Bo Da- a unique pagoda in Bac Giang

Bo Da pagoda in Bac Giang has its own ancient beauty attracting numerous visitors and pilgrims.

Bo Da, also known as Bo or “Quan Am at mount Bo Da” is one of the most unique pagoda in Tien Son commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province and a major Buddhist center of the Truc Lan Yen Tu zen. 

The ancient entrance of Bo Da pagoda

The pagoda is situated at the foot of a beautiful pine hill that is surrounded by soil walls, mountains and rivers. Bo Da is called “soil pagoda” because it was made from a brown soil, antique walls and bricks.

Bo Da has unique architecture that is different from the traditional pagoda in the North of Vietnam. The pagoda contains 18 temples, nearly 100 ancient rooms with harmonious architectural layout, special materials: unique soil, bricks…Moreover, Bo Da has an ancient garden temple where ashes bones of more than 1,400 monks and nuns were buried.

 

The pagoda has still preserved the oldest Buddhist Vietnam prayer book that carved on wood. Pagoda also keeps a very interesting devise of Nguyen Hong famous writer that was a handwritten copy of the rules in the pagoda.

The place preserve lots of prayer book

Unique garden temples in Bo Da

Exploring the wild

Situated in central Quang Nam Province's Phuoc Son and Nam Giang districts, Song Thanh Nature Reserve is 110 km northwest of Tam Ky Town and 85 km southwest of Da Nang City. Both the Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers begin in Song Thanh before flowing into the province's main rice cultivation areas.

An ethnic minority group performs at the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in the central province of Quang Nam. It is not far from the Lao border, the Song Thanh Nature Reserve is the house to a giant diversity of both flora and fauna together with ethnic minority cultures.
  
Huge swathes of evergreen and old-growth forests provide a large range of vegetation at Song Thanh, especially in the reserve's strictly-protected 93,250-hectare core zone.

The waterfall hike is a good way to begin exploring the area. A path leading to the crystal, clear falls begins behind the Song Thanh Nature Reserve Management Board Office. The two-hour forest walk is made all the more pleasant by the sounds of singing birds above.

Some tourists in Vietnam tourism also enjoy exploring the Co Tu, Gie Trieng and Mo Nong ethnic minority communities in hamlets just outside the reserve's major jungle areas.

In the evening, visitors may be invited to join the locals for gong shows and song and dance around the bon fire. The Co Tu are known for their lively performances as well as their traditional brocade weaving.

Surveys by the WWF Indochina and the Forest Inventory Planning Institute show that Song Thanh is house to 831 high-grade plant species, 38 species of which are endangered in Vietnam.

The provincial Forest Control Bureau says Song Thanh is home to nearly 360 animal species, 51 of them are endangered in Vietnam. The most special animals here are the langurs and mang Truong Son (Truong Son Muntjac), a kind of deer.

Song Thanh is most easily reachable from Tam Giang District's Thanh My Town. The Dong Truong Son and Huong Giang guesthouses supply adequate accommodation while the meals at Thanh My Restaurant are tasty. Good shopscan be found at the Thanh My Town Market and medical services are available at the Nam Giang District Health Station. Travel is easiest by xe om (motorbike taxi).

FOREIGN TOURISTS IN THE CALLIGRAPHERS STREET

Recently, not only a lot of people in Hanoi and in other surrounding provinces but also many international tourists go to the calligraphers street to buy hand-drawn traditional calligraphy in Hanoi’s Temple of Literature area. 

Calligraphy is a special traditional custom in Vietnam which originated from the art of writing beautifully. Vietnamese script and Chinese script written carefully on red paper by calligraphers has a special attraction to foreign visitors. The meaningful characters have become the symbol of luckiness, worshipping objects for thousands years in Vietnam. Visitors come and enjoy Vietnamese traditional culture and keep memories about their trip to Vietnam on Tet holiday. They are so surprised when seeing many people, not only the old but also the young and children go to buy calligraphy in the calligraphers street. They are curious about the significance of calligraphy, the significance of giving and receiving calligraphy… Anually, on Tet holiday Hanoi people come to the calligraphers street to buy calligraphy with many wishes. The old people pray for blessing, happiness, young people pray for a happy new year with luckiness and success…. Apart from hanging the calligraphy in the house, many people buy small-size calligraphy to put in their wallet. A calligrapher is writing carefully a character. Most of calligrapher belong to Huong Nam calligraphy club and UNESCO calligraphy club Foreign tourists pay attention to the calligraphy                                                                                 Provide by http://travel.org.vn

