Vietnam : la ferme du Colvert, écotourisme chez les Muongs (French Edition)

Crowne Plaza West Hanoi 4. The fresh scent of the pandan leaf from this cake can satisfy anyone who has a nostalgia for the countryside. The taste is familiar but exotic at the same time. The beautiful green colour of the filling is wrapped inside the perfect golden baked crust. Lotus seeds in the filling finish this masterpiece.

Call 04 or email manager. Its lovely coffee taste. And it got the maximum creativity scores from three of our judges. Visit the mooncake booth in the hotel lobby, call 04 or email your orders to thuy. Only a few select individuals have made the flight. The oxygen comes free. But you will be more. But they might as well be. The uniqueness of the underground, light-deprived environment formed out of earth, water and rock creates a celestial atmosphere, a different world. Add to this limestone karst mountain ranges and virgin rainforest and you have Phong Nha, the latest destination to open up to tourists.

Fact File N ame: Quang Binh, km north of Hue, km south of Hanoi. Half of this region is in Vietnam, the other half is in Laos. Home to caves, and many more which lay undiscovered. Covered by dense, tropical evergreen forest on limestone. Contains the most biodiversity in Vietnam and is home to a number of endangered animal species, including the pig-tailed macaque, the white-cheeked crested gibbon, three types of langur, the giant muntjac and the Asian black bear.

A trip to Phong Nha is more than just caves. Words by Nick Ross. Photos by Francis Roux. With a quorum of notable destinations already on the list, this is quite an accolade. It is good advice. We are on the first of a five-day trip to Phong Nha, and Ben is guiding us around the park in his pickup. One of a small number of people who lives and breathes Phong Nha — together with his wife Bich he runs Phong Nha Farmstay, the first western-run guest house in the area — his local knowledge is matched by his passion. Like other zealous individuals we meet on our trip, both Vietnamese and foreign, Ben is the park.

Paradise Cave is surprising. Hong Chong, on the southern edge of the Mekong Delta, comes to mind. Described once as the Halong Bay of the south, a cave pagoda leads out onto a sandy bay with limestone karsts peaking out from the sea. But instead of providing a spiritual experience, a pilgrimage, the beach is dirty.

Tourists on the road leading to the pagoda are accosted by beggars and stallholders pedaling their wares. Here it is different. Litter bins are at every 20m, with signs encouraging tourists to put their waste in the appropriate places. And anyone who steps outside the wooden walkways of the cave is tasered by security.

A harsh response, perhaps, but with the unruliness of almost 2, tourists a day in high season, a necessary preventative measure. Descending the dimly-lit steps into the cave a cavern opens out before us. If we do, she says, it may prevent further growth. In the caves in Halong Bay, such instructions are never. At the bottom the steps open out into a wooden walkway. Five years ago I visited Phong Nha Cave, once the only accessible spot in the park. Taking what was then a not-so-popular day trip from Hue, on arrival we took a boat down the Son River before entering the main grotto.

Multi-coloured lights lit up the rock formations, the noise of boatloads of tourists echoed through the corridors, and — while a pleasant trip — as I left I found myself more fascinated by the surrounding mountains and jungle than what lay inside. Paradise Cave also has the lighting, but without the multi-coloured, discolike display. The management, the tour guides, the security,. No wonder it has received such local accolades.

Paradise Cave would work anywhere in the world. He seems to have a knowledge about the area few can surpass. From the former airstrip now transformed into a road, to the crossroads at Tra An Bridge that formed a major intersection along the former Ho Chi Minh Trail, to the cliff face that was constantly bombed to close the pass along which diesel supplies were carried by the Viet Minh. The next day we are taking a one-day trek through two river caves in the Tu Lan cave system, on the edge of but just outside the national park.

And on the Sunday, two of us will be tackling Hang En, the cave that was featured in National Geographic alongside Hang Son Doong, the largest cave in the world. All that forest and karst that I spied is now opening up, and new caves, it seems, are discovered by the week. The park has three cave systems — Phong Nha, Vom and Nuoc Mooc — of which the latter is as of yet completely unexplored.

And speleologists believe there may even be bigger caves out there than Son Doong. Which means that the tourist possibilities — for both the easy and the more difficult trips — are endless. From war zone to a tourism hotspot, Quang Binh has undergone a transformation that 40 years ago would have been unthought of. Words by Hoa Le.

Photo by Francis Roux. If someone asks why we have so many new tiles Do you understand that our happy life today was built up from the harsh past? If someone asks why our rice fields are so prosperous Do you remember those old days when we were so poor? However, the home province of General Vo Nguyen Giap has been blessed by nature and the potential to develop a flourishing tourism industry.

In the last few years the cogs have started to click and Quang Binh, it seems, is turning the corner. Researchers say the plateau is the finest and most distinctive example of a complex karst landform in Southeast Asia. The enormous landmass stretching over , hectares has fantastic limestone formations, grottoes, caves and a luxuriant tropical rainforest that remains mostly pristine. The complexity of the shale and sandstone of the limestone karsts together with the capping of schists and granite has led to a particularly distinctive topography.

In the last 10 years, more regular cave exploration has taken place in often remote areas of jungle. Three distinct cave systems have been recognised with many magnificient river caves: Inside the team discovered the unearthly formations of ethereal stalagmites, sections with jungle inside the cavern, and colossal cave pearls, some with a diameter of 10cm.

Nine of the 21 primate species in Vietnam are recorded here. The forest also houses over families of highly-rated plants, of which 36 species are endangered and listed in the Vietnam Red Book. There were no roads, only jungle.

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So the mountains looked remote, although we were only 7km away. Minh was doubtful about their plans. In October , the Truong Thinh Group began providing access roads to Paradise Cave and transformed it into a tourist facility. The project was met with an overwhelmingly positive response by the Vietnamese press. Since then, many cave exploring packages have been made available to tourists by a variety of companies including the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park management group, the Truong Thinh group and Oxalis.

Nguyen Chau A, the Quang Binh-born businessman who is founder and owner of Oxalis — the first company to operate tours taking tourists to Son Doong — says he had foreseen the tourism potential of the area. They operate in some of the more difficult-to-getto areas of the park that are accessible to tourists. The completion of the Ho Chi Minh trail, the highway that connects the northern and southern sections of Vietnam, and which passes through the mountainous areas of Quang Binh, is also given credit for the tourist boom by providing better access to the area.

Huong, owner of one of boats that take tourists into the cave, points out her younger brother, who just turned 16 the month before he started work. She says most young people like her brother and herself are still struggling to find a job that sustains their living in the region. Thanh, a cleaning woman from one of the hotels in Phong Nha, says her husband went to Russia two years ago for work as a labourer.

Poverty, once the major challenge in Quang Binh, still requires work to be left behind completely. Following the air, he ended up entering a giant space inside a cave, which is now one of the entrances to the middle of Paradise Cave. Few know that he was the person who discovered the spectacular Paradise Cave. Since its opening to public access in , this 34km-long cave has now become one of the two most popular tourist spots in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park for its amazing stalactites and stalagmites.

During this period he trekked to karst caves high up in the mountains in search of primates. On a normal day, he walked for an average of 10km to 12km in the jungle. During one of those trips, while looking for water to drink, Phong felt the flow of cold air coming out from the forest. Following the air, he ended up entering a giant space inside a cave, which is now one of the entrances to Paradise Cave.

Besides discovering what turned out to be the longest cave in Asia, Phong has also stumbled across dozens of other caves in the area. This father of four loves his work so much that he is now passing it onto his children. His oldest son is already taking tourists on cave exploration trips. Khanh rediscovered Son Doong Cave in , but it was in that he first stumbled upon it while searching for timber.

Khanh possesses darkly tanned skin, bright eyes and a decisive manner. Born in in Bo Trach, a town surrounded by mountains, jungle, rivers and rice fields, when he turned 16, Khanh started to follow his older friends into the massive Phong Nha forest to look for rare and valuable aloe wood, which was then sold at a high price.

There was no timber conservation law enforced at that time. In , Khanh went back to farming. His long experience in the forest, passion and a good sense of direction had given him an indepth understanding of the area. In he met British speleologist Howard Limbert, a caving expert. It was the turning point. With the encouragement of Howard, in he went on a trip to find it again, but failed.

A year later, Khanh tried again — and this time, on his second day in the jungle, he discovered the entrance. He entered the cave and went down about 70m or 80m until he reached the first lake. He then returned home. The rock formations were both massive and otherworldly. He manages them well and ensures they follow all the environmental protection regulations that he insists on during the trip. He has also become a Phong Nha elder — professional cave exploration teams now seek his advice on weather conditions or any forest-related issues before going into caves.

However, Khanh is determined never to take an office job. Although the cave was discovered in and opened to the public on Aug. This is partly due to the geographical complexity of the area, but also conservation concerns, which put a limit on the number of people who can access the cave.

Instead they have pushed a sustainable version, with strict respect for the conservation of nature. Howard and Deb first visited Vietnam in They were so keen on caving that they had travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and many parts of Europe in the search for new caves. However, they were most impressed with the Phong Nha cave. British speleologists and caving expedition leaders system and the accompanying national park. They hired local experts like Ho Khanh and Ngo Van Phong to search for new caves, because of their familiarity with the local topography.

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When new caves were found, they made marks on the caves, photographed them and recorded all the information they could amass before passing it on to local governments and libraries worldwide so that the findings could be archived and shared online. The couple also deliver English classes, regular presentations and technical training courses for tour guides in Phong Nha. Born in an area that was heavily bombed during the American War, the now-owner of Phong Nha Farmstay only got out of her village and had contact with the outside world when she turned That was when she left for Hue to go to university.

