Almost every traveler who visits Southeast Asia makes it a point to visit Halong Bay: a picturesque bay set amidst emerald waters and craggy limestone cliffs. Next to Ho Chi Minh City, Halong Bay is right up the list of must-see destinations for travelers in the region

So what can one do around Halong Bay besides taking that once-in-a-lifetime cruise into the UNESCO World Heritage site here? Fear no more as I had one extra day around Halong City when I visited Halong Bay, Vietnam recently. So here are 5 things you can do around Halong Bay if you have time to kill waiting for your junk boat cruise.

Bai Chay Tourist Wharf and Jetty
Bai Chay Tourist Wharf. It is here that most of the travelers will arrive at before heading out on the Halong Bay Overnight Cruise. Depending on your departure time, you may or may not have time to explore the area.

Vietnamese Coffee
Try some Vietnamese Coffee the Cafe 555 opposite the Bai Chay Tourist Wharf. Well, you need to walk about 100 meters to your right if you exit Bai Chay. The cafe is located in between a row of shops by the main road. They serve some potent coffee here so if you are a coffee lover, you hit jackpot here. If you don’t drink coffee, they have other drinks there too.

Karaoke anytime of the day
Try the Cafe Kinh Moi Karaoke just further down the road from Cafe 555. Start your karaoke sessions early if you must here. Singing is inside but if you so desire to do it outside, by all means.

Halong Market
Take a taxi to Halong City and visit the Halong Market. This market is right in the heart of Halong City and you cannot walk there unless you have a few hours to spare. Best would be to take a taxi there. Once here, explore the dry and wet market. A number of interesting items can be seen here while it would be wise to stock up on snacks and drinks for your Halong Bay Cruise.

Vietnamese Snacks and Herbal Drinks
Indulge in the local Vietnamese food and drinks at Halong City. In and around the Halong Market, there are quite a number of exotic foods available if you are up to it. One of the must-try items are the Squid Cakes which are similar to Thai Fish Cakes, these are sold in the open area behind Halong Market.

A number of stalls sell them and they are reasonably cheap and quite tasty. If you walk around the wet market area, you will come across various local foods and delicacies. One of them, the deep fried mini crabs sold cooked or raw. Also, if you have an iron stomach, try some of the local mixed rice dishes and finally wash it down with some local Vietnamese Herbal Drinks. Don’t forget to buy some local fruits for your Halong Bay Overnight Cruise trip.

Halong Bay Casino
Take a walk to the Halong Bay Casino (Royal International Casino). This super small and only casino in Halong Bay can be seen just located by the main road to Bai Chay. Walking here can take you about 10-15 minutes from the wharf. Foreigners need to show your passport to enter and there is no deposit required.

A coffee lounge with slot machines on the ground floor is open to all while there are two gambling halls, one on the ground floor which is closed on weekdays while the main hall is up on the first floor. So small that I walked round it in less than two minutes. So if you’re feeling lucky, head on to the Halong Bay Casino.

Source: Wild Junket

Posted by: Indochina Sails

Welcome for visiting Guilin (China) and Phuket (Thailand) is often different sites through Halong bay looks like a plus because of geographical settings. However, on visiting Vietnam to guess, all have the same opinion of Halong bay is much broader and more diverse.

This is so beautiful, after a period of very small minds, Halong Bay is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage in December 1994. These are two of the four soil Heritage listed Vietnam. See a movie in 1991 and French Indochina was an explosion in Halong Bay.

The film is particularly well-liked was about the existence of a French woman living in Vietnam and French Indochina in the dominance of the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The important role played by Catherine Deneuve.

As the film makes the roads around the ground, not only French-speaking tourists began to create a trip to Halong Bay, except for land at the time, including a spectacular ocean view on the journey.

Before he went so well liked, it is very difficult to get from Hanoi to Halong bay, 170 km. In 1995, it took no less than six hours of heavy two-boat crossing the river, because it is not easy to come in and absent from the bus. Furthermore still, despite these problems, visitors are not including Halong Bay as a small part of their journey.