Sweet - and - sour mango girdle cake in Nha Trang

Nha Trang is famous for not only many tourist spots and beautiful beaches, but also a lot of good food and unique dishes such as white rice vermicelli with fish or jelly-fish, eel, blood cockle cooked with tamarind, squid, girdle cakes… Mango girdle cake is one of unique dishes that is rustic but so appetizing. That cake has become a famous brand name in Khanh Hoa.

Mango girdle cake has the same shape to a girdle cake. However, the ingredients to make the cake are ripe mangoes and a little sugar. There are lashings of sweet mangoes in Khanh Hoa. Therefore, people here take advantage of the number of mangoes to make delicious cakes that you can preserve for a longer time. It is very easy and simple to make the mango cake. You just need to choose ripe mangoes, clean and peel them. After that, you use a scraping knife to grate them until touching the mango seed. Then you pour mango juice and a little sugar into a pot. Next, you both heat and stir until the mixture becomes viscid. The final step is drying cake under the sun for two days. That is all. The cake tastes sour, sweet and aromatic from mangoes. Finally,You just need to preserve the cake into platic bags and enjoy with friends and family.                                                                                                                     Provide by Travel to Vietnam

Adventure and family reunion in Vietnam

IT'S amazing what the Vietnamese transport on their bikes: fridges, furniture, dogs, cats, small children, chickens; we even spot a monkey.

We’re on our way from the airport into Ho Chi Minh City and hundreds of scooters and motorised pushbikes weighed down with all manner of things are weaving in and out of the taxi’s path.

My husband Stewart, daughter Isabel, seven, and I are visiting my recently retired father Patrick who lives 300 miles north east of the city in Nha Trang, where he was teaching English.

New direct Vietnam Airlines flights from Gatwick have slashed the journey time from 18 hours to a more comfortable 11.

Before taking the overnight train north to meet my father we are spending three days exploring Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), still widely known as Saigon by the locals of Vietnam’s biggest metropolis straddling the Saigon River.

Although Vietnam is officially a Socialist Republic it feels like the most capitalistic communist country I’ve ever visited.

HCMC, where skyscrapers rub shoulders with fading French colonial buildings, pagodas and Soviet-style blocks, is a hive of activity.

It is home to six million people, three million mopeds, bustling bars, restaurants and shops galore. Evidence of the French occupation of the 1800s and early 1900s is still visible in the beautifully laid out avenues and the stunning red-brick Notre Dame Cathedral.

Its twin compass-point spires are now dwarfed by the dazzling glass of Diamond Plaza, one of the city’s numerous shopping malls.

We booked a morning city tour which took us to the vast Chinese ghetto of Cholon where we explored the maze of streets lined with barbers, bird sellers outside tumbledown pagodas and heaving markets where fishwives loudly sell their wares.

We visited the Reunification Palace, a whitewashed concrete edifice which is now a museum and where time has stood still since 30 April 1975, when a phalanx of North Vietnamese tanks smashed down its gates signifying the end of the Vietnam War.

We also visited the historic surroundings of the Rex and Caravelle Hotels - where reporters, soldiers and attaches hung out in the Seventies. We ate ice-cream and drank coffee watching the world go by in air-conditioned cafes and we were not ripped off once.

No £5 cokes, no £30 bottles of wine, no £7 coffees, no £10 G&Ts – just lovely service at the kind of inexpensive prices that don’t make mum and dad wince at buying a round of ice-creams.

Our most expensive meal was just £25 in the Vietnam House restaurant, Saigon, housed in a French colonial building. We tucked into delicious crab spring rolls, pineapple beef and spicy noodle soup.

After sightseeing in the heat it was wonderful to retreat to the 470-room Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers for a cooling dip in the outdoor pool and watch the sunset over the city at the Level 23 Wine Bar.

On our third day we headed to Saigon Station to catch our overnight train to the coast.