Instead she went to Danang to work in several hotels, initially doing menial work to earn a living. She recalls how shy she was whenever she had to communicate with foreigners, because she was not used to seeing them. But strong and determined, she kept moving forward, learning and pursuing her dream. In , Bich met her Australian husband Ben in Danang. Together they had a desire to start a tourism business in her home village on the edge of Phong Nha. They failed — people were hesitant to work with foreigners. They wanted to build a farmstay for tourists.

The existence of Phong Nha Farmstay has also had a knock-on effect. With a constant flow of tourists coming in and out of the park and Cu Nam Village, the revenue brought in has allowed many local businesses to prosper. Bich is proud of the achievement. Both of which, exceptional in their own right, have helped transform the area into a popular destination for domestic tourists. But those seeking an adventure have to look a little further afield. A tour to the Tu Lan cave system may well be the antidote.

We could have been making a sequel to Indiana Jones, heading off into the jungle as the jeep bumped and jolted its way along a dirt track past mud-grazing buffalo to the rendezvous point.

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Equipped with life jackets, Cambodian army boots, a helmet and a head torch, we set off looking more like coal miners than explorers. The first task was to traverse the gentle Rao Nan River, usually crossable by foot. Reaching the bank, the picture was far from gentle. Unseasonable rains had allowed the water to rise and the current to gain momentum. A deep breath taken and a leap into the bracing river, adrenalin coursing every vein. Swimming hard to reach the opposite bank, the current took us m downstream. Out of of breath, we climbed up over a ridge and into a valley surrounded by the limestone karsts that characterise the landscape.

Blanketed by thick jungle, they created a scene so peaceful and spectacular, it was hard to believe this place exists, such was its majesty. It felt lagoon-like, a scene. For more information on the Tu Lan tours, email tours oxalis. Safety equipment, walking boots and life jackets are provided, but Oxalis recommend bringing the following:.

We climbed up over a ridge and into a valley surrounded by the limestone karsts that characterise the landscape. Blanketed by thick jungle, they created a scene so peaceful and spectacular, it was hard to believe this place exists. A barely recognisable path charted the way to the entrance of the first cave, Hung Ton. It was then time to repack the dry bag for the next swim, this time, inside the cave. Stopping just short, we climbed out through another exit into the forest and through to the lagoon below.

The itinerary would have us visit Kim Cave, named after the Dutch tourist that discovered it after a call of nature on a jungle trek in Swimmable when the water level is lower and the current not so ferocious, Dzung, our guide, made the. The decision was vindicated when bathers inside the lagoon were sent tens of metres in a few seconds by the force of the waterfall. Plan B was to trek back through the jungle to visit Rat Cave or Hang Chuot, no mean feat as it required traversing a steep karst ridge.

Slippery from the rains, a couple of tour members lost their footing, including our very own editor. Finally inside, tired and drenched in muddy sweat, we were met by a deafening silence. Despite many people having already charted this course, looking up at this magical arena it was hard not to feel intrepid and believe we were just discovering this remarkable feat of Mother Nature for the first time. After another river crossing completed, we were left exhausted, sipping cold cans of beer and soft drink. Oxalis employs 30 people locally, including our year-old porter, Trung.

It serves to strengthen the local economy and make earning an illegal living through logging or hunting less tempting. Dzung, our guide, is someone who lives and breathes his work: I love the caves, I love adventure and most of all we can give a helping hand to protect the environment for the next generation to enjoy. So big are these mammoth, sunlit caverns that there is room enough for an entire New York City block of storey buildings.

There are actually wispy clouds up near the ceiling. It was better than the two of them put together. Son Doong is spectacular. For further information on the tours go to oxalis. As a young man searching for timber, he was caught in a tropical storm. He took cover in the mouth of a cave. Entering the grotto he discovered a cavern so huge that he was overwhelmed. Years later he tried to rediscover the spot.

In , on his second attempt, he found the entrance and went inside. A few months on he came back with British speleologist Howard Limbert and a British cave exploration team. But eventually a proposal was accepted to take through 84 people a year. Many people wanted to open up Son Doong for mass tourism. When we set off to Hang En the day before, this was our goal: Well over a hundred thousand? Throughout the night the birds have been on the go, their tiny voices merging together into an orchestra of conductorless sound, a reminder of where we are. We had been told that short of a 7km potholing trip to the end of Paradise Cave and the big one, the sixday trip to Hang Son Doong, that this was the best caving excursion available.

Why walk five hours through jungle, across rivers, and down a ravine known semiaffectionately by an English expletive just to reach a cave? Pain and duress for the sake of what? Going inside a cavern? Little did we know. In fairness the 7km trek, while a recipe for sore limbs and aching bones, was exhilarating. When you pass by the mountains and jungles of Vietnam, stare at the peaks above and the valleys below,. Now we were inside. Now we had passed through an isolated, untouristed ethnic minority village. And at points the soaring views and the forever changing terrain were quite beautiful.

The porters — a word that invokes images of khaki-clad colonials trekking through Africa — are at work preparing the first, early morning event. On the makeshift fire, hand-cut chips are sizzling in a pan. Everything we have here has been handcarried in red waterproof backpacks — these 50kg backpacks have been through the searing tropical sun and its unforgiving heat. Scrambling up and down rocks, wading through the river, they are sure of foot, hardy, jungle-trained from birth.

The night before they pitched our tents on a beach inside the main cavern, and for dinner they cooked us a meal of barbecued pork, tofu in tomato sauce, stir-fried beef with pineapple, omelette and cabbage broth. Now, again, they are on breakfast. The light is seeping through the cave entrance, m above. Only a few minutes before, the cave had that pale blue luminance of fluorescent light. Now an orange glow has fed into the colour mix. From the National Geographic photos, the ones that hit the world in early , we thought that the cave entrance was at ground level. While visually awe-inspiring — the greens of the forest mixed in with the greys and beige of the rock formations — it feels like it was misrepresented.

Now in the cave we think we can see how those photos were taken. The photographer scrambled up the rocks on the far end of the 80 metre-high cavern, while his model. The idea was to give a sense of size, a perception of scale. The tiny human stood in the entrance, while around him loomed the Mars-like, extraterrestrial majesty of the caves. The photos and the expedition finally put the previously untapped Phong Nha on the international map.

An hour has passed, toilet break has been made, and chips, fruit and Vietnamese packaged cake snacks have been eaten to get up the energy levels. Still the birds frolic, tweet and socialise way up above. We prepare to explore the cave. Once again we cross the river, but this time we head in the opposite direction, away from the original entrance. Scrambling up rocks, the limestone seems to change colour, from blue to purple to a deep green. Then, as we clamber over some more boulders, a new sight hits our faces. From another entrance light streams in, shadowed by jungle-covered mountains behind.

Words in the English language — indeed in any language — just cannot describe it. This is what we came here for — not just to see the caves, but to experience what a lack of sunlight, rock formations created over millions of years and what that beast called nature can do to an underground landscape. Once you go below the surface you enter another world.

But here the world is a concoction of land, rock and fresh water, the three merging to create strange shapes, unfamiliar forms that you might expect to find on Mars. Once again we try to take photos, try to put the scale and the magnitude of the place inside the cocoon of a lens. As we prepare the setup — the tiny figure caught from afar — I see vines hanging from various parts of the cave walls and ask our guide, Thin, what they are for.

Later that day as we sit on the bus leaving the area, our group reflects on what we had just experienced. There was the old man and owl in the ethnic minority village, the jungle honey they sold us by the litre, the bananas and the intrigued kids. There was the final climb at terrible hill that had most of us in a state of physical despair. There was the night before, drinking hand-carried rice wine in the cave.

There was the river that we forded again and again on our trek to Hang En, the same river that then goes onto Son Doong. There were the porters, the leeches, the photos we all took. Hang En, one of the natural wonders of the world. Rooms including breakfast start at VND, for two people. Compost toilets, a small dormitory and double beds in the main house area mix with a typical rural country atmosphere. The only thing that breaks the idyll is the existence of WiFi. Accommodation starts at VND, a night including breakfast.

Great views mix with a relaxed atmosphere. The trip from Hanoi takes nine to 10 hours. Alternatively you can hop on the train at Hue, a three-hour journey. The trip takes five hours. For further information email phongnhafarmstay gmail. Eating and Drinking Besides the offerings at the various farmstays and homestays, below are a few other places selling food and drink in Phong Nha. Built from wooden columns with a tile roof, has a pleasant, open-air atmosphere, with a pebbled, cave-like floor. Probably the best Vietnamese food in town, this two-storey eatery is owned by a HueQuang Binh couple.

Once had a riverside location before Saigon Tourist moved in and chucked them out. Set amid a cassava and pine tree plantation, with the mountains and jungle soaring beyond, this local house turned into a chill-out joint for travellers is a pleasant spot to take in a beer or three. Usually reached by tourists renting bicycles. Smoked gouda or portobellos, anyone? Words by Elisabeth Rosen 1. Perched on a stainless steel stool at Bon Me, the Boston restaurant she and her husband started, Fong gestures to the Instagram photo collage mounted on the wall.

Green snippets of cilantro loom large, sprinkled over heaps of brown rice and soba noodles. Customers come here because we put a spin on it. Because the new immigrants came mostly from the Ho Chi Minh City area, the banh mi they sold were nearly always Southernstyle: But in the last few years, the sandwich became fodder for interpretation for chefs like Fong, whose upscale interpretations of banh mi replace the traditional components with creative ingredients. Getting the Ball Rolling Before the early s, banh mi could only be found in Vietnamese enclaves. Silent H offered banh mi made with kielbasa from local Polish butcher shops.

Nha Toi pioneered the pho banh mi, stacked with braised beef, Thai basil and crunchy bean sprouts. The banh mi craze shows no signs of slowing down. The Saigon Special follows traditional lines, with cha lua and pate made in-house. Not so the Vegetarian, which layers roasted portobello mushroom with havarti, smoked gouda and basil peanut pesto. Spread of the Sandwich That portobello sandwich might win the prize for least traditional banh mi — although there are an increasing number of contenders across the US. BONMi lets carb-conscious diners fill lettuce wraps with slow-cooked brisket or butternut squash marinated in coconut milk.

