Saigon has many locations offering different kinds of hotpot including keo fish at Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, Su Thien Chieu and Nguyen Thi Dieu streets in District 3, beef at Truong Dinh Street in District 3 and An Duong Vuong Street in District 5, goat at Nguyen Cong Tru Street in District 1, mam (fish sauce) at Tran Huy Lieu Street, fish heads at Chau Van Liem Street in HCMC’s District 5 and mixed hotpot at Tung Thien Vuong Street in District 8.

Apart from local hotpot, people can find many international styles of Thai, Japanese and Korean hotpot at many restaurants around town.

Eating hotpot doesn’t mean dining only. It brings you into a cozy atmosphere when friends and family members gather to talk and share a big cook of soup. Food accompanied with hotpot is diversified, including many kinds of meat, seafood and vegetables for people to choose which one they like or sometimes to compete with each other for their favorites. It makes a happy and jubilant atmosphere and sees people join together.

The most important thing about hotpot is the soup; it has to be not too salty or not too flat so that when you put all the ingredients together they will mingle together for a perfect taste.

Once eating this dish, we should put the food which takes longer to cook first then wait until bubbles appear on the surface to put vegetables inside. Then, we take some rice vermicelli into a small bowl, and pour soup and food into the bowl.

It’s a big mistake not to mention the fish sauce when eating hotpot. If soup contributes 60% to the delicious flavor of the dish, fish sauce adds 20%.

The freshness of vegetables and ingredients is the other 20% to complete the perfect hotpot. Just imagine the pungent spice of fish sauce at the top of your tongue mingled with the morish flavor of hot soup and the chewy taste of vegetables is an amazing feeling that only a hotpot can give us.

Additionally, hotpot not only wakes up our taste buds but also our vision thanks to the many colors of ingredients including the white-yellow soup, the green vegetables and the white and red meat and dark brown of fish sauce.

People, especially foreigners, find it interesting to see different cookers at different hotpot shops. They range from a coal cooking fire in Chau Van Liem Street, alcohol cookers at Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street and gas cooker at many hotpot shops.

Prices for hotpot vary from VND80,000 for a small pot to over VND300,000 for a large one. If you want to order more vegetables or food for the pot, you pay VND10,000-50,000 per dish.

Even when the rain stops, people don’t want to leave hotpot shops. Maybe they are scared of the coldness outside or does the soup, the warmth of the cooker or the happiness inside keep them in the bosom of the hotpot.

About 60 arts programmes with the performance of professional and amateur art troupes will be held in many places across the city on both days, praising patriotism, the leadership of the Party and Uncle Ho in national liberation, and the achievements of the Doi Moi (renewal) process.

On the occasion, the Exhibition and Information Centre has also compiled documents on the historical significance of the August Revolution and National Independence Day.

In addition, cultural and historical sites including the Temple of Literature, Hanoi Museum, Hoa Lo prison and the Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam Science and Culture Centre will be open extra hours for visitors.

The project will be divided into two periods – from 2011 to 2015 and from 2016 to 2020.

It aims to use the strength of the community to promote ethnic culture; making cultural identities the spiritual foundation of the society, while also acting as the driving force for socio-economic development. The project also aspires to preserve cultural traditions in order to glorify time-honoured ethnic minority identities, strengthen national defence and security, while simultaneously combining economic development with ethnic cultural preservation.

By 2015, the project will aim to bring ethnic minority groups of under 5,000 people out of a disadvantaged situation by promoting specific culture heritages of these groups. Each district in ethnic-inhabited areas will be supported in developing at least one traditional craft, folklore or tourism activity, contributing to poverty alleviation and socio-economic development.

By 2020, 60 to 80% of cultural workers in ethnic-inhabited areas will be trained.

In addition, the Government and provincial People’s Committee will set up programmes to preserve and promote the culture of ethnic minority groups. These programmes will also socially educate people from other areas about the preservation and promotion of ethnic culture.
(Source: CPV)

Cam Ngoc Minh, Chairman of Son La provincial People’s Committee, said he hopes that through the programme, both local and foreign visitors will learn more about the northwestern region in general and Son La province in particular.