Unfortunately due to some mix up, the tourist ‘Golden Train’ we were supposed to catch, with a private cabin and comfortable bunks, had already left. This was where our trip became a real adventure as we travelled as the poorest Vietnamese would travel – uncomfortably.

The next morning we awoke to a spectacular scenery of sugar cane plantations and white salt flats before arriving in the beach resort of Nha Trang, renowned for its golden stretch of sand and watersports.

The view from the Sheraton Nha Trang which overlooked the sea was stunning and there’s enough going on in the hotel with its pools, cooking classes, leisure centre and beauty spa, to keep everyone entertained.

But a visit to the amazing VinPearl Land water and amusement park is not to be missed. Neither is the journey there on the world’s longest over-sea-chairlift.

Sarah, daughter Isabel and Sarah's father Patrick, reunited in Vietnam

It wouldn’t be out of place in a James Bond film. It’s not surprising that we spent the whole day there enjoying the fairground rides, the water slides, the aquarium and shows.

It was spotless, uncrowded and cheap; Alton Towers eat your heart out.

We dined on succulent seafood at the off-the-beaten track restaurant Cay Me and the beachfront Baodai’s Villas. For a more upmarket waterside restaurant we went to the Nha Trang Sailing Club and stayed to listen to the music.

It was also lovely for Isabel to spend time with her grandad. One day he turned up on a moped similar to the ones we’d seen in HCMC where three days earlier Isabel had vowed she would never ride. She pootled off up the Nha Trang coast without so much as a backward glance.

It was just one of the experiences that made our trip feel as much as an adventure as a holiday.

Stunning Cua Dai Beach in Hoi An

The stunning Cua Dai Beach which is about 4 kilometers from downtown Hoi An ancient town. Spanning 3km, the stunning beach has the most beautiful and relaxing blue water and is a must for any tourist in the area.

Cua Dai literally means the ‘big sea mouth’. Cua Dai beach is located in the area of Cam An Ward, about 4km to the north-east of Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province. Cua Dai Beach is over 3km in length and up to 300m in width. The beach boasts fine white sand, clear and blue water, moderate slopes and small waves, which make it ideal for recreational activities like swimming and other sea sports.

This beach is closest to Hoi An, is very beautiful and is well worth a visit to cool off when the heats starts to get to you. The only eyesore are the bizarre changing huts and bungalows. It is an incredibly long beach with loads of room to wander off for a bit of personal space, which is so difficult to find in Vietnam.

If you spend a day at the beach and elect to take a deckchair from Vietnam travel company, you will be asked to buy either a baguette, some lovely pineapple or a drink, otherwise you will have to pay for the seat. All these prices are inflated, but the pineapple in particular is delicious.

After visiting the relics in the old town, visitors can go to Cua Dai to enjoy sea food specialities in an ideal environment of immense sky and sunshine. The Cham island lying on the horizon also comes in view in clear weather .

In the shady palm-lined road bordering the beach stand some large seaside resorts such as Hoi An Beach Resort or Victoria Resort, where lodgings built in Vietnamese traditional style are available. On summer holidays, the famous beach of Cua Dai cools off those heading to Hoi An.

The fine sands of palm-lined Cua Dai Beach (bai tam Cua Dai) are popular at weekends, but can often be deserted at other times. Safe swimming is usually only possible between April and October, but it’s nice to walk or jusl hang out here. 

This is a monster beach that continues all the way up to Da Nang city, an incredible 30km of pristine white sands. During the full moon, people wander around until late at night. Fresh seafood and refreshments are sold at a line of kiosks that lead to the beachfront.

International friends enjoy Tet in Vietnam

In addition to an exciting experience, foreign visitors to Vietnam tour this time of year will gain a better understanding of the country’s traditions and culture by experiencing the Vietnamese people’s preparations for the upcoming lunar New Year (Tet) celebrations.

For many foreigners, the traditional Vietnamese Tet has become a special tourism attraction, offering a good opportunity for the country to introduce its true colours and traditions to the international community.

VOV is providing an online forum for international guests in Vietnam to share their experiences and feelings about the festive season in the S-shaped country.

Steve Groff, a visitor from the UK, says, “I’m looking forward to enjoying Tet in Vietnam”

I think, Tet in Vietnam may look like the Christmas season in my home country, which brings to mind many things such as family reunions and time spent together with loved ones. Tet in Vietnam, of course, is a little different than the holly-draped version of my memories.