And in a sign that the banh mi has become truly mainstream, non-Asian. Banh Mi Boys 5. Philadelphia gastropub Royal Tavern offers, in addition to burgers and fries, a grilled sweet potato banh mi with Bibb lettuce and jalapenos. As a result, important Vietnamese tastes are lost in translation. By 12 I was cooking. The first Banh Mi Boys opened in Buoyed by its success, the Chaus recently opened a second outpost. But the emphasis on freshness feels authentically Vietnamese. The result is a smoky take on Southern barbecue buoyed by crisp Asian flavours.

Not all banh mi chefs have direct ties to Vietnam. Fong and her husband, Patrick Lynch, are Boston natives she is. The resulting food truck was so popular that the couple opened two others as well as a sitdown restaurant. All the dishes benefit from a healthy dose of the house-made hot sauce — a fiery concoction of Sriracha, gochujang and cilantro. Perhaps this is because the concept of banh mi is both familiar and exotic. Khmer and Champa ceramics also influenced Vietnamese craftspeople. After the Chinese domination of Vietnam ended during the Ly and Tran dynasties, Vietnam began creating the most sophisticated ceramics in Southeast Asia.

In the 14th century, Japanese tea masters treasured their Vietnamese imports. European merchants traded vases from Bat Trang, a pottery village near Hanoi. But history praises and then dismisses. By the early 20th century this was all forgotten and Vietnamese ceramics were written off as provincial. In , when hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese ceramics dating back years were found in a shipwreck off Hoi An, history paid attention again. And more recently, international art collections are buying some of the ceramic pieces created with tradition and wit by contemporary artist Bui Cong Khanh.

Ceramics are keeping the locals enthralled too, like that constructed on Truong Sa island. From , Truong Sa boasts a national record: Designed by artist Nguyen Thu Thuy, the ,piece mosaic weighs 3. At 25 metres in length, it is so big it can be seen on satellite images. Photos by Alexandre Garel Ho in northern Vietnam made the village famous centuries ago for their woodcuts, handmade precursors to photocopies. An artisan carves lines onto a flat block of wood, covers them with ink and prints onto paper.

Rustic pictures of proverbs, ritual ceremonies or daily scenes are displayed on walls. Some images symbolise good fortune or guard the house, other prints allude to social injustice. Smaller, joss-paper pictures of houses or vehicles are burnt as offerings. He saw art as an active instrument of change.

Art, he felt, was a journey into new ways of understanding. This art enabled new ideas to be integrated with the old ones, and to extract the best of both worlds. The Indochina Fine Arts School, inaugurated in , married French liberalism and Vietnamese traditionalism and gave birth to Vietnamese modern art. The two French founders, Victor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty, strongly encouraged their art students to preserve their heritage by adapting local traditions.

For some time, this influence was a bone of contention, due to resentment towards the French occupation. Gum lacquer is a sticky substance secreted by insects. But in Vietnam the lacquer is plantbased, secreted by one of several varieties of native trees, usually the cay son wax tree. The genuine product is a treacle-thick sap used to make wood waterproof. They are in fact made with polyurethane resin, a toxic chemical compound that should not be used to serve food in.

Since Asian prehistory, lacquer has been a resistant and decorative way to preserve wooden objects. Temples and palaces gleamed with the luster of lacquer, encrusted with mother of pearl or gold leaf patterns, captivating intrepid traders from the west. A printing block used to make Dong Ho prints Right page: Top, a lacquer work by artist Huynh Van Thuan. Bottom, silk painting by artist Bui Tien Tuan. Top, lacquer by artist U Van An. Bottom left, work by artist Huynh Phuong Dong. Bottom right, a resistance propaganda poster from the war era Right page: While Japan and China argued over who developed the finest lacquerware, Vietnam turned lacquer into a fine art.

After seeing the rich, glossy colours of the lacquered altar of the Temple of Literature, an art teacher at the Indochina Fine Arts School suggested to his students that they should try to paint with lacquer. Traditional lacquerware technique met modern art, and history was made. Less than a century later, Vietnamese art is more famous for its lacquer paintings than anything else, and Nguyen Gia Tri is its most respected lacquer painter.

Vietnamese silk painting had its heyday in the s, when misty, soft images were created by Nguyen Phan Chanh to — ironically, because he was struggling at mastering oil paint. After he exhibited his lyrical silk art in Paris in , his career took off and he became a sensation from Milan to Tokyo. As the master of Vietnamese silk painting, his success continues.

Earlier this year one of his works fetched a record VND8. The delicate art of silk painting is currently being reinvigorated by contemporary Vietnamese artists Le Hoang Bich Phuong and Bui Tien Tuan, among others. Artists were seen as the soldiers of the cultural battlefield. He died before the victory at Dien Bien Phu.

Aimed at providing motivation, their propaganda posters were bright, original and direct. Images of brave, defiant and hard-working people were painted with tempera on paper, and sometimes copied by amateurs who disseminated them on walls and bridges countrywide. At present there are fewer than 10 fulltime propaganda artists left in Vietnam. One still active is Luong Anh Dung, who says he loves the job he has been doing for 30 years, because it has the power to help people understand government policies. In post Vietnam, his images show not only the soldiers and farmers that inspired previous generations; now we see computer programmers and office workers as symbols of development and economic growth.

Ta Ty to had been a revolutionary artist, but has become. By chance, he was able to see a French magazine with pictures of European avant-garde art. Curious, he tried it for himself. Despite the critique, Ta Ty kept investigating the potential of these ideas, and by the s he was making abstract art. Few other Vietnamese artists have become abstract painters, perhaps disappointed that abstract art was banned from national exhibitions until This is a common trend the world over — abstract art has been accused of wrongdoing by detractors who like to know what they are looking at.

As a child, this artist from Ha Tien learned from his aunt how to weave grass mats. As a university student in the US, he used the same weaving technique with large photographs, some of which are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Le was the first Vietnamese artist to have a solo show in that seminal institution.

A number of institutions all over the world fund. They give creative practitioners the opportunities to work with other people, develop new art projects and share their ideas within a new community. For juiciness and tenderness of the meat, though, number one. Nestled into one wing of the Metropole, this high-end bar and contemporary Italian restaurant was once branded as an Italian steakhouse.

Last year both the moniker and the concept were given an overhaul — now the only steaks on the menu are the Australian wagyu, the beef filet and the g T-Bone, all served up with an Italian twist. We went for the Australian T-Bone VND, and what emerged from the kitchen really had that Italian touch courtesy of the olive oil, marinated, Mediterranean vegetables, rock salt on the steak and the tart of the lemon rind. Slowcooked in a pressure cooker prior to being sealed and grilled, presentation-wise it was also up there with the best.

The meat was juicy, too. Both the difficulty and yet the beauty of the T-bone is that it encompasses two types of steak on either side of the bone — the striploin and the tenderloin. This necessarily generates two types of tastes and differences in tenderness, all creating a different challenge when it comes to cooking up the perfect steak. We thoroughly enjoyed this piece of meat, but the imbalance was quite clear. For us it worked. For others, who prefer just the single cut, best to avoid the T-bone. Due to the high marbling or fat content of the meat, during the cooking process the fat melts making ribeyes the tastiest of all steaks.

Due to the tenderness of the meat, the sirloin is among the most expensive parts of the cow. The top sirloin is the leanest and most prized cut. The muscle is relatively low in fatty tissue making it particularly tender. The filet mignon comes from the small end of the tenderloin and is the most expensive cut by weight. T-bones are among the most expensive steaks on a menu because of the large individual portion size.

An excellent grilling steak with good flavour, although can sometimes be quite tough A bit of the wow factor. Serving up imported, high-grade beef with prices to match, we decided to hit two of the beef specialists to see if the steak was really on the money. Even reviews on The New Hanoian have been kind to this international-style eatery.

The ribeye, laced with strips of fat, was certainly one of the better steaks we encountered on our travels, and as an overall dish worked well. But this was due to its constituent elements rather than the steak itself. Tender on the inside,. Was it due to not enough seasoning? Or was it the meat itself? It remains a mystery.

Fortunately this was countered by the to-die-for crisp, rosti potato on the side and the juiciness of the cherry tomatoes cooked with rosemary. The g US T-bone, however, was on another plane. This wow-factor cut was one hell of a piece of meat. Served up with the same accompaniments as the ribeye, this perfectly seasoned chunk of meat managed to achieve that flawless mix between the chargrill taste on the outside and the juiciness of the beef, together with the more milder textures of the streaks of fat.

A hundred bucks for a steak is a lot of cash. But, this was right on the money. Even the striploin and tenderloin on either side of the bone seemed to have the perfect consistency. With two restaurants in Saigon and a fourth venue to open in Hoi An, it has been a massive hit since the day it opened its doors. Importing consistently good quality steak from the land of the cattle ranches.

The meat is flame-grilled as you would find it in Buenos Aires. To this we added the El Gaucho sample platter VND, , a concoction of salchica homemade spicy Argentinian sausage , homemade chorizo and empanada. While the sample platter certainly added some depth to the meal — the sausages in particular contained a particularly pleasing warm spice — the hands down star of the show was the steak. Served sizzling on a metal platter, the English language has thousands of superlatives to describe the gustatory pleasure of this dish. However, our photographer put it best: We ordered two sauces with our meal — the Hollandaise and the pepper sauce both VND45, For our tastes they were more gelatinous than we would have preferred.

