Fifth European Food Festival to cook up a storm in Hanoi

The fifth European Food Festival will be held in Hanoi on May 22 on the garden grounds of the National Library of Vietnam. Speaking at a press conference on May 14 in Hanoi, Preben Hjortlund, deputy chairman of EuroCham, said Eurocham began the festival in 2005 to promote cooperation between the European and Vietnamese communities.

According to organisers, this will be EuroCham's prime social event this year, combining a unique culinary experience while celebrating the worldwide cultural event Europe Days.

This year's food festival will offer authentic European food and beverages, activities for children and live entertainment from en-vogue bands to the best dance troupes in town.

Food specialties include paella, beef Zurichoise with spatzle, the Metropole's Chef clay pot, Italian lasagna, spaghetti Bolognese and assorted baguettes and pizzas.

The event will feature a broad variety of European beverages, including one of the most famous German beers, Bitburger.

Chefs from the Metropole, Sofitel Plaza Hanoi, Melia, Sunway Hanoi, Mercure and Panee Vino will also attend the festival.

A kids' corner will be set up for children with games and entertainment activities, including a giant jumping castle, house of balls, face painting and more.

Tickets are available at the EuroCham Hanoi office, Pane e Vino restaurant or at the gate on the day. Ticket price is 200,000 VND (10.5 USD) per person, including six coupons for food, beer and drinks of all kinds. Entrance is free for children under 10.

Source: Vietnam+

Special tourism programs capitalize on Hanoi’s millennial celebration and national tourism year

The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced many events an programs to develop Hanoi tourism, designed to promote Hanoi’s special and unique tourism products to regional and international friends, creating a foundation for tourism development in the years to come.

Since April, Hanoi has worked with Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Thua Thien – Hue provinces to develop tour itineraries through Viet capital cities. In addition, other programs such as health tourism (visiting medical foundations treating patients with traditional oriental medicine and exercise), a program to increase the quality of city tours, a program focusing on Hanoi museums, a program on ecological tourism in Ba Vi district, a program upgrading Red River tourism, a program to develop home-stay tourism in the outskirts of Hanoi, a program surveying traditional villages and ancient quarters, and a program promoting gastronomy tourism.

These programs are expected to be carried out by the end of 2010. They are also activities to respond to 1,000 years of Thang Long – Hanoi.

In 2010, Hanoi launched a “Green tourism” movement to expand sustainable tourism, increase the quality of tourism and keep Hanoi clean and green in the eyes of tourists.

Some other activities aiming to increase the quality of tourism include a contest for good tour guides and qualified tourism centers to celebrate 1,000 years of Thang Long – Hanoi, and the organization of the Thang Long – Hanoi international tourism festival.

Source: CPV

Cotect unveils $79 mil resort plan for Vung Tau

The first five-star resort in Vung Tau will be built by Ho Chi Minh City-based company Cotect Investment with an estimated VND1.5 trillion (US$79 million). The Cotect Investment and Land House Development Joint Stock recently announced that the Blue Sapphire would include a 15 floor hotel, high class villas, restaurants, swimming pools, tennis courts, and a conference center.

The project will also feature a road along a 450-meter long beach in the resort area, about four kilometers from downtown Vung Tau and 120 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City.

Cotect chairman Dao Duc Nghia said the complex would take three years to complete.


Source: Monre

Community tourism promoted in Dien Bien

“I was greatly impressed by how unspoilt the mountain was and with the folk songs, dances and the food eaten by the Thai ethnic minority people,” said an Australian tourist. Vietnamese-Australian Nguyen Pham Dien gave his first impression of Men hamlet in Thanh Nua village, Dien Bien district, one of the eight sites that promotes community tourism in Dien Bien province. It was started in 2004 to promote the cultural identity of the Thai ethnic minority group.

Tourists are invited into stilt houses and served with sweet bamboo shoots, baked fish and bamboo-tube rice while their hearts are lifted by the melodious folk music. Many admitted that they almost lost their hearts to the beautiful charming Thai girls as they danced and sang so sweetly.

Home-stay programmes are open to anyone who is interested in becoming a member of the Thai community to find out more about their tribal customs and daily lives.

The provincial authorities have said that community based tourism is expected to expand across the province to promote the cultural identities of all the 21 local ethnic minority groups. The programme will also help to increase the local per-capita incomes by around 700,000 VND a month. This is enough to buy a months food in mountainous areas and will contribute greatly to reducing poverty.

Six kilometres away from Dien Bien Phu city, Men hamlet is popular for its superb panoramas and is undergoing changes for the better every day thanks to this kind of tourism.

The headman in Men hamlet, Quang Van Thuong, said that the poverty rate in his hamlet has dropped to five percent from 20 percent in 2004 and all the local families can now afford to send their children to school.

Him Lam commune No.2 on the outskirts of Dien Bien Phu city is another example. Until the tourism programme was launched, the local population largely depended on growing rice and maize on the terraced fields, which lead to a high poverty rate. This tourism scheme has helped the local people to return to brocade weaving to sell to tourists and increase their income.

