.

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In past and now, when mention to Hoi A trade village, it is always said to Thanh Ha pottery, Kim Bong carpenter village and hardly to the lantern work. Years recently, Hoi An lantern work has developed greatly and attracted many labors, because out of the rules of committee town all families light lantern in the night of ancient city (monthly 14th lunar calendar), all tourists buy a lantern as a souvenir. So it is surprising that over 30,000 units exported to Australia in 2 times besides selling to Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh Cities.

Hoi An lantern is various size and shape, from normal lantern to dragon lantern or fish lantern with full of color. Hoi An people highly pride on their lantern. It is very simple and easy to do only with hard-work .

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The Silver-carving going with unique excellent goods is named Lang Dong Xam (Copper-Engraving Village), a well-known and age- old centre for jewelry.

When the main product of Chau Khe(Hai Hung) is gold, Dinh Cong(Ha Noi) is gold jewel but Dong Xam (Thai Binh) is expert in carving silver.

Dong Tam Carving silver trade village ( the old name is Duong Tham) is located in the right bank-side of Dong Giang river in Hong Thai village, Kien Xuong district, Thai Binh province.

According to the note in the historic down-notes, this village was known at the end of the Tran-Ho Dynasty(times) for over 600 yearsn but after the very long time the silver-carving has been seen.

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Rearing silkworms and mulberry for silk-weaving has long been a traditional occupation in Vietnam. As the legend goes, Princess Hoang Phu Thieu Hoa, daughter to King Hung (3,000 years ago) was a nice-looking, virtuous, skilful and hardworking girl. For this reason, her father sent her to Co Do village and more than 60 villages along the banks of the Red River to help the villagers rear silkworms with mulberry and weave silk.
The Co Do silk became a singular speciality as a tribute to the King. By and by, this craft spread to all corners of the land, from the coastal plains to the mid-lands, flourishing along with the cultivaof wet rice.

This craft is a marvellous combination of three components: cultivation (mulberry fanning); breeding (silkworm rearing) and handicraft (silk weaving). Formerly, it was a secondary trade of the farmers in the Red River Delta, where you could find rice paddy fields and mulberry groves everywhere as well as mulberry hedges around gardens and mulberry trees lining the sides of village paths.

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