Vietnam: A great place to live

The online magazine ‘Business Insider’ recently published an article written by leading investment strategist, Tim Staermose, who talked about impressions of Vietnam after his eight-day visit to the Southeast Asian country.
Peaceful, with reasonable prices and extremely safe, were his main observations. Forty years on from the war with the US, Staermose felt that the country has experienced a great deal of positive changes.

“In the ancient town of Hoi An and the capital city of Hanoi, the local lifestyles are in general very laid-back and relaxed. There are numerous excellent cafes and restaurants that offer both local fair and overseas cuisine, and there are everywhere”, said Staermose.

“Although the weather here can be very hot and humid, Hanoi has many lakes and it is actually very pleasant to explore the city on foot”.

“That applies if you are young and single, or if you have a young family, like my friends who are based here. For the right kind of person, because of the cost of living here, the quality of life you can enjoy for the money you pay is really very difficult to beat”. 

Recomment Tour : Hue - Hoi an - Da Nang Tour

(Source: VNA)

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Have you tried coffee in Hanoi?

Coffee Culture in Hanoi

My first morning in Vietnam I was extremely jet lagged after a twenty hour journey from Chicago.  I stumbled blurry eyed down the streets of the backpacker district and hopped into the first cafe I could find and ordered a coffee. The little cafe had only plastic stools to sit on; I remember them being quite near to the ground and it felt more like I was squatting than sitting.  Hunched in such a way I examined my first cup of Vietnamese coffee.  It was brought out with a smile by a young waitress and placed before me in a casual way as if it were the most natural thing in the world.  I did not agree with this notion. There was a bowl full of hot water.  In the bowl was a small glass with condensed milk on the bottom; it was wearing a tiny metal hat.  I soon observed that the hat, or phin, was actually a filter as there was a dark oil like substance leaking from the bottom of it.  I remember thinking that it must be broken, because even after five minutes it still contained some hot water.  I kept poking at it and eventually the waitress, giggling to herself, removed it for me.  I mixed what now looked like a shot of espresso with the condensed milk and took my first sip of Vietnamese coffee.  It was divine: sweet and strong enough to cut through my extreme jet lag and help me get on with my explorations. Sitting with Le Xuan Hoang in his coffee shop near the Red River, watching my coffee slowly filter through the phin.  Hoang's coffee shop is located on a busy street near a committee building (No 3 Bo Song Quan Hoa Street).  He said he owes much of his successful businesses to it's location.  "I think people have some good reasons for coming to my shop.  Some just want to drink coffee.  Some find a place to sit.  Some have a date with their friends.  A lot of reasons for drinking coffee. But I think the main reason is the quality of my coffee,"  Hoang explained why his shop has become popular. He said his coffee is a mix of three different brands of coffee: two from Nha Trang with the Trung Nguyen, the most popular in Vietnam.  The Trung Nguyen is strictly for aroma and the other two are to make it strong, which it definitely is.  Hoang is convinced that not many people can really taste the difference between good and bad coffee, but fancies himself a connoisseur.  He limits himself to one cup a day though in order to control his coffee habit. Vietnamese coffee distinguishes itself from its western counterparts in three ways.  It is roasted with butter oil, which coats the beans and protects them from burning during the process.  In this way they can produce dark beans similar to a French Roast.  Another difference is that they don't use 100 percent Aribica beans as is the trend in much of the west.  