Nguyen Dang Quang, Vice Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, emphasised on the need to educate local people to retain and promote their cultural identity.

The province plans to hold folk song classes for the young generation and restore the local traditional costumes, said Quang.

Local families working in the tourist industry will be sent to Sa Pa mountain resort in the north-western province of Lao Cai as well as Ban Lac tourist site in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh to learn from others how to improve the quality of their services, he added.

Several traditional festivals or rituals will also be revived, such as the festival to pray for peace and the ritual of praying for a bumper harvest as it is expected they will appeal to tourists.

The model of community-based culture tourism currently used in Dien Bien has not yet been fully commercialised, so is quite attractive to foreign tourists, said Quang.

The district has welcomed over 115,000 tourists, including 11,000 foreigners, over the past four months, contributing to the province’s target to attract over 300,000 tourists, including 50,000 foreigners, this year.

Dien Bien Phu was the former battlefield that put an end to the Indochina war. Dien Bien district keeps many items from the bunker of French General De Castries, the commander-in-chief of French the Expeditionary Force at the Dien Bien Phu battlefield.


Source: Vietnam+

Om beach - pride of nature

As modem development continues to devour the natural world, more and more people look for antiques or a pristine destination to experience life in a way more similar to the way our ancestors lived.

When mentioning famous beaches around the country, right away people think of Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc or Vung Tau. But these days, Phu Yen Province is more frequently mentioned by visitors and is listed in tours by local travel agents due to the province’s unspoiled destinations. In which, Om Beach is a stop that any tourist coming to Phu Yen Province should not miss in order to wallow in the temptation of nature.

Belonging to Xuan Dai Bay, Om Beach is rather an obscure name to tourists in Vietnam, which is why it has resisted industrial development, human settlement or any services. The beach feasts visitors a totally brand-new feeling different from other beaches with a natural world separated with outside world by peace, silence and primitiveness.

Om Beach is divided in two by an isthmus with the front beach boasts with an endless sandy beach under shade of coconut trees and the back beach hugged by two hills.

Just a meter or so under the salt water is sharp and jagged coral so swimmers must be careful to avoid injury. However, there is swimming and bathing in crystal-blue water and a chance to admire the colorful reef and schools of fish.

More importantly, there are many giant rocks in diverse shapes near the beach that are great background for girls in bikinis to pose for many photos.

Om Beach can be reached from the center of Tuy Hoa City by taking National Highway 1A to Song Cau Town. From here, ask a local the way to Vung La, a fishing village in Xuan Phuong Commune just 600 meters south of the beach. Boats can be hired from local fishermen at Song Cau Town or Nhat Tu Son Town about six kilometers south of the beach. The boat trip takes about 90 minutes.

New air route between Da Nang and Da Lat cities

The Da Nang City People’s Committee and Lam Dong province have signed an agreement with Vietnam Airlines to re-open an air route connecting Da Nang and Da Lat, a local paper has said.

Beginning in mid-June, the carrier will operate at least four flights per week from Da Nang to Da Lat with ATR72 aircraft, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

The air route was re-opened to satisfy the demand of residents in the area as well as promote tourism development of two key tourism cities in the central and Central Highlands region.

Hue Festival 2010 to have fireworks

The government has permitted the organizing board of Hue Festival 2010 to let off fireworks for 15 minutes at the opening and closing ceremonies held at Ngo Mon Square on June 5 and Gia Hoi ground on June 13.

The 6th Hue Festival will feature the theme “Cultural heritage with integration and development”. At this moment, 26 countries have registered to join the festival, including seven countries that participate in the event the first time – Cuba, Haiti, Senegal, Mexico, Denmark, Norway and Poland.

Many forms of arts will be performed during the 8-day festival, such as singing, circus, drama, street arts, installation art, movie, and puppetry.

The festival will not only be held inside Hue city but also Hue’s neighbouring areas like A Luoi, Nam Dong and Phu Loc districts.

Hue Festival 2010 is among national events to celebrate Hanoi’s 1000th anniversary and 50th anniversary of the relations among Hanoi-Hue-Saigon.


Source: VietNamNet

Vietnam, Mexico boost cultural, sports, tourism cooperation

The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), Hoang Tuan Anh, visited Mexico from May 23-28 to strengthen bilateral ties in fields under his charge. During the visit, Minister Anh attended the opening ceremony of the Vietnam Week in Mexico City and met with leaders of Mexico’s National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULA), National Commission for Physical Culture and Sports (CONADE) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

During the meetings, the two sides agreed to exchange delegations and documents, hold joint exhibitions and culture weeks, negotiate and sign a three-year cooperation agreement in the field of sports and work together to seek effective measures to implement signed cultural and tourism agreements.

