Van Long Nature Reserve

Van Long Nature Reserve is situated in Gia Vien district along the Northeastern border of Ninh Binh Province. Van Long straddles seven communes (local Government administrative units) and is in the heartland of the populated centre of north-eastern Vietnam, 85km south of the capitol, Hanoi. In Van Long, there are many scarce animals and plants and contains many cultural resources and intangible objects. This was the hometown of King Dinh Tien Hoang, God Nguyen, and four Pink princesses.

With the tremendous value of the nature, environment, history and culture, Van Long is considered as the top eco-tourism destinations in the northern Vietnam, particularly being attracted by European, South Korea and Japan. Van Long Natural wetlands Reserve is being selected as a major tourism resort in the plan for tourism development in 2015 of the local.

Van Long Nature Reserve

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (World Cultural Heritage)

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is located in the communes of Vinh Tien, Vinh Long, Vinh Quang , Vinh Yen, Vinh Phuc, Vinh Ninh, Vinh Khang and Vinh Thanh and Vinh Loc Town (Vinh Loc district), Thanh Hoa province. It is the ancient capital of the Vietnam from 1398 to 1407.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty was built by Ho Quy Ly in 1397 who at that time was a prime minister under the Tran dynasty. When being completed, Ho Quy Ly forced the king Tran Thuan Tong to move from Thang Long capital (Hanoi) to Thanh Hoa. In February 1400 (Moon calendar), Ho Quy Ly took Tran’s throne and renamed the country Dai

South Gate: view from inside (SouthWest axis)

Ngu (1400-1407) and citadel of the Ho Dynasty officially became the capital. Citadel of the Ho Dynasty historically had some other names known as the An Ton, Tay Do, Tay Kinh, Tay Nhai, Tay Giai.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is considered as a single stone buildings remaining in Southeast Asia and is one of the few remaining in the world. On 27^th June 2011, in Paris (France), during the 35th meeting of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO recognized the Ho as the world’s cultural heritage.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty met two criteria specified in the World Heritage Convention in 2008. Those were the 2^nd criterion “expressing the importance of the exchange of human values ​​, over a period or within a cultural area of the world, on the developments in architecture or technology, sculpture, city planning or landscape design and the 4^th criterion “being the outstanding example of a type of building, an architectural or an engineering population or landscape illustration in one (or more) stage in human history”.

Citadel of Ho Dynasty East Gate

In the world heritage documents, Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is described as a magnificent work of techniques and constructive arts with large stones and a combination of traditionally unique construction in Vietnam, in the East Asia and Southeast Asia during the late 14th century and early 15th century. With the unique construction techniques, using sustainable materials, especially the large stone, Citadel of the Ho Dynasty has been very well preserved. This is one of the few citadels have not suffered strongly from the impact of urbanization, landscape and architectural scale are preserved almost intact both on-ground and in-ground in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (World Cultural Heritage)

The relics of My Son Cham tower (World Cultural Heritage)

My Son is located near the village of Duy Phu, in the administrative district of Duy Xuyen in Quang Nam province in the Central Vietnam, 69 km southwest of Da Nang, and approximately 10 km from the historic town of Tra Kieu and 40km away from the ancient town of Hoi An. The temples are in a valley roughly two kilometers wide that is surrounded by two mountain ranges.

My Son temple is situated in a valley about 2 km in diameter, surrounded by mountains range with the height from 100m to 400m and from the East Truong Son mountain through My Son to the ancient capital – Tra Kieu.

My Son is the Hindu sanctuary of the Champa kingdom. Every king, after taking the throne, had to come to My Son to purge, sacrifice and construct temples. My Son is the only point of Cham art constantly developed from the 7th century to the 13th century. In the early 7th century, Sambhuvarman King built the temple built by sustainable materials existing until now. The successive kings are remodeling the old temples and built new temples to offer to their gods.

My son sanctuary

The main temples in My Son were used to worship Linga or Siva – who protected the kings of the Champa . The god worshiped in the My Son was Bhadresvara who founded the first king of the late 4th century in the Amaravati region and being associated with the name of Siva became the main religious in worshiping the king and the royal ancestors.

In 1885, My Son relics were discovered by a French scholar named MC Paris. In the early 20th century, two researchers from France Telecom were L.de Lajonquiere and L. Finot and an architect and archaeologist H. Parmentier came to My Son to study inscriptions and art of architecture, sculpture of Cham. Until 1903-1904, the most basic of materials about inscriptions and architectural art of My Son were announced by L. Finot.

My son sanctuary

My Son temples are divided into several clusters, built by the same principles. The structure of each cluster consists of a main temple (Kalan) surrounded by smaller stupas or easements. The main temple symbolizes the Meru Mountain which is the center of the universe and the meeting place of the gods and worshiping Siva. The sub- temples were used to worship the gods managing the sky. Besides, the easements are temples with tiled roofs and where pilgrims prepared and stored sacrifice. The Cham temple did not have windows exception to the sub temples.