They usual do a blend of 70 percent Aribica and 30 percent Robusta, which makes the coffee a bit stronger and for many makes it a unique drinking experience--nostalgic almost, like this is how coffee once tasted long ago.  The third difference is the unique varietals that can be planted in Vietnam's diverse landscapes.  Among them are Arabica (and an "indigenous" Sparrow, or Se, Arabica), Robusta, Excelsa (sometimes called Chari), Liberica, Catimor and others. The brewing method itself is also quite unique.  Coffee was introduced to Vietnam in the late 18th century by Dutch and French colonialists.  Supposedly, the introduction of condensed milk was due to the difficulty in keeping fresh milk in the tropical climate but has since become a matter of preference.  The phin, or metal filter, has disputed origins and though they are seen in other places in South East Asia, no one can quite agree where they come from.  It may come as a surprise but Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee beans coming just after Brazil.  Until rather recently they were only producing rather low quality beans for mass consumption, but as more money comes to the country they are specializing in higher quality beans.  As the coffee shop owner Hoan explained to me, twenty years ago there were barely any coffee shop in Hanoi, now he reckons there are over two thousand. One of the oldest coffee shops in Hanoi is Lâm Cafe, located on Nguyen Huu Huan street in the Old Quarter.  It's the full of old men wearing barrettes and smoking.  Through the haze of smoke though, it's hard to ignore the walls covered completely in paintings from various decades.  The story is that before the coffee shop became famous many starving artists would come hang out there.  They would exchange their latest works for credit and drink coffee for free until it was time to create another one.  This exchange did two things for Lâm Cafe:  it was able to adorn itself with countless paintings that are now worth quite a bit of money and created an atmosphere where artists and intellectuals could hang out.  An atmosphere that still seems to exist to this day.  It was hard to ignore a man next to me who was doing a rendering of one of the paintings on his iPad. Cafe culture here is just as varied as in the west.  From old Lâm Cafe to new coffee shops with lavish couches for young couples on a date.  Many however are simply done in peoples houses, which they furnish with a few plastic stools and open to the public.  In such operations the costs are very low as it's usually family members who work there or employees from the countryside who are paid a pittance.  According to Hoang, though, these operations rarely make much money.  "If you want to be a success in your coffee business.  You have to have something special. Maybe about quality, maybe about atmosphere.  Maybe about you.  You are friendly and they want to see you." Surely Hoang is a friendly man who had to excuse himself several times during the interview to make small talk with his patrons. One popular cafe in Hanoi has a rather interesting gimmick.  It is Pho Co Café, called "The Hidden Cafe" by most Westerners (11Hang Gai Street).  If one hasn't heard about the cafe it would be almost impossible to spot as one needs to go through a souvenir shop to find the cafe.  Indeed I had to stop at several such shops before finding the windy path that led to the old cafe with a bonsai garden and winding staircase that leads to one of the best views of Hoan Kiem Lake in the centre of the city.  Pho Co Café is also famous for it's trung cafe (egg coffee), which is typical Vietnamese drink topped with froth almost like a meringue.  As described in the beginning of this post, Vietnamese coffee does take quite a while to brew and filter and no one at the coffee is in the rush.  Indeed, many people hang out there for hours slowly sipping coffee and chatting with friends with the passage of time.  It's a distinctive feature of Vietnam where people like to enjoy themselves rushing from place to place with a large paper cup of coffee. By Nathan J. Beyerlein