They vowed to assist each other in organising cultural events and major festivals in each country, including the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, the 120 th birthday of late President Ho Chi Minh, the 200 th anniversary of Mexico ’s Independence Day and 100 years of its Revolution.

Minister Anh thanked the Mexican Government and people for their sincere sentiments towards President Ho Chi Minh, noting that Mexico is the first country to build Uncle Ho statues, which are in Mexico City and the coastal city of Acapunco.

In the field of sports, Minister Anh suggested Vietnam sending over coaches in wushu, taekwondo and shooting while Mexico will offer back help in springboard and football.

On the occasion, the CONADE leaders handed over to Vietnam a draft bilateral cooperation agreement on sports and pledged to visit Hanoi in August.

The Vietnamese side proposed that Mexico vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the seven new natural wonders of the world. Vietnam promised to join the American International Tourism Fair to be held in Mexico in September while the Mexican side agreed to send a delegation to participate in the regular international tourism fair in Ho Chi Minh City as from this year.

Source: http://www.vietnamtourism.gov.vn

Mekong Delta nations meet to discuss tourism

A seminar was held in Phu Quoc island district in the southern province of Kien Giang on May 28 to discuss how to develop tourism in the Mekong Delta region. Representatives from several Vietnamese State agencies and tourist agencies from the Mekong sub-region countries attended the seminar.

The participants agreed that countries in the region offer great potential for developing tourism.

In addition, the countries involved have a diverse range of natural resources, with numerous biosphere reserves and eco-tourism parks, as well as many places of historical interest and a thriving arts scene.

In Vietnam’s part of the Mekong Delta region, there are over 120 cultural and historical sites and several biosphere reserves which have been recognised by UNESCO. These areas alone attract 6.5 percent of the country’s foreign visitors to Vietnam annually.

Management agencies, scientists and businesspeople at the seminar also discussed putting together a long term plan to ensure the sustainable development of the tourism industry in the Mekong Delta region.

Vietnam welcomes more foreign tourists by sea

Saigontourist welcomed 2,100 tourists aboard the Costa Romantica cruise liner which anchored at the Navi Oil port, Ho Chi Minh City, on June 1. The visitors, who are Italian, Spanish, British and German, will make a tour of Ho Chi Minh City and the central region, with main destinations being Da Nang, Hoi An, My Son and Hue, within three days.

In the first half of the year, Saigontourist received 37,000 sea visitors, mostly from the European countries.

Vietnam Airlines operates 430 more domestic flights

Flagship carrier Vietnam Airlines will operate at least 430 more flights to tourist destinations across the country as part of its plan to add an extra 826 domestic flights from June 1 to August 31 this year.

Vietnam Airlines said it will conduct the most flights (an additional 114) on the route between HCMC and Phu Quoc, a resort island off Kien Giang in the Mekong Delta region.

The carrier will service 88 more flights between Hanoi and the former imperial city Hue, which is a UNESCO-listed heritage site that often attracts many domestic and international vacationers in summer. Meanwhile, it will add 28 more flights between HCMC-Hue.

The airline plans to operate 48 more flights on the Hanoi-Dong Hoi and HCMC-Dong Hoi routes, 34 more flights between HCMC-Buon Ma Thuot and HCMC-Nha Trang, and an additional 18 flights from Hanoi-Nha Trang and Hanoi-Dien Bien.

Frequency between Hanoi-HCMC will increase considerably by up to 204 flights, representing a 10% rise compared to the airline’s normal schedule and 28% on the same period last year.

Vietnam Airlines will operate 132 extra flights on the Hanoi-Danang route, and 60 flights between HCMC and the central coastal city, up 14% and 10% respectively compared to the same period last year.

Vietnam Airlines will use large aircraft including Airbus A320s and A321s, A330-200s and Boeing 777s for the flights between HCMC and Hanoi, and between these cities and Danang.

The carrier will use ATR 72 and Fokker 70 aircraft for short-haul destinations.

Source: VietNamNet/SGT (viet nam tour)

A traditional ballad singer in Japan

His name is a rat senior. The pronunciation is “nezumi senpai”. He is a traditional ballad singer in Japan that debuted majors recently. He is very popular before it debuts, and everyone knows him in Roppongi in Tokyo.

I love IKEA in PortIsland

It was built in Kobe Port Island long-awaited IKEA. It was big crowds of people on that day of opening a store. I went the next day. It is at 8:00AM to arrive two hours that open a store ago. Four cars were queuing up. I thought it was unexpectedly few.



It entered and I was surprised at the size and cheapness in the shop. The restaurant was crowded and the entrance limitation was done. The taste was thin though roast beef was soft. Japanese food is still more delicious.



It waited for about ten minutes though the congestion of the cash register was expected. the design is good and cheap. It is a great shop.

Japanese dragon in the game center

This is a Japanese dragon. I found it in the game center. It is a poster of the mah-jong game. Because it was a very beautiful dragon, photographed it.

http://www.konami.jp/mfc/index.html