But the steak was so mouthwateringly good that these are no more than that, quibbles… The g T-Bone at Jackson's is a beast. It's cooked to perfection, too. The main events will take place on Apr. For the entire festival programme, ticketing information and news, check out www. Brace yourself for a kaleidoscope of sound. Words by Debbie Clare.

With a six-day programme featuring genre-defying collaborations between Vietnamese and international artists, this year the event will happen in two locations — Hanoi and Hue. Back in , with support from the Goethe Institut and the British Council, he organised the first ever electronic artistic exchange programme between Vietnam and the EU. As well as live music performances, short. In addition, this year Hanoi Sound Stuff Festival will collaborate with Hanoi Grapevine to present an Art Talk event — an informal exchange of ideas and information between artists and audiences based on experimental and electronic music.

There will also be a number of pre-events in the lead up to the festival. Find a noise, send it to him, and then hear it become an aural colour on an audio-canvas. The goal of the project is to spotlight the cultural exchange and understanding between artists and new audiences in Hanoi, Hue, and Copenhagen. Taking underground beats, fragments of sound and disused distortions, the artists create improvised journeys of borrowed sound, which aim to provoke the mind and stimulate the body.

He remains a busy participant on the Berlin music circuit. With a string of impressive collaborations under his belt, Slim V is also the leader of the modern orchestra Rhapsody Philharmonic, which combines a classical ensemble with a band and a DJ. Photo by Justin Mott. Where are all the orcs?

The Hanoi office of Emobi Games looks just like any other office in the capital. In fact, the most remarkable thing I can see is the improbably massive selection of shoes discarded by the door. But in this office, an entire floor of workers are doing something that nobody in Vietnam has ever done before — programming and publishing an offline game. Most software companies are moving into online games, and particularly in a market like Vietnam, where practically all games are pirated, this makes perfect sense.

Free social media games like Farmville are massively popular and are cheap and easy to make. Vietnam is presently refusing to license any new online games as it tries to work out how it feels about them. They seem to be a cause of social evils, like skipping school, staying up late, and possibly addiction. The net result, according to one newspaper report, is that two thirds of the revenue from the industry flows overseas. License to Kill As precarious as that situation may seem, it starts to look like money in the bank when compared to the process of licensing offline games.

The first game to make a big impression on him was Call of Duty in when he was already in his twenties. And there is always the challenge of technology. The reason that Vietnam has no history of gaming is,.

That in turn has led to a lack of skilled workers. When the Emobi team came together, they had 5 programmers, only one of whom had any experience of games development. War Games The game itself is unremarkable. A first person shooter, set around the historically important battle of Dien Bien Phu on the 7th of May , hence the title What sets it apart is the fact that rather than playing the part of a western power taking on traditional baddies like the Germans, Russians, Iraqis or whoever else deserves one hell of a beating, the gamer plays a Viet Minh soldier shooting up Frenchmen.

This has caused an outcry in France, but Huy is quick to defend the game. Yet when the roles are reversed, Huy feels a little differently. He has played Call of Duty: Black Ops where the gamer plays an American GI in the thick of the war in Vietnam, and was less keen on the idea. Emobi have been negotiating with Polish, Russian and French publishers in this regard, but as yet nothing has been signed.

If these prospective deals do go ahead it would give some much needed revenue to the company. A more likely stumbling block to overseas sales would appear to be quality. Influential magazine PC Gamer was a little harsh in their appraisal, awarding just 4. Emobi intend to follow. But in the long term they want keep trying to push the envelope of what is possible for the industry in Vietnam in the form of offline games. Many foreign investors are starting to see Vietnam as the perfect base for software companies to take advantage of the SouthEast Asian market.

No one is sure exactly when the factory was actually founded, but records show that it was producing liquor in Originally a French business, Hanoians used to say that the factory was intended to keep the populace drunk and placid. Or perhaps even to poison them. These days it is surrounded by Sovietinspired buildings from the s, with garish tiles and curved edges that seem to have attached themselves to the original villa. A parasitic looking walkway connects these Brutalism-inspired structures to the second floor. Japanese overran Southeast Asia, the site was transformed into a prison.

After independence, the factory once again began working as a state-run enterprise producing liquor and pure alcohol for medicinal purposes. During the American War, the production of pure alcohol was maintained and several of the second floor walkways had roofs put on them so they could become bunkers for shooting down B52s.

With the liberation in , wine production became the primary function of the site. During the years of international isolation, the factory took part in international. Dung, who is now head of administration, began working in the factory during this period and can remember producing coffee liquor, rice wine and a variety of fruit flavours. These flavours have since become less popular as the local populace has turned to vodka — a liquor that taste-wise has a more palatable match with food.

It is due to be moved to a new location in the countryside and a new Vincom-esque highrise is scheduled to be built in its place. The outline and the arches of the older buildings still surround their newer replacements like scaffolding that someone forgot to remove. The newer buildings in turn have mould, trees and bushes growing out of them creating a Russian doll effect. Next to the brick, French-era cooling chimney is a cement structure that was erected in the s. When you enter, it reeks of fermentation. Rusted pipes and tanks with circular windows like portholes loop around between the floors, bringing to mind the overgrown tree roots in the Angkor Wat temple of Ta Prohm.

As the machinery hums, steam rises from pressure valves and water drips freely from the ceiling. You sense you could be underwater. Decay We pass old French warehouses still with the original metalwork intact. Inside are the remains of various generations of decaying machinery — French, Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese, German, Danish — all waiting. The concrete remains of a French era cooling system still drips water. Fish are living in the pools which surround it while steam rises off the surface of the water. Massive copper vats reach up to the 2nd floor while steam leaks from the pipes that line the walls.

On the second floor, Ho Van Hai shows us an iron steam tank that is over years old, still working and stabilizing pressure. It has massive circular pressure dials and large wheels to open and close valves. It will be a little bit less like Hanoi and a little bit more like everywhere else. Quietly operating out of its charming little French period colonial house for years, and despite a small foray into modernity with its short-lived sister branch on Hang Trong, Pane e Vino have focused on steady, stomach-filling, good quality Italian fare.

The experience is not percent authentic — it never can be. We chose a mid-week visit and the second floor of the smartly renovated corner house was abuzz with a polyglot of clientele. You can normally judge the enthusiasm of diners for their food by the noise they generate, and that feel-good ambience was in large supply.

Cheered by the clatter of cutlery and chink of wine glasses, we set to ordering, as the pleasant array of complimentary breads and chilli, citrus and herb-infused oils arrived to ease our hunger pangs. We started off with a classic insalata caprese — tomatoes, basil and mozzarella VND, My tiniest criticism of the dish was purely on the back of the tomatoes, which while juicy and ripe, lacked flavour, an issue almost impossible to resolve in Vietnam.

Stringy and oozing milky goodness, its delicate flavour could still be detected. Perhaps a zingy dash of freshly ground pepper might have lifted the whole plate a touch. I was rather surprised when the dish made its appearance — classic Italian simplicity had been given a rather extravagant makeover. The beef was nestling in a perfectly pleasant mixed-leaf green salad and covered in a pile of cress. Pane, however, opts for a good compromise, pleasing the more dough-hungry American pizza palette. We went for the explosiva VND, , a tongue-tantalising tomato, mozzarella, capers, hot salami, gorgonzola and fresh chilli combination.

We ended on another Italian classic for dessert to share. Distinct aromatic hints of coffee, creamy mascarpone, and most importantly of all, not overly sweet. Food, Decor and Service are each rated on a scale of 0 to Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by tasting you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Be sober-minded; be watchful; be wise as the swine. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Our unwitting hero partially devours blood, brains and something else Words by Phillip Turo.

The thinking part of the pig floats on a bed of beansprouts before me. Steam rises from the yellow coils of its cerebral cortex. I lower my spoon and it yields swiftly to its touch. O soft, soft mind, velveteen and smooth! This must have been a willing, generous sort of pig while it lived. I place a little of its left hemisphere on my tongue, leaving its hopes, dreams, ideas and inventions in the broth.

Its taste is neutral — perhaps the swine was Swiss — with a vague, metallic or light citrus taste on the back of the tongue. This must be the flavour of language, the taste of its speech. Bringeth me thy pearls and I shall not tread upon them, for my cloven-hooves are divine. Yay but never shall you eat the cretinous flesh of the fowl, for it is unclean. And I did reply to the animal. The Son Only be sure that you eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall eat the life with the flesh. Yet, despite all the promises of flavour its colour makes, it tastes of very little.

Rather you taste everything but the blood; the nuts, the lime, the sweet basil leaves, or the horrible dried chilli flakes should you choose to desecrate your blood with them. Yet you do taste the blood. You taste it in the copper tang you expected to receive on your tongue but experience only in your mind. Lo and a cloud of fear did descend upon the people and they did cast their eyes about in desperation. They beseeched the darkening sky for they knew not what they had done. They did tear their hair and gnash their teeth in confusion.

The sky rained words upon their heads. And the people wept and they did open their veins and let their blood upon the soil, and the sky was well pleased. The Holy Spirit He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. Brown veins creep like tree roots across the pale, enlarged yolk.

Then there is a bony carapacething; a completely inedible hard lump with some sort of visor hanging off of it. Beside this is the soft white part, containing shreds of flesh, fledgling eyeball, blueish tubing, small tendrils of what might have in the future become feathers, and a tiny, wet, clawed foot; the ghost of The Little Duck That Never Was.

You eat it with slivers of ginger, salt and rau dam. It tastes of egg and sadness. Look not upon the deceiving angel for his light will blind you. He holds the fall of nations in his beak. Lo and he wears many disguises so be thou on thy guard - for he could be anywhere; even in you. Look thus upon nothing. Just to be on the safe side. Working to promote sustainable development, Beverly provides good value for its partners, investors, customers and society.