Recommendation in Halong bay,Vietnam: Indochina Sails

Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been ranked the 2nd among the 10 best boat journeys by the UK’s Lonely Planet Travel Magazine.

Ha Long Bay

“Bobbing on the emerald waters of Halong Bay and moving through its 3000-odd limestone islands is simply sublime. The tiny islands are dotted with beaches and grottoes created by wind and waves, and have sparsely forested slopes ringing with bird tunes.

There are more than 300 boats based at Bai Chay Tourist Wharf waiting to sweep you away to the World Heritage waters. Day tours last from four to eight hours, though (recommended) overnighters are also available” the magazine written.

Norwegian Fjords gets the first place. Next positions are Amazon River, South America; Franklin River, Australia; Quetico Provincial Park, Canada; Kerala’s backwaters, India; Milford Sound, New Zealand; Island-hopping, Greece; Disko Bay, Greenland; and Galapágos Islands, Ecuador.

Ha Long Bay is a popular travel destination in the Northern Province of Quang Ninh. Covering on an area of around 1,553 km2, the hot tourist spot has including 1,969 islets, most of which are limestone.

In 1994, Ha Long Bay was recognized as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. It has jumped to second place among the 28 finalists of an online voting for the world’s new seven wonders and helping to bring 5.3 million visitors to Quang Ninh in the first eight months of the year.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: This stunning landscape features some 3,000 limestone pillars rising out of the emerald waters on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Tonkin. Local legend has it that the islands were created by giant dragons, summoned by the gods to fight Chinese invaders.

Valley of Desolation, Dominica: This valley was a lush rainforest until a volcano erupted in 1880. Fauna is now reduced to lizards, ants and cockroaches while boiling mud and fumaroles dot the landscape.

Painted Desert, Arizona, USA: Vibrant reds, oranges, blues, greys and pinks decorate the sun-baked Painted Desert on a high plateau in Arizona. Home of the Hopi and the Navajo peoples, the latter known for their ceremonial sand paintings, it’s an utterly unique part of the planet.

Purnululu National Park, Australia: Until the release of aerial photos in the early 1980s, this remote area in Western Australia was all but unknown to the outside world. Traditionally used by Kija Aborigines during the wet season, the rugged web of gullies, cliffs, gorges, domes and ridges hold aboriginal works of art and burial sites.

Petrified Forest, Argentina: This flat arid land in Patagonia’s Santa Cruz province is strewn with the stumps of fossilised trees. Some 130 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, wet forests of giant araucaria trees covered the area. During the formation of the Andes, large-scale volcanic activity buried Patagonia in ash and these forests turned to stone.

Wadi Rum, Jordan: The forbidding beauty of Wadi Rum was the perfect backdrop for the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia. This desert wilderness is certainly cinematic – sand valleys and dunes punctuated by a maze of monolithic rock, natural arches, slender canyons and fissures, beautifully moody colours at dawn and dusk, and night skies sprinkled with a multitude of stars.

Lake Myvatn, Iceland: The Apollo 11 crew were sent here to train for their moon walks. It is lined with craters, lava pillars and mud pits, while volcanic islets are scattered across the water. If not for all the ducks roaming the sandbars, it could well be on another planet.

Cappadocia, Turkey: So inhospitable is the landscape here in the heart of Turkey that early dwellers went underground, building churches and houses into the soft cliffs. Above ground, honeycomb cliffs and volcanic cones – known as ‘fairy chimneys’ create dramatic landscapes.

Lake Bogoria, Kenya: So shallow is the earth’s crust in this sinister landscape that the surface looks like a giant witch’s cauldron, with scorching springs and geysers. Rich in sodium salts and minerals, the lake has no life bar the blue-green algae, eagles flying overhead and the incredible number of flamingos that feed here.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia: Blindingly white and dizzyingly high, this vast salt flat near the crest of the Andes could easily be mistaken for a Salvador Dali painting. Eerie and otherworldly, Salar de Uyuni holds intensely blue skies, red and green lagoons, pink flamingos, smoking volcanoes, giant cacti, hot springs and spitting geysers.