Tet does provide a reason to decorate, go shopping, or just go out and have a party, but that is clearly only setting the stage for the real holiday, Tet.

For foreigners, Tet is a sometimes bewildering but almost always heartwarming season. The overwhelming impression is of the hospitality of almost everyone you run into during Tet; you get invited to so many Tet feasts that you shouldn’t be hungry again until around June!

Tet is the time here to be with family, and Vietnamese do this with such single-mindedness that there is literally no one on the streets. After a month in which the normally busy streets are even more hectic with everyone preparing for Tet, when the big day actually comes my neighborhood in central Hanoi is astonishingly empty.

It really does feel like a different place, the street vendors, the sidewalk eateries, the cafes and restaurants, the shoeshine guys, the motorbike taxi guys, the sidewalk motorbike mechanics, the sidewalk barber… everyone has gone home to eat banh chung and visit with all their relatives.

The city streets, for just these few days out of the year, are peaceful places. Don’t worry about too much quietness though, you will be feasting and making merry with friends, both new and old.

Happy New Year to all who have the good fortune to be in Vietnam for Tet! Greg Nelson from the US: “I’ll travel to the beautiful beaches in central Vietnam during Tet”

Living in Vietnam for many years and knowing Vietnamese Tet as well as the back of his hand, I am still eager to welcome this upcoming Tet when I’ll go on a tour to central Danang city with my girlfriend.

The beaches are always wonderful, especially during Tet holiday when Vietnamese people are always busy preparing their family parties and visiting relatives and friends. It’s nice to move far from a peaceful Hanoi with few people on the street and silent atmosphere during Tet.

This year, Danang is my destination to celebrate New Year’s Eve and enjoy meaningful time with my beloved.

David Frank, a French tourist, says, “I am impressed by the busy shopping and cozy atmosphere before Tet”

Following my friends’ suggestion, I pay a month-long visit to Vietnam where I am traveling to different provinces and cities in all three regions of the country.

I moved from one place to another in both of Vietnam’s two major cities – Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, however, I decided to celebrate the New Year in Hue – the former capital city in central Vietnam.

I love Hue people, they’re charming and hospitable. The traditional foods there are so tasty and special I always eat too much and get very full!

I already experienced Christmas in Vietnam when I spent time going out and being with friends drinking rice wine and eating hotpot. We also had, hot chocolate and cookies. It was really fun, and created a lot of good cheer and memories.

I’ve heard many things about special Vietnamese Tet traditions, particularly “first-footing” and “lucky money.” I hope to explore these traditions more in Hue this year.

I would like to send my best very wishes to all the people in Vietnam during Tet.

Perri Black, a foreign editor for VOV, shares: “May the upcoming Year of the Dragon bring peace and prosperity to all”

Tet is a very interesting time in Hanoi. The month or so before the actual New Year’s Day is a bit like the frantic month-long build up to the Christmas holiday in the US.

People in Hanoi enthusiastically begin their Tet preparations on January 1, after the Western New Year’s Eve festivities the night before. Supermarkets and shopping centers are jammed with all kinds of seasonal goodies in bright, glittering packaging and shoppers gleefully sort through them to find just the right things. The festive spirit is palpable and seems to permeate everything.

It’s a great time to be in Hanoi and you can’t help but get caught up in the general excitement. The traffic increases alarmingly, which can be bit unnerving, but people are always in a good mood and look forward to spending time with family and friends. The restaurants are packed with partiers singing along to Abba’ ‘Happy New Year’ and the mass exodus out of the city a few days before New Year is amazing!

It all comes to a grinding halt about 3pm on New Year’s Eve and an eerie, expectant quiet falls over the city as everyone awaits midnight, fireworks and the beginning of the official holiday. In the days that follow the streets are relatively quiet but pagodas and temples are mobbed. As a foreigner, you will probably receive numerous invitations to visit friends’ homes during the holiday, and they are well worth accepting to enjoy the true spirit of Tet, sample the traditional foods, and welcome in the New Year.

I want to wish everyone the best of luck in their Tet preparations and a safe and happy holiday with their families. May the upcoming Year of the Dragon bring peace and prosperity to all.