Provides accounting, tax and payroll services. Also specialises in helping international investors establish a presence in Vietnam. This includes services such as incorporation of companies and representative offices, opening of bank accounts, licensing and tax stamps. Also does executive search and selection. Has more than ten years experience in Vietnam and works in all major industry sectors throughout the country. TMF is expanding rapidly throughout the world. Learn more about our unique network and our services by visiting our website.

They offer highquality creative and strategic solutions to both local and global clients. Services include research, brand and marketing strategy, and design of communications materials, brand identity, packaging and websites. Grey is the only agency with a specialised HoReCa team. Services include research, branding, activations, events and public relations. Clients include multi-national brands and NGOs. Works to create powerful campaigns that address local market needs while still reinforcing universal brand identity. The company offers services in branding, event, print and digital.

With a youthful, energetic and experienced team, Tada has played an important part in international graphic design and advertising projects across Vietnam and France. They also work in co-operation with WPP, a world-wide brand communications firm. This firm has a long track record of assisting governments and multi-nationals in risk assessment and mission development. Their speciality is in providing advisory and training products to private sector enterprises and NGOs.

Works with a range of firms including private, stateowned and foreign. They also provide market research consulting. Also offers networking opportunities and social events. Organises business luncheons and seminars as well as regular social and networking events. Also promotes Vietnam to French companies and helps them in developing their businesses here. A business and social network, members have the opportunity to meet, discuss, interact and share expertise and experience.

The place to go for all things related to the arts in a city that is developing its own, vibrant contemporary arts scene. Has event calendars, event postings, blogs, addresses and contact details, and covers anything from classical music through to installations, rock concerts and more. Provides the expat community with essential information for living and working in Hanoi including comprehensive and up-to-date events listings as well as address lists of galleries, cinemas, theatres, hotels, housing agencies, embassies and much more. Subscribe to receive their weekly newsletter.

Also organize regular events and parties. Register, create your profile, write a review and receive frequent newsletters. Also has downloadable PDF versions of the whole publication. For more information about how we can help your organisation, call or e mail. Professional team helps with design to fit your brand and production and logistics to fit your budget. Our services are inclusive of site finding, travelling fees, contract negotiation and resolving any other issues which arise during the term of the lease, all of which are free of charge for the tenant.

Services include leasing and sales, valuation and research, property management and support services. Attempt to accelerate the success of their clients by making their knowledge your property. Housekeeping, and daily breakfast from the Daluva Breakfast Menu are also included. Private car and tour booking service available. Though they specialise in high-end, high-rise apartments, they do have a range of options. The website contains most listings.

A onestop-shop to finance, design, brand and build for the finest residential products. Since that time Vietnam Land has successfully developed two residential towers at the Chelsea Park project in Hanoi and a residential land sales project in Hung Yen province called Villa Park. Also has comprehensive travel and accident coverage, as well as healthcare packages for expats residing in Vietnam. The company has been operational in Vietnam since and offers free advice and comparative quotes. Coverage includes property, liability, business interruption, marine cargo, automobile, home and travel, as well as expat healthcare packages.

Toll free hotline in Vietnam: Provides consultancy services, property management, space planning, facilities management, corporate real estate services, leasing, valuation and sales to the key segments of commercial, industrial, retail, residential and investment property. They also have several branch offices, and a useful website that can help to fill residential or commercial needs.

All instructors and teachers are native English speakers and admission applications are accepted throughout the year. Located near the Japanese Embassy. The institution specialises in instructing pre-school and lower elementary age students. Established in by agencies representing the United Nations, the pristine campus has a broad range of facilities and is located in the gated community of Ciputra.

Assists partners, co-investors and clients to achieve financial objectives while focusing on four core areas: This was the first financial company in Vietnam to focus entirely on consumer credit. They will walk you through the solutions and products available and will constantly monitor and manage your portfolio through opportunity and instability in global financial markets. One of the top language centres in the capital. But can the same theory be applied in the savings and investment world? The answer is no. The real issue in question is how long you have to wait to get the two birds out of the bush, and what kind of certainties there are.

For instance, if interest rates are at 3 percent per year for the next five years, and you can get two birds out of the bush in five years, it makes sense to give up the bird in hand now and get the two in the bush in five years. But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush if interest rates are 15 percent per year for five years.

Roughly you have to get two birds out of the bush in five years to equal one bird in hand now. So in this case it makes sense to keep the bird in hand. Besides providing the standard legal services to corporate clients, has an excellent website containing the Vietnam Laws Online Database English translations of over 3, Vietnamese laws. Also publishes a monthly Vietnam Legal Update. For instance, local shares were very strong in , real estate in and , USD cash in , and gold in and But what can we expect in ? And the VND pays 13 percent per year but most market observers say the current banking sector restructuring may scare savers and investors from holding VND.

I dare not predict. You can email him at afonso. They regularly advise large clients on international investment, banking and finance. The Vietnam offices provide high-quality legal services in English, Korean, and Vietnamese across all sectors of business law. They can provide legal and representation services. In some cases they can provide assistance to individual clients.

Pre-university courses are also available. Offers teambuilding and academic-based business and management programmes. Services include auditing and optimising research programs, knowledge management, developing marketing plans and business models, and assessing market opportunities.

Offers full service capability across qualitative, quantitative, media and retail measurement for FMCGs, consumer products, finance, telecoms and more. Focuses mainly on the Telecom and IT industries, providing a range of services including events, product activation, consulting, marketing and advertising. Offers the full range of PR, advertising and consultancy services. Offers a range of services for the entire employment and business cycle.

As the largest home moving company in the world, Allied Pickfords moves over 1, families in over countries every day. Available with a full range of services — domestic moves, office moves and storage — whether you are moving within Vietnam or across the world. They also offer pre-move advice regarding customs and shipping. Resident Vietnam provides full relocation and immigration management services to several multinational companies in Vietnam and ser vices the Global Mobility industry. We are proud to be the only moving company with both ISO — certification in Vietnam.

The serviced apartments here offer the luxury of a hotel mixed with the peaceful comfort and privacy of your home, under one roof of course. Thoughtfully appointed Daluva Homes feature a cozy bedroom for true rest, and an open living area that opens up to a terrace with plants. Has several apartments with excellent views and provides gold-standard service.

The Mayfair is popular among the diplomatic and international business communities. Also has a heated swimming pool, gym, spa, and prices to match. The staff are friendly, too. Just round the corner are bike rentals watch those hills and other tour facilities. Other facilities include indoor pool, health club and sauna. The property also offers storey twin towers housing a five-star hotel and golf courses adding up to 36 holes. The staff here can help you arrange tours that will offer scenery a bit different than the standard tours of Halong Bay.

Two or three-night tours are available and customers have a wide range of cabin styles to choose from: The great food and service adds to the already beautiful setting. They also offer transfers directly from Hanoi. Featuring rooms, one restaurant, two bars and one professional spa with seven treatment rooms, Novotel Ha Long Bay enjoys impressive panoramic vistas, including a pool with swim-up bar overlooking the limestone bay. Ideal for business travel or family holidays. Around VND, will get you a comfortable room in a bungalow close to the beach. Fee also includes the boat ride from Cat Ba.

For more information check on the web. The rooms are fairly well looked after and clean. You can usually get one for under VND,, but prices vary depending on the season. Large, clean rooms with all the modern conveniences, as well as a restaurant and a popular bar. The front desk can also arrange tailor-made tours around the bay. The company boasts 11 overnight cruise vessels with a total of cabins and 15 traditional junks with capacities from passengers each for day trippers,. The front-desk staff speaks English and can help sort out any travel arrangements.

Rates from around VND, per night. All suites and rooms offer bathrobe and slippers, digital safety box, free internet access, satellite TV and hour room service. Facilities include the Jade restaurant, offering western and Asian fare, several bars, a deluxe spa and fitness center with separate hot and cold Jacuzzis, sauna, steam room, relax lounge and VIP massage room. Just two minutes walk from Bai Chay, the property has a resort feel and the rooms are housed in several buildings. Designed with panache without being pretentious, room rates at this unit property start at around VND2.

In addition to the clean up-to-standard rooms, the hotel also has a swimming pool and tennis courts. Rooms are small but have good modern conveniences like satellite TV and new, clean bathrooms done in designer tiles. Boasting guest rooms including 40 suites , two swimming pools and a spa and fitness centre, Crowne Plaza also has some of the best meetings and conference facilities in town. Close to the National Convention Center, and a favourite of the business traveller, Daewoo even boasts an outdoor driving range. Shortly to become a Marriot property. Set to the west of town, Fortuna often offers business deals on rooms and spaces to hold meetings, presentations and celebrations.

Colonial era accents throughout and an oriental themes lobby. In the West Lake area, you can expect the gold-standard service with a quiet atmosphere and excellent views. Facilities include a spa with Jacuzzi, sauna and steam rooms, a comprehensive range of business amenities, the Orient restaurant, serving international and Vietnamese fare, and the Rendezvous Piano Bar with wines and cocktails. As we approached, large rocks loomed ahead, jutting out from between trees.

The town is ringshaped, built along a road that encircles a small mountain. By the time we arrived at this ring road, the sun was on the horizon, but we were still hopeful to see the pagoda before daylight faded. As soon as we stopped, the locals knew what we were looking for. They motioned with their heads and then pointed down the road to where hundreds of skulls lay within Ba Chuc Temple also known as Bone Pagoda — victims of the Ba Chuc Massacre. We soon found the pagoda, a memorial stupa resembling the famous one at the Choeung Ek killing fields in Cambodia. With over 1, skulls peering out from a hexagonal glass-windowed building, it is just as chilling — a shocking example of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge between and We approached the site slowly and.

We dropped some money in a donation box and he handed us incense and ceremonial papers to burn in a fire pit nearby. When this was done, we absorbed the horror of the Bone Pagoda. Looking at the skulls and bones separated by gender and age, the sheer number of deaths was hard to fathom. Laughter Among Tears Returning to our parked motorbikes, we were approached by a large crowd.