Source: Telegraph

Chương trình 2 ngày 1 đêm trên tàu Indochina Sails ở  Vịnh Hạ Long

Với 10 năm kinh nghiệm hoạt động trong lĩnh vực kinh doanh du lịch trên Vinh Hạ Long cùng đội tàu  được đánh giá là giàu kinh nghiệm, Indochina Sails trở thành một thương hiệu uy tín. Bằng chứng là từ năm 2007 đến cuối năm 2008, 4 chiếc tàu hạng sang là Indochina Sails I, II, III và Valentine đóng mới được đưa vào hoạt động, nâng số lượng phục vụ du khách gấp nhiều lần so với trước đây. Chinh phục khách hàng bằng chính nỗ lực không ngừng, tự học hỏi và hoàn thiện về cơ sở vật chất, trang thiết bị trên tàu cho tới kỹ năng phục vụ của nhân viên, Indochina Sails trong thời gian qua tự hào là sự lựa chọn số 1 của nhiều đoàn khách đặc biệt trong và ngoài nước tới tham quan va du ngoạn tại di sản thiên nhiên Thế giới_ Vịnh Hạ Long.

Indochina Sails đang áp dụng chương trình siêu khuyến mại cho khách du lịch là người Việt Nam và người nước ngoài sống tại Việt Nam. Với 4 triệu 200 ngàn đồng khách du lich sẽ được tận hưởng các dịch vụ tuyệt vời bao gồm:

•    1 phòng dành cho hai người
•    Xe buýt đưa đón từ Hà Nội
•    Chương trình và lịch trình (2 ngày 1 đêm)
•    1 đồ uống chào mừng
•    Bữa trưa, bữa tối và bữa sang trên tàu
•    Vé vào cửa và phí tham quan thắng cảnh

Chương trình  có thời hạn từ ngày 1/4/2010 đến ngày 30/4/2010

Để biết thêm thông tin chi tiết về lịch trình 2 ngày 1 đêm, hãy truy cập vào trang web: http://www.indochinasails.com/vn/hanh-trinh.html

A greenhouse growing colorful flowers in Dalat city, Vietnam

Visiting the greenhouse is an opportunity to admire at close range Dalat roses and gerberas. Standing in front of the glass with a furrow of flowers stretching on and on is an amazing feeling. The weather is cool, even under the noon day sun, while the flowers are full of colors that compliment each other.

Veteran tourists should visit the coffee farm to learn how coffee beans, such as Robusta and Abrabica, are grown in Vietnam. Those interested in new kinds of business should visit the cricket farm to learn how crickets are raised and what they taste like.

Those who prefer to learn about ethnic minorities should not miss Lat Village where the indigenous K`ho Lat live in Dalat. Guests will have a chance to know about the customs and habits of the people here.

The silk weaving factory is also an interesting place to visit. Coming here, tourists can capture the process of releasing silk, making follicles from silkworms, spinning and weaving. Before coming back to Dalat, tourists should visit Elephant Waterfall. This is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the Central Highlands at a height of 25 meters. With a powerful flow, the bouncing white foam is a spectacular sight.

The highlight of the tour to Dalat is that instead of moving by car, tourists ride motorcycles. You will find it hard to drive yourself on the winding slopes of Dalat at first, but then an interesting feeling of exploring the land overwhelms each tourist. There are few tour operators organizing motorcycle tours to Dalat.

Source: SGP

Recommendation in Dalat, Vietnam:
- Dalat tours and short excursions
- Bike Dalat

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is a metropolis that moves like the rapids in a river. Motorbikes putt-putt-putter down the avenues. Artisans sell their wares from street-side stalls. Teenagers line up to get their nightly dose of pho noodles and dancing at the local discotheque. Devotees walk to their churches, their pagodas and their shrines to light candles and incense for someone who came before.