The relics of My Son Cham tower (World Cultural Heritage)

Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park (Natural World Heritage)

Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park is in Quang Binh – Central of Vietnam. With an area of ​​about 200,000 hectares, Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park is located in the district of Quang Ninh, Bo Trach, Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa and is 50km away from Dong Hoi City.

Besides the historical value of geology, topography, geomorphology, Phong Nha – Ke Bang is also endowed with the mysterious and majestic landscapes.  Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park still hides the mysteries of nature, the caves look like the splendid castle in the heart of the limestone created from millions years ago.

 Phong Nha – Ke Bang is considered as a hugely valued geological museum with global mean due to complex geographic structure which contains a set of different rock types as sandstone, quartzite, schist, siliceous limestone, granodiorite stone, diorite stone, aplite stone, pegmatite … Phong Nha – Ke Bang also contains histories about the complex geological development lasting from 400 million years ago of the earth. Over time and tectonic phase, fault movement, coordination platform, folding created rolling mountain ranges and sedimentary basins subsided. These fluctuations also contributed to the diversity of geology, topography and geomorphology.

Phong Nha – Ke Bang limestone region has the global characteristic in many stages of development from the late Ordovician age – Silurian (463.9 to 430 million years ago) to the Quaternary (1.75 million years ago). Another unique feature is the system of underground rivers and caves in the limestone mountains.

Located in the area with very high average annualprecipitation but its water has soaked into and flowed in underground in the limestone over millions of years and created numerous caves in the area. In Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, there are about 300 large and small caves divided into three main systems: Phong Nha cave system, dome cave system and Ruc Mon cave system

Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park (Natural World Heritage)

Dak Lak in response to tourism stimulus program in 2013

Responding to the tourism stimulus program associated with the promotion of the development of the service sector in 2013 were launched by the Department of Tourism. Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dak Lak has developed and implemented activities attracting the participation of tour operators, hotels, restaurants, transport units, tourism resorts, tourist attractions, shopping and the entertainment areas.

The target of the tourism stimulus program 2013 of Dak Lak  is the tourism development associated with the development of service trade in 2013, to enable the domestic products consumption, especially local product and recover the economic difficulties in the country and  support commercial  service development and generate the  growth of sustainable tourism in the next years, gradually turning tourism into important economic sectors of the province. Besides, the program also aims to raise awareness of the departments, levels, the service providers and community of tourism through the content development of local activities to create the positive response of the entire tourism industry in implementing the program.

Yok Don – the national park

 The program includes a number of activities such as:

Implement promotion campaigns locally: building short tours programs, weekend tours , exploring and experiencing coffee in Buon Ma Thuot tours, tours for Russian tourists (through coordination with the provinces like Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan … ), Vietnam – Laos – Cambodia tours. Encourage tourist attractions, parks and entertainment zones to discount 20 – 25% of tour fare for domestic travel in groups ,programmed tourists to encourage Vietnam Airlines  to discount tickets for travel agents through a number of programs like surveyor  to Dak Lak, the attractive programs to tourists from northern provinces and foreign tourists to Vietnam from the Central … Enhance and organize surveying activities; build new tourism products to diversify the tourism product  to create unique products to attract tourists , supporting businesses in the participation to Famtrip groups for survey, connecting tours with other locals across the country .

Launch the campaign of sales in low season and encourage travel enterprises and units, hotels, restaurants to discounts from 10-30 % in low season (from August to October). Also, encourage businesses in the province to register to participate actively in trade fairs, domestic and international trade and tourism.

Dak Lak Tourism strives to welcome 46,000 international passengers and 419,000 domestic visitors in 2013 to contribute and develop the image of friendly tourism, attraction and quality for visitors.

Dak Lak in response to tourism stimulus program in 2013

More 6 dishes of Hanoi added on top speciality food in Vietnam

Three typical dishes of Hanoi are Pho (Rice noodle), bun thang (vermicelli and chicken soup) and bun cha (grilled chopped meat and vermicelli) were recognized by the Asian Records organization as one of the top 12 dishes of Vietnam at the Asian standard value.

This information was represented by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Hanoi in the press conference on the morning of 3^rd October in 2012.

Rice noodle

Reportedly, in 2012, the Vietnam Records Organization presented the Asian Record to recognize 12 cuisines reaching the record of Asia, including three dishes of Hanoi like Pho (Rice noodle), bun thang (vermicelli and chickens soup) and bun cha (grilled chopped meat and vermicelli). Three dishes were formally recognized by the Asian Records Organization as Asian valued cuisines. Three dishes were introduced in the craft villages and tourism Festival (taking place at the Palace of Sports Apparel Horse in Hanoi from 8^th to 12^th October) to bring the residents and visitors a better idea of ​​the value of the three specialties.

Grilled chopped meat and vermicelli

During the Festival , Hanoi had 6 more best food as “Vietnam’ speciality  Top for first time in 2012″ , including La Vong grilled fish, Thanh Tri spring rolls, Huong Son apricots, Hanoi Canh orange, Hang Than Green rice flakes, Hang Duong sugared dry fruits. “Top specialty Vietnam 2012 for the first time” was awarded by the Vietnam Record Council.