Some were trying to sell us various goods, but many of them were just curious. Ba Chuc is the remotest place we have visited in Vietnam, and clearly not many foreigners stop by. We were struck by the pleasant nature of the people, which stood in direct contrast to the horror we had just seen. We spent a while mingling and laughing. One never would have guessed that they. That evening, as we walked around town, everyone we encountered was eager to talk to us.

The next day we returned to the Bone Pagoda to see the small museum next door, which displays photographs and artifacts from the massacre. The images are graphic, perhaps even more disturbing than the skulls. Knowing that these events happened around where we were standing made it feel very vivid. The village of Ba Chuc became the highlight of a trip filled with many other better-known destinations.

To get there, take road A along the Cambodian border. Around halfway between Ha Tien and Chau Doc, go south on B for about 10 minutes until you reach the village. The pagoda and museum are on the east side of town. Reproduction colonial architecture is matched by an elegant and spacious inside area. Has all the standard facilities of a top-end hotel as well as an attractive, courtyard pool area. Decent but slightly old gym area and a good outdoor pool.

The first boutique five star in the heart of Hanoi, the lavish, uniquely designed rooms and suites contain all the mod cons and are complimented by two restaurants, a bar and complimentary Wi-Fi. Great gym and health club. Centrally located, with luxurious accommodation, the Melia also has a host of fine dining areas, a swimming pool, a health club and an in-house bar-cumnightclub, Latino.

A popular venue for functions, exhibitions and events. Breakfast is included and in the long, lounge restaurant on the second floor, home-style Vietnamese fare is served up with fresh fruit juices and Lavazza coffee. Built using a blend of western and oriental architecture, the properties have 28 and 35 rooms respectively, all with mod-cons. For a bit more luxury stay at the Giabao Grand. Try to get a front room with balcony to look out over the bustling Old Quarter. An all-day restaurant and a lounge bar are available to satiate their clientele while the kinetic gym and wellness studio offer an excellent range of equipment.

Massage and sauna facilities are available for guests seeking to rejuvenate. Of the well-appointed rooms and suites, 93 are non-smoking. Run by Australian expats and partners with a wealth of experience in the hotel industry, expect great service. Vietnam and until the visions of a glorious future are rebuilt, a purpose regained, we will struggle on trying to make loose ends tie, and our monies meet.

The words of one businessman sum up the concerns. With offices all around Asia, for years it was the Vietnamese operation that was always profitable. Now, says the entrepreneur, he has had to lay people off. Behind the smile, there is a tangible sense of disbelief. But this is the Year of the Snake, which according to tradition is a good omen — a snake in the house means your family will not starve. There are two interpretations of this, the metaphorical — the snake as the wise businessman, graceful and cunning, a Solomonic mediator — and the literal — the snake as a wealthy creature, willing to sacrifice his possessions to pay for his family's food.

One interpretation would seem to point towards a positive , the other provides mixed signals: Despite the pressure of completing the old and starting afresh, will certainly have its opportunities. On midnight on the first of Tet, like all other years there will be fireworks. Take in the atmospheric kickoff of the New Year in one of several packed locations.

The big displays are taking place by the District 1 waterfront, emanating from the mouth of the Saigon River tunnel. So, avoid the crowds and find a tall building. The fireworks go off from midnight to PechaKucha is the art of concision and follows a presentation method of 20 images which are shown for 20 seconds each. Inspired by the wealth of sharing and networking, the event is a chance for young designers and creators to show their work publicly in a social way. PechaKucha was created by two architects in Tokyo in and is now held in over cities.

Entrance is VND, at the door. Doors open at 6. Dance away to his sought after sound on Feb. For VIP packages or reservations, contact Mr. Sen on Works range from cultural customs to gender stereotypes, to the contrast between urban and rural living. Phan Quang, a current Ho Chi Minh City resident, possesses a BA in Economics but pursues his passion for art with his own commercial photography studio.

The exhibit is on display until Apr. Run by well-known, Britishborn local comic Chris Baker, each stand-up set will run for a maximum of six minutes, with profits from the night going to a local orphanage. To register for your open spot simply email Chris on christopherpeterbaker gmail. The show will kick off at 8pm.

Connected to the group behind Au Parc and Refinery, Central Parc Banh Mi also runs an onsite bakery dishing out fresh cakes, cookies, crumbles, bread and pasta. Order 24 hours ahead to cater for your event or party. Call for deliveries.

The parlour is aimed at operating on strict European standard health and safety codes and will carry a range of after-care products, helping to give clients a stress-free and relatively pain-free inking. The shop specialises in Asian and Japanese designs but can do anything from tribal and Polynesian, to old school, traditional, portraits and realistic body art. Internationally renowned artist Adrian Willard, aka Maui, who specialises in new school, will be joining up with the shop in the next few months. Their BodyMetrix Scanner uses ultrasound to measure a variety of bodily parameters.

Kiwifitness offers two levels of assessment. And the best thing about the BodyMetrix Scanner? Kiwifitness can meet at any location to conduct assessments. Get in touch with Phil Kelly on or email phil philkelly. Now part of the Bui Vien locale, Crumbs offers an outdoor eating area, refreshments, ice cream, hot coffee, fresh food and ample parking. And, of course, the great selection of pies and pasties that have made this bakery a hit.

Come and see its full line-up of cakes, bread and delicacies at Cong Quynh, Q1. Call , email info crumbs. Sometimes they are the bane of our lives as we waste hours trying to reset them from our online banking or credit card accounts through to expat forums and of course email and Facebook. Passwords are not a new phenomenon, though. Encryptions and codes were probably used as far back as the time of Adam and Eve when they entertained themselves with secret games in The Garden of Eden.

So they are nothing new. But we struggle with remembering them or even choosing a good, solid and safe password. At Cyril and You, there is no monthly charge or membership fee, just pay-in-advance session rates. Specialising in Sport Conditioning, Resistance Training, and Senior Training, Cyril can guide you to a healthier, stronger lifestyle through personalised workouts and fitness classes like Boxing, Body Fight and Kickboxing.

The cost is VND1. For more information, call or visit www. What is a good password? I am often asked. Well, a good password is one you are able to remember, but not at any cost. I have a party trick when I join a group of people for a drink to try and shake them into affirmative action. I try to guess their passwords after meeting them for only a few minutes — it often get some gasps of astonishment. So if I can so easily guess these important security features of every day online life, what is there to stop others from following suit and hacking into our lives?

Think about it, if somebody is able to guess your Gmail account password, they own your digital life.

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This could cause a lot of personal damage or even worse, depending on who you are, what secrets you are hiding. Photos and videos which are for personal perusal could go viral. Of course it is also possible to reset passwords for all accounts that have your Gmail account as your recovery email account.

And if you are cautious you should have no problems in choosing a good password that only you can guess. Yet, is your password made up like the one below? One Log In Only So if you want my advice, choose a strong password but never use it for more than one log in. A high-end computer is able to attempt to guess passwords at a rate of 33 billion password guesses every second using this software — whitepixel. Make your password more like a sentence using phrases, names from events combined with dates or times. This is easy to remember but hard to guess. Perhaps use one of the many free online services here that can help you test the quality of your password.

This one is from Microsoft — goo. Or you can randomly generate a password tool from PCtools Syma qualintec — goo. Jasper Waale is a computer and online specialist. You can contact him by emailing jasper. The address may be new but the warm atmosphere and ambience remain untouched, continuing its reign as one of the city's best French and Mediterranean restaurants.

La Camargue still provides customers with classic Gallic fare served up with a contemporary twist, and an extensive wine collection. Chef's specials change weekly, allowing ample opportunity to enhance your gastronomic experience. Call or visit www. For further information check out www. Located in District 7 across from Thien Son Plaza and FV Hospital, the clinic offers anti-aging and cosmetic treatments ranging from Botox, fillers, laser hair removal to laser facial rejuvenation. This includes the use of five world-class lasers for treating a variety of skincare problems.

The dental clinic provides full complete dental care including teeth whitening and dental implants. The modern, Asianstyle architecture of Miumiu combined with subtle decorative furniture bring a harmonious, cozy and polite ambience. Like its sister spa, MiuMiu the second is the perfect place to melt away your tension in a tranquil atmosphere, while experiencing a friendly and professional spa service. This location has a fully-equipped ER, with an ambulance on standby and provided full support to the hour centre in District 1.

Services include pediatric, general practise and internal medicine, vaccination and travel advice, a laboratory, pharmacy, procedure room and ultrasound. Call for appointments. The main 21km race plus the shorter 10km and 5km races are along some of the most beautiful stretches of beaches in Southeast Asia. Finish your trek inside the Long Beach Resort or with a refreshing, rewarding jump in the ocean. In general, expats are comfortable with their new lifestyle, salary and the lower cost of living in Asia, yet are not keeping up with inflation and the price of property back home — almost all have ceased contributing to their superannuation the minute they board the plane.

So, this is an opportunity to find how to take full advantage of living overseas. To reserve your place, or if you require further information, email Greg Shand at greg expatpropertyplanners. The presentation starts at 6. Out of submissions, 17 ideas have been slated for web-based development, to be featured on the websites of the contest-runners. First prize was awarded to year-old Anh Nguyen Phuong for the game Hero of the Forest, which focused on identifying threats to wildlife and enacting protection. Learn more at wildlifeatrisk. The only live cyclo race in the world returns for its 13th outing on Sunday Mar.

For more information or to register a team, please email cyclo saigonchildren. The artist's first solo exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Manh Hung is known for his paintings depicting military fighter jet aircraft. However, in this latest show of his works, he will present new sculptural installations. Drawing from his own personal history growing up in a cramped Soviet-style apartment block in Hanoi, Nguyen reflects on the idea of community, the conflicts that exist within and without constructed societies, and the complexities of civic development and individual responsibility.