Minh, who is also head of the organizing board, expressed his wish that investors will continue to pour further investment into the region through the programme.

The programme, the first of its kind for the northern province of Son La, aims to introduce and develop trademarks for tourism products for the region, strengthen cooperation among localities, and take full advantage of the natural landscapes, historical relics, and cultural identities of ethnic groups.

It is also expected to turn the tourism industry in the region – and in Son La in particular – into a tourism centre for the northwestern area in order to greatly contribute to the country’s socio-economic development.

The programme will last from August 27 to September 2 this year.

Mount Kinabalu, jungles, beaches and diving areas in the Sabah state were among the new destinations that Malaysian travel firms introduced to their counterparts in HCMC last week and in Hanoi on Monday as part of the Malaysian Borneo Tourism Seminar and Travel Mart 2011 in Vietnam.

Mohd Akbal Setia, director of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Vietnam, said the major event was for travel companies in Vietnam and Sabah to mull packages consisted of islands, beaches and adventures for the Vietnamese market. Setia said there was huge potential to draw Vietnamese nature lovers and adventurous travelers to new destinations in Malaysia in addition to general tourists to sightseeing sites and shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, Genting and Malacca. “More people want to do something else with eco-tourism and adventures, and Sabah can cater to this rising demand,” Setia told the Daily after the meeting arranged last Friday for Malaysian firms to meet with representatives of some 30 travel firms in HCMC.

Representatives of local tourism companies applauded the joint effort of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and Sabah Tourism Board for offering Vietnamese travelers, particularly MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) guests, more options and reasons to visit Malaysia.

Setia said that the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board saw increasing interest of Vietnamese travelers in new places and steady growth in the number of Vietnamese visitors to Malaysia over the past years.

Malaysia attracted roughly 59,000 Vietnamese visitors in the first five months of this year compared to 58,770 in the year earlier period. Setia said the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board was looking to 166,000 this year.

Vietnamese arrivals in Malaysia are forecast to jump in summer months as reported by Vietnamese travel firms at the Malaysian Borneo Tourism Seminar and Travel Mart 2011 in HCMC last Friday. There have been more flights between Vietnam and Malaysia this year.

Each of Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia operates three daily flights to and from HCMC and one from Hanoi, and these flights can be connected with their daily services from the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. Vietnam Airlines’ launch of its direct daily service between Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur in mid-June this year brought the carrier’s number of flights between Vietnam and Malaysia to 21 a week.

Setia said Vietnam was now ranked Malaysia’s 14th visitor-generating market and expected that Vietnam would be in the list of his country’s top 10 markets in terms of visitors in the next three years.
(Source: SGT)

The rocky, limestone district of Quan Ba was our second stop after Hoang Su Phi.

Located 320km to the north of Hanoi on the border with China , the district at an elevation of 1,000m above sea level and with its fresh, cool climate, typifies the beauty of Ha Giang. From there, we set out for the Quan Ba Pass and Heaven’s Gate. The imposing, formidable landscape had us in awe as our car snaked along the treacherous roads, clinging to the side of the mountain. With a sheer drop on one side and cliffs rising up into the clouds on the other, it was as if God had chalked a line across the harsh terrain.

Reaching Heaven’s Gate, the mist enveloped us, and the biting breeze rushed into the car as soon as the door was opened. The temperature in the early morning was very cold, even though we were wearing warm clothes.

Heaven’s Gate is about 1,500m above sea level, and in 1939, the French built a stone wall and a wooden gate to block the pass, in order to prevent access to the Dong Van plateau and beyond. From the top of the mountain pass, we looked down across a large valley of unending terraced fields, displaying a charming beauty like a paradise dimly visible through the clouds. They carpet the ground in a patchwork of yellow rice, green shoots and brown mountain earth, with small houses nestled in between.

Standing out from this colourful valley is Twin Mountain , certified as a national heritage site by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism last year.

Its twin peaks rise up like the breasts of a giant woman, lying on the valley floor. The mountain is truly a product of leaching and erosion, combined with tectonic movement from a fault line below that last occurred around 5 million years ago. In actual fact, Quan Ba boasts an extensive karst landscape, but many regard Twin Mountain as its most beautiful feature, due to its picturesque setting.