Vietnam – Photo by John Soltes

It’s a city that seems endless. But there is an end to the throngs of humanity — a semi-quieter place where a few lessons can be learned.

On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City is a network of underground tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the war, particularly during the Tet Offensive.

Four decades ago, the tunnels were a harried place of strategizing for guerilla fighters.

Today, Coca-Cola is available in the gift shop.

A visit to the Cu Chi tunnels is chiseled into most tourists’ itineraries. Located roughly a one-hour drive (depending on traffic) outside of Ho Chi Minh City’s center, the underground ravines should be visited as a means to engage with the history of the tumultuous war. It is sacred ground that cost many a soldier’s life — and it should be visited with a respect for the casualties of conflict.

As tour buses pull up to the complex, the first stop is a meeting hall where cool drinks are served as plentiful as the propaganda. Before entering the tour, visitors sit through a video presentation that pushes the Viet Cong’s righteousness and the strategic mastery of the tunnel system.

You’ll probably get more satisfaction out of the cool drink.

Next is the actual tour of the tunnels, which stretch for miles or kilometers, depending on who’s talking.

In this particular area — in between Saigon and the border of Cambodia — where the tour buses corral like vultures, there are several holes that have been maintained for passersby to take a look and even take a descent.

Most groups visit the tunnels with an official tour guide, which can be booked back in Saigon.

Along the tour, you’ll have the chance to see grisly contraptions of torture, the place where the Viet Cong and their families ate and slept and a few demonstrations of what life was like in the tunnels (from eating fresh tapioca to an artillery range where visitors can pay money to shoot firearms such as an AK-47).

A group of tourists in front of me were clamoring at the chance to shoot a gun. I kept walking, slightly disgusted, to where visitors can crawl through one section of the tunnel (widened, rumor says, to accommodate larger Western tourists). The experience of crawling through the tunnel starts off easy enough — it’s kind of like ducking under a blanket to play in the dark.

But when you realize how far the tunnel goes, that the walls and ceiling are made of unsteady dirt and that the light from which you entered quickly becomes a pinhole, fear does sidle up next to you.

When you emerge, sweaty and panting, you’ll be thankful for the light in the sky.

Anyone who visits a sight like this probably has a curiosity for war stories and what exactly happened in this country in Southeast Asia. Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels may not provide any answers, but it may set you in the right direction.

It’s a preserved testament to days of sorrow. And for that, it can boast an importance beyond the ubiquitous gift shop selling war propaganda.

Source: leadernewspapers.net

Recommendation in Vietnam:
- Travel Guide in Vietnam
- Adventure tour in Vietnam
- Short Excursion in Vietnam

Buffalo tours in Vietnam

Just 14km from central Hanoi, the village is easily reached by motorbike – the most popular transport means in Vietnam.

If you’re too lazy to drive yourself or are not game to sit on the back of a xe om or hired motorbike, you can catch a bus at Long Bien Bus Station.

This way takes three times as long, but it’s so cheap! Tickets only cost VND3,000 – about US$0.10. The bus will take you to the village pottery market, where more than 100 stalls present tens of thousands of ceramic and pottery products.

The items include fine celadon from an ancient tradition and other great examples of ceramic arts and crafts. The high quality porcelain is decorated with dragons and phoenix, flowers and images of people and landscapes, all reflecting daily and spiritual activities in Vietnam.

Visitors can spend several hours just browsing among the endless little shops, each with different wares produced in a different family kiln.

According to the head of the market management board, Tran Quoc Viet, the market welcomes a large number of visitors every weekend.

A group of middle-age women look happy with heavy sedge bags containing pottery products they bought in the market.

“Although my family has every household product, sometimes I and other neighbours call each other and go to the village. It’s the way we unwind,” a woman cheerfully said.

For these women, beautiful ceramic objects, mostly at surprisingly affordable prices, are the main attraction. “I’ve bought a charming vase with the lotus motifs for just VND20,000,” another woman said.