How is a community defined? Is the traditional idea of community just hollow rhetoric or an ideal that can evolve and adapt to modern day Vietnam? One Planet is supported by the Danish Embassy and will run until Feb. For more information email info galeriequynh. The conference provides an opportunity for teachers and administrators to network, build capacity, and share effective practises to move technology forward in Vietnam's international schools.

All schools are welcome to join. To register contact Theresea Flaspohler at tflaspohler ssis. So, I learned from this video that if a girl has the side of her head shaved, she likes to get rearended. Boys and their ois. You know, Trent Reznor sniffed heroin! I keep telling you, you need to sleep! Not sure who came up with the phrase imitation is the highest form of flattery.

There are some decent people in this area. Apparently he said he was feeling smelly and just had to get home. They should never have left us alone in the office. New players and supporters are welcome to the games that take place at the RMIT Sports Ground, which has just installed a new pitch. For further information on the teams taking part, see our listings in Leisure and Wellness. The lecture is free, starting at 3pm on Feb. The lecture will be conducted in French and Vietnamese.

A fun, creative class for all, no matter your painting level, with a brush in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, this is the perfect way to get creative. And in the coming installment the theme will be the work of British painter David Hockney. Born in Bradford in , after a successful career, in his latter years Hockney reinvented himself as a landscape painter.

His landscapes are full of colour, spontaneity, creativity and energy. Using real landscapes as a reference, with the help of an instructor, participants will be taught how to use lively strokes, colour, line, and simple forms in order to get a finished painting. To book email info vin-space. VIS-A-VIS The forgotten industry, if you can call it that, tourism was whacked on the head again by the authorities with an increase of visa fees by almost per cent last month. Tourists come to Vietnam not because of any incentives or attractions but out of intrigue. If the volume of fish materials is over one million tonnes per year, the Mekong Delta will be able to produce over , tonnes of fish fat.

When in place the new route is sure to attract international visitors, especially European travellers who want to see a bit more of Southeast Asia at a reasonable price, and much more quickly than by treacherous bus journey. Vietnam will also benefit from the route as many foreign visitors travelling to Thailand and Cambodia will head to Phu Quoc Island, an offshore part of Kien Giang, on the way.

According to the plan, which has widespread support, the creation of more karaoke-clustering streets like Su Van Hanh Street in District 10 will allow better control of prostitution and drug abuse, crimes that can arise from karaoke-related activities. Construction is scheduled to start in the second quarter of this year, with an expected completion date in the fourth quarter of The hectare plant will source crude oil from Kuwait, and will have a total capacity of , barrels a day and 10 million tonnes a year.

The plant will help meet some 40 percent of the domestic demand for fuel, while Dung Quat currently serves 30 percent — decreasing foreign fuel reliance to 30 percent countrywide. The Hong Kong-based animal welfare group Animals Asia set up the centre in , when the agriculture ministry issued a directive on phasing out bear farming and the painful extraction of bear bile. Around 3, bears are being farmed in Vietnam, concentrated mostly in the north. Vietnam, China and South Korea are the only three countries in the world to legalise bear farming.

Due to a number of factors — such as unfavourable weather, poor harvests and a bad market in — prices of chrysanthemums, orchids and yellow apricot trees have skyrocketed, up some 20 to 30 percent from Flower villages in the south, such as Sa Dec in Dong Thap province and Cai Mon in Ben Tre Province, have been taking advantage, transporting flowers to the north, where the desired blossoms are in short supply.

Buy 1 get 1 free on classic cocktails and local beer. From 5pm to 10pm Oriental Garden. Every Tuesday New York Steakhouse. Buy 1 get 1 free. Every Wednesday New York Steakhouse. One Free iced bourbon coffee or every guest. La Fenetre Soleil every Wed. To have your event included in our calendar, please email news wordhcmc.

From 4pm to 8pm every day at Saigon Saigon Bar, offering two-for-one deal. Call for reservation. Call for more info. After a 2am start, each duo — organisers insist all entrants compete in twos — will run around 20km through the jungle in pitch black before taking on a 40km cycle ride. They then finish off the race with a 2km walk or float down the river.

Vietnam : la ferme du Colvert, écotourisme chez les Muongs

Now in its sixth year, the Madagui Trophy has grown from an event attracting participants based in Southern Vietnam to a national competition that appeals to teams from the whole of the country. It also has entrants from as far afield as Europe, Australia and Hong Kong.

The contest is run for a good cause, too — all proceeds go to a sustainable development project run in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund WWF to protect the rainforest. These will soon be certified organic. The Extreme category is an eight-hour event starting at 5am while the Adventure race starts at 7am.

Regardless of the category, all contestants need to have completed their challenge by 1pm when the organisers hold the closing ceremony. Many Vietnamese people are looking for peaceful places, they have a new appreciation of mother nature. In , people took part. This year Jean-Luc expects it to rise to For security reasons, contestants need to register and complete the challenge in pairs. Registration can be done online at www. Contestants pay for accommodation, transfer from Ho Chi Minh City and, if necessary, equipment rental.

Words by Nick Ross. Photo by Aaron Joel Santos. But because the year-old has had so much press recently and been the focus of so many product endorsements, that this would do no more than cover already well-covered ground. Yet when the angle was explained, the response changed. Born Hang Lam Trang Anh, the rap artist will be heading to Japan later this year to collaborate on a track with a well-known Japanese musician.

There are no specific details as of yet, but if this happens then Suboi could become the first Vietnamese artist to make it overseas. This would be a huge step not just for herself, but for the Vietnamese music industry as a whole. Dwarfed by the entertainment output of the likes of Korea and Japan, except among Viet Kieu communities, on. Making it overseas is tough for any artist, no matter their origin. In and it went global. From a personal point of view, Suboi is crystal clear that rising to such heights will be no easy task, particularly on the language front.

It will take time for me to understand everything. So that is a big challenge. And I want to see how Japanese producers work. But entering the last year of high school she dropped out of the band to focus on her studies. The former tearaway made it to university. Under the auspices first of Music Faces and more recently under the management of Joshua Turner her career began to take off. That is why I was so unhappy when I saw this cover.

So, I have to do it so that people can read between the lines. This is rap, you know. So how can I not swear in my songs? So, this is the first big thing for me working outside of the country — I can say what I want to say. I just want to get to know people. Having studied Japanese and English at university, while her English is near-fluent — she raps in both English and Vietnamese — she admits that her Japanese is poor. Another is the music. The Music Suboi has now released two albums: To listen to her music, do a search on YouTube or Zing.

The Pen Man A stockist of some of the most expensive and sought after pens in the world, Ralf Zepter is at the forefront of the top-end writing instrument industry in Saigon.

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Words by Derek Milroy. Photos by Mads Monsen 30 Word February Before he even stepped foot in Vietnam a decade ago, the pen anorak was already a keen collector and now has some prized possessions which over the last few years have appreciated in value by percent. He is understandably coy about which models he has hidden under the floorboards.

He is the pen man. Like so many western men, the Swiss national arrived in Vietnam and immediately fell in love with a woman, and Vietnam too. But after flirting with other business ventures, like other entrepreneurs he went back to what he knows. And this man knows his stuff. I decided there and then to set up my own pen business. But the key to his success is that the best pens are made in Europe — with Germany and Italy the big players.

There are some beautiful designs but it is the celebrity items that really catch the untrained eye — among his collection are Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee pens. Both sets are rare and may well be worth a small fortune in years to come, but they are not cheap. As the old adage goes, you need to speculate to accumulate. However, people need not be scared off because I have a lot of expensive pens.

He also has gift sets that could be the. The moment Sylvester Stallone referred to his skulled designer pen in the blockbuster movie Expendables 2, Zepter had a wry smile. Stallone then hands him a Montegrappa. Stallone himself actually helped design the Montegrappa pen, titled Chaos, which featured in the movie he also wrote. Ralf stocks the less expensive model which retails at a mere VND million.

The most expensive version in the Chaos series is a gold fountain pen that can also be purchased from Ralf for only VND Sylvester Stallone is very involved in the Montegrappa business. I am not surprised he wrote the pens into the script for that scene. Although after meeting Ralf I might go a bit more upmarket than the biro. If you have a chance to walk through a park, do so.

Maybe you can watch the kids and their funky parkour moves. Maybe there will just be a nice park bench, ideally situated on a waypoint on your stroll, with the paint peeling just right…. So we sent out lovebirds? Amy Sands and Brett Newski to check out the softer side of the city. Words Ed Weinberg, photos Kyle Phanroy. So you decide to put some effort into it, to floss, to take that extra VND, out of the bank machine.

Who knows, it might be a fun night. Yes, there is going to be a table between you and your paramour, and there will be a bill presented at the end, but once you settle on a followup plan to dinner and go to a place within your price range, a nutritious start to your date will help set you up for the long run. Follow a clever rhythm This is the point when a lot of you start straining, so listen carefully.

Our young lovers decided to keep with the easy flow of the night and pursue another open air spot, in the form of the surreal rooftop oasis at Broma 41 Nguyen Hue, Q1. Amy and Brett embrace the easy vibe, and talk about their families, childhoods, hopes and dreams. For a hint of the love that is always in the air, try the waterfront near Cau Mong, overlooking District 4. You can blend in with the night-time couples occupying a bit of waterside real estate and wishing they were far away, cradled in the arms of a surelyadoring destiny.

Ok, while still not forcing anything, this is the point you might want to get a bit more ambitious. Brett asked Amy to his house to see his rad rooftop swimming pool. He did not make the ill-advised joke that they could go skinny-dipping. They sat with their legs immersed, carrying on the easy vibe of earlier. It was a sweet end to a sweet date. So with the help of historian Tim Doling we take a step back in time and look at 50 buildings — 50 sites accessible to the general public that chart the development of Saigon into the conurbation it is today. Through this we can see that despite the rapid changes of the past decade, this is a city still hanging onto its soul.