We ventured down to Quyet Tien Commune, where the weather is very cool. With its temperate climate and fertile soil, locals can grow vegetables such as kohlrabi, cabbages, mustard greens, tomatoes and potatoes, as well as flowers including roses, daisies and violets, that they sell in the town.

We caught snatches of conversation from the locals as they worked happily in the fields.

We stopped one farmer, and asked her about her livelihood, and she blushed with embarrassment.

“My family used to grow rice, but now we grow high-quality vegetables and flowers. Thanks to this, my family’s income has increased significantly,” said Vang Thi May from Vinh Tien Hamlet.

Heading to Lung Tam Commune over the rolling hills and bumpy roads, we saw a valley of lush, green flax. This kind of plant provides the main raw material for brocade weaving. The village has a long-standing tradition of brocade weaving that contributes to preserving the traditional culture of the Mong who live in the area.

Around the Hop Tien Flax Weaving Co-operative established in the village in 2001, clanking sounds emanate from the looms and sewing machines.

The organisation started with 20 members, but today, 110 members each enjoy an average income of 1 million VND (48 USD) per month.

Cai Be District is known for its winding canals, orchards and a floating market where tourists can buy local specialties from dried foods to fruit and seafood. But that is merely scratching the surface as the real treasure is located in an orchard on an area of 1.8 hectares in Phu Hoa Hamlet, Dong Hoa Hiep Commune.

Ba Kiet Old House was built in 1924 and is a popular model for traditional houses in the South in Can Tho, Vinh Long or Tien Giang.

It has five areas and more than 100 wooden pillars and the house is in great condition thanks to a renovation in 1998 at a cost of VND1.8 billion by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

It is famous for its meticulously-detailed and elegant carvings on the walls, pillars, doors and gate. There are also finely preserved antiques such as a set of settees, oil lamps and a balcony carved with patterns presenting landscapes and flowers of the four seasons.

Tran Van Binh inherited the house and it has been developed as tourist site for visitors to the province.

The three-star category saw the strongest growth, increasing in the period to 47 hotel from 21, according to the department.

As of last month, there were 13 four-star and five-star hotels, an increase from eight and 11.

Hundreds more luxury hotel rooms are expected to open this year to meet increasing demand from foreign visitors.

The 335-room, five-star Nikko Sai Gon Hotel in District 1 is scheduled to be completed in October.

The four-star Grand Hotel will complete its upgrade into a 500-room, five-star hotel this year.

With a 15 percent increase in foreign visitors a year, the demand for high-end hotel rooms was huge, Tran Hung Viet, general director of the State-owned Saigontourist Holding Company, said.

Earlier this month his company broke ground for work to expand Majestic Hotel into a new complex with 538 rooms by 2014, including 353 newly built rooms.

It will open two other hotels in the downtown area, the four-star Novotel Sai Gon Centre with 250 rooms in 2012 and the five-star Pullman Sai Gon Centre with 300 rooms a year later.

Saigontourist targets adding 2,000 luxury rooms by 2015.

The city tourism industry forecasts that the existing and new hotels could serve around 4 million foreign visitors to the city next year.

Members of the Vietnam Archaeological Institute and the Bac Can Museum have been excavating the area for possible prehistoric remains since June.

Numerous artefacts, dating from 20,000BC to 10,000BC, have been found in Tham Hau, Tham Coc Nghiu and Tham Mya villages in the Nang River valley.

Trinh Nang Chung, from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute, said Stone Age people inhabited the area for many thousands of years and were responsible for what has become known as the Hoa Binh culture (10,000 BC).
(Source: VNA)

This was a good translation of the cooperative agreement signed in 2009 by the Champassak Tourism Association (CTA) and the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, CTA Chairman Somleth Phosalath said on July 18.

The rise is mostly attributed to the introduction of package tours, the improvement in transport routes, capacity and quality of the tourism sectors of both sides, she said.

She expressed her hope that the resumption of the Vientiane – Pakse – Ho Chi Minh City flight in January, 2011 would help to increase the number of Vietnamese arrivals, including those from Ho Chi Minh City, to Champassak province