More 6 dishes of Hanoi added on top speciality food in Vietnam

Great organization of our a-month-trip in Vietnam.

Thanks to Manh and to the entire team of Travel Vietnam for the great organization of our a-month-trip in Vietnam.

A three-week-journey in the north, through the beaten paths (we crossed very few tourists) to discover smiling, welcoming and generous people. We admired the courage of women working in terraced paddy fields.

Our 10-km-hike around Sapa was a magical moment. Walk on both side of the river through ethnic villages and terraced rice fields.  Those are difficult roads and tracks, but beautiful weather made everything easier! Lunch was accompanied by local dances in a great space on the banks of the rivers. A day in an authentic place was an unforgettable moment.

We enjoyed the warm atmosphere of the markets where we could find: chickens, pigs, ducks, horses, dogs … We saw all in these markets! That was a wonderful time, especially different colors and smiles of women in Can Cau Market. Also, that was a beautiful unique mini cruise in Halong Bay on land in Hoa Lu, with the oars striking water. Riding through mountain sceneries opened cultural stories of terraced fields covered by a mysterious towel of white fog. That was in Halong Bay in the sunshine, on a private junk (we recommend you to choose for this activity). Or that was judicious choice of hotels, unique and memorable night homestay.

The meals were totally good with delicious food. At first we were very suspicious, especially in the taverns, but in the end we discovered ourselves street food and found it so tasteful! It makes the charm of your wonderful country!

Saigon with thousands of motorcycle is already a metropolis. Awesome!

Three days in Hue and its region helped us to understand history of Vietnam. Besides, Hoi An imperial city was amazing with its great historic site: CHAM in MY SON.

In the south, I really loved the sampan rides on multiple arms of the MEKONG and its lush arroyos leading us to CAI RANG – the famous floating market.

Above all was great organization of Travel Vietnam agency. You were very dedicated, helpful and always listen to us. We also appreciated thoughtful and careful drivers. We highly recommend this agency for its professionalism.

That is a true story and a beautiful meeting from this trip.

We think we are ready to come back, of course with Travel Vietnam.

A thousand thanks to you, Manh and see you very soon.

Annie and Claude

23 Chemin du finier, 45700 Solterre, France

Tel: 02 38 94 93 57

Mobile: 06 68 16 44 86

Great organization of our a-month-trip in Vietnam.

Palm leaf conical hat villages in Hue

Speaking of special products of traditional handicraft villages in Hue, conical hats are probably more widely known. Not only are conical hats used for protecting from the sun, rain and attached to the daily life of people in Hue, but more than that , it has become a cultural specialty – “poem hats ” associated with the image of the Hue girls.

A beautiful girl with the palm-leaf conical hat

Hue’s conical hats, especially “poem” hats are favored by many visitors due to the light and gentleness. Those are not only as simple hats but are a real work of art. To get a beautiful hat satisfying buyers, the Hue’s artisans have to meticulously go through many stages which require diligence, skillful hands of artisans (from choosing the frame, bending brims, covering leaves, cutting flowers, to completing hats and finally polishing and storage, and then selling).

Therefore, in the village hat, the division of labor is expressed very specifically. From frame makers, polishing craftsmen to bending brim makers… each has to work very professionally their own job. Bending brim is the first stage which determines the meniscus, roundness, shape, size of the hats. Hat frame is made of light wood with curved roofs and with various sizes. If the trend doesn’t change, hat frames are often used in dozens years, without changing the design. Hat brims are made ​​of bamboo trees which are popular in Hue and are cleaved. Each hat has from 15 to16 brims, which traditionally is considered as “the 16 brims of moon”.

Palm leaf conical hats in the festival villages.

Leaves of Hue conical leaf hat is just ordinary, but are selected through the various stages such as steaming, drying, exposing in the frost, thorough ironing and remaining green white in order to meet the standards. The hidden icon in the “poem” conical hat is usually the images of Truong Tien Bridge, Ngu Binh Mountain, Ngo Mon Gate, Phu Van Lau and the Thanh Toan tiling bridge…Accompanying with the images is some famous verses about Hue which are in the iridescent cellophane, standing out among the green white of conical hats.

Tourists can find conical hats in every market, from the major markets such as, Dong Da, An Cuu, Ben Ngu to small markets like, Sia, Pho Trach. Particularly, Le market is very famous with conical hats in hundred years which is the wholesale for markets from the North to the South.

A palm leaf conical hat craftswoman

Therefore Hue conical hat is no longer merely product, but has become a unique culture brand. This is also the first handicraft products has certified protection of geographical indications in May 8/2010 from  Intellectual Property Department (Ministry of Science and Technology).

In the streets of Hue today, tourists cannot see the conical hats everywhere, but it has become a culture, an indispensable charm of Hue cultural life. Therefore, the department and functional agencies in Thua Thien – Hue have launched several measures to conserve and restore, and develop the traditional craft such as capital support, market search and associate the craft with tourism through the Hue’s festival villages.

Palm leaf conical hat villages in Hue