However, they turned the situation to their advantage by encouraging the refugees to head south to colonise new territories in Gia Dinh on their behalf. Skilled traders, they immediately became involved in shipping and rice trading, markets they would dominate for centuries.

Built between and , the Minh Huong Gia Thanh is their oldest surviving communal house. In addition to honouring the Minh Huong village deities it contains shrines to the famous Nguyen dynasty military commanders who protected them and to Minh Huong scholars Trinh Hoai Duc and Ngo Nhan Tinh. However, dedicated mandarin-scholars like Vo Truong Toan were determined to continue teaching their students. In addition to its connection with Vo Truong Toan, this ancient building was used as a covert military training centre by rebel Phan Xich Long between and and again by antiFrench Young Pioneers after the August Revolution of He was killed by cannon fire on Feb.

With the garrison facing starvation, one of his deputies suggested that it might be a good idea to surrender or escape. Being far removed from the centre of Khmer political power, the Delta remained relatively under-populated and unexploited — apart from ports like Prey Nokor, forerunner of Ho Chi Minh City. Tolerant towards Christianity and open to dealings with the west, Duyet offered generous tax concessions to Chinese merchants and is widely credited for bringing prosperity to the south.

Sadly there are now no traces of either, but surviving colonial buildings can help us pinpoint the location of the second one. In the French razed it to the ground and in to they built in its place the main colonial infantry barracks for their new colonial capital of Saigon. The barracks survived until , when Dinh Tien Hoang Street was driven through the site. Pride of place is given to a priceless collection of wooden Buddha images from Long An and Dong Thap provinces, believed to be the oldest surviving wooden statues in Southeast Asia.

Yet many of the earliest French public buildings in Saigon were surprisingly modest structures with designs strongly influenced by Vietnamese ethnic architecture. Built in to as the headquarters of the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes, the Dragon House is a fine example of this early colonial style. Resembling a stilted house, it has a traditional roof decorated with dragons, the central pair gazing towards the moon in the luong long chau nguyet style found widely on Vietnamese pagodas and temples.

The first church was inaugurated in by Father Donatien Eveillard, who also established a religious publishing house here and invited the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres to set up a school to train disadvantaged children for the publishing trade. The present church dates from , when the original sanctuary was rebuilt in Romanesque style. The bell tower, the rear vestry and the sumptuous Italian marble high altar were added between and Governor General Paul Doumer to sourced cheaper opium in Yunnan and improved efficiency by combining the five existing Indochina opium agencies into a single opium monopoly.

To encourage greater levels of consumption, it even developed a new fastburning variety of chandoo. Today only the gateway remains as a monument to one of the more shameful aspects of colonial exploitation. Fluent in at least 10 different languages, he left more than works of literature, history and geography, as well as dictionaries and translated works. Cochinchine built a classical-style mausoleum over his grave, next to his family home in Cho Quan village. Later the same year, a city street, a school and a tramway station were named in his honour.

But spare a moment to appreciate this muchmaligned form of transport, which was invented in by Phnom-Penh-based French industrialist Pierre Coupeaud. Having succeeded in cornering the market in the Cambodian capital, Coupeaud turned his attention to Saigon and Cho Lon, where public transport was still monopolised by the pousse-pousse rickshaw and a covered horse-drawn cart known as the boite d'allumettes the matchbox. In , to demonstrate the effectiveness of his invention to the city authorities, he staged a cyclopousse relay race from Phnom Penh to Saigon.

Though how it ended up as part of a school wall is a complete mystery. Since the cemetery was cleared in the s, part of the temple compound has been used as a residence — ask permission before entering. Awarded many major railway and port infrastructure projects in Indochina, its works in Saigon included the Halles Centrales Ben Thanh Market, , the Treasury and the Bank of Indochina , as well as many apartment buildings. The dilapidated colonial mansion that once housed its Saigon branch office at 48 Rue Richaud now Nguyen Dinh Chieu in Da Kao currently provides office space for several agencies of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Functional yet elegant, it is noteworthy for its stylish fusion of art deco curves and traditional four-panel roofs. One such building was the secure psychiatric ward at Cho Quan Hospital, which was used after to incarcerate political prisoners. Communist Party, who was captured by French police and detained in several different locations before being brought here on Aug. He died of tuberculosis in one of its cells on Sep. His final words to colleagues were: The old secure psychiatric ward has been preserved in period style as a museum dedicated to Tran Phu.

He was a strong advocate of mass education and one of his greatest achievements was the setting up of the patriotic Tonkin Free School in Hanoi in Exiled to France in for suspected. Trinh returned home in and when he died the following year, his funeral famously became the spark for nationwide protests against colonialism. A memorial house preserves books, documents and photographs depicting his life and achievements.

Originally established to worship. Plaques commemorate official visits by Lieutenant Governor of Cochinchina Dr. Maurice Cognacq on Mar. Established in , Minh Ly was a crucial influence on the development of. The main sanctuary is soberly decorated with carved archways, calligraphic boards and parallel sentences and its architecture displays a preoccupation with numeric patterns.

A national historic monument, Bot Day Thep has been restored as a museum. The company was also active in other areas and sold automobile accessories from shop space on the ground floor. Although now in poor condition, the flatiron building is still fully occupied by tenants, including on the top floor descendants of Nguyen Van Hao.

Built between and , it was conceived in European Gothic style but decorated with Oriental features such as yin-yang roof tiles, ceramic roof ridge decoration and lacquered calligraphic boards. These days the church is more often remembered for its connection with the military coup of November, However, the plot was discovered and the man responsible for laying mines under the bridge, year-old apprentice electrician Nguyen Van Troi, was arrested and sentenced to death.

After four months of negotiations, Smolen was released, but despite assurances, Troi was shot by a firing squad. After , Cong Ly Bridge, the road to the airport and a nearby market were all named after Troi. The current memorial was inaugurated on Oct. Noteworthy for its clean contemporary design by architects Tran Van Duong and Do Ba Vinh, the pagoda was built between and to house sarira in Vietnamese xa loi relics of the Shakyamuni Buddha presented to the Buddhist Association by the Venerable Narada Maha Thera of Sri Lanka during his visit of Two later died in police custody and Mr.

Toai himself was imprisoned on Con Dao Island. After regaining his freedom in , he reopened his noodle shop. Since his death in , Pho Binh has been run by his children, who maintain the 2nd floor room where the Tet attacks were planned as a museum and family shrine. In the early days she even bought tombstones for artists from poor families. Phung Ha herself is buried in a special tomb outside the main cemetery.

The only non-stage artist buried here is movie actor Le Cong Tuan Anh, whose tragic death in at the age of just 29 shocked Vietnamese cinemagoers. Because of its vulnerability, it was replaced in by the more secure embassy compound at 4 Thong Nhat Le Duan , though it remained an embassy annex until From mid onwards, pistols, rifles, grenades and over kg of TNT were brought here from Cu Chi and other remote bases in vans or ox carts, ingeniously hidden in hollowed-out wooden panels, plant pots and wickerwork baskets.

Today the house is preserved as a museum and visitors can descend through a trap door into the weapons cellar, which is realistically dressed with boxes of replica armaments to show how it once looked. Upstairs an exhibition explains the planning and implementation of the mission, while a memorial honours the strong NLF Special Forces Team 5, all of whom lost their lives during the attack. Best viewed from a bench in Chi Lang Park.

Established in , the remote base operated in extraordinarily difficult terrain, often with inadequate supplies of food and water. Despite this, it succeeded in launching many devastating attacks on enemy installations, notably the destruction of Nha Be Fuel Depot on Dec. Accessed by speedboat, Sac Forest Guerilla Base comprises a semi-circular array of guerrilla huts connected to each other by bamboo walkways, showing what daily life would have been like for the revolutionary soldiers of the era.

Aviation enthusiasts have identified the aircraft as B, originally delivered to South African Airways in , which was acquired by Vietnam Airlines in and flown under its last registration VN-A until It was then grounded and somehow relocated here for training purposes — though how they got it here is a complete mystery, as old maps indicate that this area has never been linked to the airport runways.

Built in with Soviet aid to a monumental design by Huynh Tan Phat, it incorporates a 2,seat main auditorium with revolving stage and a seat cinema. A short boat ride from Saigon, Vung Tau has long been relegated to low down the list of local getaways. Yet the city of is now becoming a real force. The beaches are unshaded and uncared for, the sea is dirty and there is a seedy element to the nightlife. Yet this has become a stereotype, a stereotype that should be ignored. The reason for my bias was down to experience.

I used to live and work there. I also spent some of the worst, and when I finally left in I swore I would never return. Except for two weddings and family ties that occasionally saw me make the two-hour trip from Saigon out of necessity, for a long time I kept my distance. Recent events have changed my mind and rid me of my baggage. It started with a photographer showing me his blog.

Together with his son he had taken the cable car to the theme park at the top of the mountain. When I had lived in Vung Tau the cable car was one of those projects that seemed to. And yet here it was, completed. The images showed a saturated, azure blue sky, a dark green pine forest and a vista of the city that was different to that of my memories.

I determined that at some point I would take a look. So the next time I returned. Long Son My latest journey coincided with bad weather. The Vung Tau peninsula went one step further — it was genuinely. Besides floating seafood farms, mangrove — some destroyed and some not — a lake, the viewless mountain retreat of Du Son and the tiny fishing port at Ben Da, the main attraction in Long Son is an old house, known quite simply as Nha Lon big house.

The home to followers of. I went to the church in Sao Mai village and the fishing port in Ben Dinh.