Thuy Linh, a grade-10 student, said she sometimes went to Bat Trang with a group of her friends. “Unlike other people who usually buy ceramic household products, we only pick up cute stationary or ceramic jewellery,” she said.

“I’ve just bought a black-and-white Japanese Monokuro Boo pig, plus a keyholder with the ceramic initial ‘L’, the first character of my name, carved on it. My friend bought a wind chime and a cute piggy bank,” she said.

There’s more than just searching among the stalls, tourists can also experience pottery artists a work – on the spinning wheel, painting objects when they dry or loading up the kilns.

Visitors can also make their own cups, dish, bowl, vase or animal – and they will receive the finished, fired product within a few days. Many villagers offer this service for VND10,000 to 30,000, depending on the size of product. “I relived my childhood when fiddling with a piece of clay,” said Tuan Nam, a first-year student.

Recently, a new and relaxing way to see Bat Trang has been offered. A buffalo cart takes tourists around the village.

According to Nguyen Minh Hai, director of the Minh Hai Ceramic Company, who offers this first-ever service in the village, most who tour the village this way felt relaxed and interested because they could view the scenery at their leisure.

“The idea of using a buffalo cart to carry tourists was initiated when I went to Japan looking for business opportunities for our products. I realised the buffalo was easily recognised as a symbol of Vietnam – a rice producing country. So why not use farm animals to transport tourists around the village?” he said.

Before starting their cart journey, tourists are shown the way ceramic products are made in a workshop. Teams of young men and women work on production lines, baking, sanding and painting.

A journey around the village, a distance of about 2km, takes an hour. The price ranges from VND50,000 to 100,000 depending on the duration of the tour and how many stops are made. There are two buffalo carts working in the village, providing tours for about 100 visitors a day.

Like other villages in the north, the village hold its main festival in the second lunar month. This year, this fell in March. During the three-day festival, many traditional activities were held in and around the village temple, situated close to the steep banks of the majestic Hong (Red) River.

Among the various ritual activities held during the festival, the most important is a boat procession by village elders and monks to the centre of the river to collect the purest flowing water.

Before they set out, the boats made offerings to ask the Water Genie for permission to take the water.

The water was then scooped from the river by two prestigious elders, brought to shore and then paraded around the village before being taken to the communal temple.

Source: Viet Nam News

Related sites:
City Guides in Vietnam
Hanoi tours

Hat-making village Phu Cam (also Phuoc Vinh) lies on the southern bank of the An Cuu River in the centre of the former imperial capital of Hue. It’s a village famous for its traditional way of making conical hats for hundreds of years.

Making conical hats in Vietnam

Phu Cam-made hats look graceful, soft and thin as silk. Hue landscapes or even poems can be seen clearly through the hats in the sunshine. It takes woman much time to make the frame and iron leaves before young girls start sewing. The beauty and grace of a hat depend much on the frame (made of 16 brims from the hem to the top). Artisans use sharp knives to prepare the brims and make the frame that needs skills, techniques and experiences, as well as mathematical calculations which have been handed down for generations.

Leaves to make hat play a vital part, leaves have to be blue-white, neither too young nor too old. Collected leaves are to be put to dry in the sun, then put to be moistened by dewdrops, then to be ironed flat on a steel- plank above a kiln, cleaned with a towel. After all this, leaves are cut to fit the frame.

How to arrange the leaves on to the frame is not easy. Each hat needs 50 leaves and between the leaves are coloured papers with pictures or paintings of landscapes, or even poems. Hat-makers are hardworking and careful and diligent. Hats are served with silk-threads and the chin-straps are made of coloured silk (black, white, yellowish, purple, violet…) to harmonize with Hue climate and beauty.

Poem-hat is a distinctive feature of culture in Hue. Locals say they like to do the job not only to earn money but to preserve their age-old tradition as poem-hats have been absorbed into folk music and songs. Today hat are still used by young girls to shade their heads in the sun and to make them look more graceful in the traditional Ao Dai (long dress).

Recommendation in Vietnam:
Travel Guide in Vietnam
Short excursions in Vietnam