Ba Be – one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world

Travel Sense Asia offer trip 2 days 1 night or 3 days 2 nights to Ba Be lake. Escape from bustle of the city and back to nature is highligh of the tours to Ba Be.

Ba Be Lake is part of Ba Be National Park with 21 famous eco-tourism and cultural sites in the north-east region. Formed more than 200 million years by three big tributary lakes: Pe Lam, Pe Lu and Pe Leng, Ba Be now covers around 500 hectares, 178m above sea level. It is 17-23 m deep, and even 29m at some points. At the World Freshwater Lake meeting held in the US in 1995, Ba Be was listed among 20 freshwater lakes that need protection. In 1997, Vietnam asked UNESCO to recognise Ba Be as a world heritage site and in 2004 it became an ASEAN heritage park. In 2011, Ba Be received a UNESCO certificate recognising it as Vietnam's third Ramsar site – designated wetlands of international importance.

Travel Sense Asia - First Lunar Month Offers Wealth of Festive Cheer

Travel Sense Asia collect and update the news of traditional festivals in Vietnam in order to provide their customers the unforgetable time in Spring festival.

Traditional festivals including those at pagodas and temples, are being held throughout the country during the first lunar month attracting large numbers of visitors. Folk games have added to the festive atmosphere at many of these events, attracting both visitors and locals. Popular folk games and competitions include rice cooking competitions, fabric ball throwing competitions, wrestling and cock fighting at Keo Pagoda Festival in Thai Binh Province, Dong Ky and Tram Gian pagoda festivals in Bac Ninh Province, the Soc Temple Festival in Soc Son District (Hanoi), the Dong Da Hill Festival in Hanoi, the Lieu Doi Wrestling Festival in Ha Nam Province, and the Co Loa Temple Festival in Dong Anh District (Hanoi). Held annually on the fifth day of the first lunar month, the Dong Da Hill Festival celebrates King Quang Trung's victory over the invading Chinese Qin at Dong Da Hill. The hill has since become a glorious historical site. At the 2012 festival, delegations from Hanoi and neighboring provinces joined a ceremony to worship King Quang Trung. With a diverse range of cultural activities including martial art performances, dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix dances, Sinh Tien dance, fan dances, human chess, Chinese chess and folk games, the festival attracted thousands of visitors. Folk games attracted a large number of young visitors. The Co Loa Temple Festival this year had traditional games and competitions including human chess, wrestling, crossbow archery, swinging and singing folk songs. Gambling has decreased. Wrestling has attracted large crowds. Local wrestlers of different ages, including young people, entertained the crowds. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi has been for a long time a place to which one can come to learn about folk games and other cultures of ethnic groups throughout Vietnam. This Lunar New Year the museum introduced visitors to Xoan singing and preparing banh tai (ear-shaped dumpling) from Phu Tho Province apart from folk games from regions across Vietnam. The museum also introduced the game of catching grigs in a big jar that can be found in traditional festivals in Tien Du District in Bac Ninh Province and Phu Ninh District in Phu Tho Province, folk dances and throwing chopsticks into a bottle while walking on stilts from the Cao Lan ethnic group in Ngoc Tan Village, Ngoc Quan Commune, Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province, in addition to water puppetry, the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Club's Ca Tru (ceremonial song) performances, mua sap (dancing with bamboo poles) of the Thai people, and the art of calligraphy. The Huong Pagoda Festival, the Yen Tu Festival and the Tran Temple Festival are major events that had different folk games and attracted a large number of visitors. The culture, sports and tourism sector has been doing a good job managing festive activities throughout the country. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh said that continuing Prime Ministerial Official Note 162's implementation, the ministry issued instructions on strengthening festival organization management in 2012 to improve on last year, and that before Tet (Lunar New Year holidays) the ministry had sent delegations to localities that were to host festivals prior to their opening. After Tet, the Minister visited the Huong Pagoda. Deputy Ministers of Culture, Sports and Tourism went to localities hosting festivals to check and remind localities to organizing festivals economically and in compliance with Vietnamese traditions and customs. Thousands of festivals were, are and will be held throughout Vietnam in Spring. They are opportunities for Vietnam to introduce international friends to their cultural features./.

A central region twist to the spring roll 

The humble spring roll is found throughout Vietnam but the ingredients, and even its name, differ from region to region

Ram cuốn, the humble spring roll, is a traditional dish served at all parties -Tet, engagements, weddings, and death anniversaries.

Though it is easy to make and thus often made when there are visitors at home, it is not without its subtleties.

In different parts of the country, there are differences in its ingredients and even name - it is called nem rán in the north, chả giò in the south, and ram cuốn in the central.

The filling changes according to local tastes but usually has some common ingredients such as pork, shrimp, crab, fish, finely threaded taro, and sweet potato. The wrapper is made of rice paper.

In the central province of Quang Ngai, there are several variations of the dish.

For the filling people here use a whole shrimp, marinating it, stir-frying it, and adding thinly cut green onions and pork.

In another variety, they use fresh corn seeds as the main ingredient.

A popular delicacy in the province, it comes in two versions. The deep fried one tastes crispy and greasy; when grilled over burning coals, it is less greasy but still delicious.

When preparing the corn, people often choose glutinous baby corn with soft seeds to make the dish more delicious. The seeds are taken out, put in a mortar and ground fine, and mixed with onion, garlic, and pepper.

Oil is heated in a pan, the mixture of corn seeds is put in it and stir-fried quickly until the fragrance wafts through the house, indicating the seeds are done.

The mixture is then placed in rice paper and rolled up, ready to be fried.

To make the dish more delicious, the mixture of corn seeds is added to eggs, pork and chopped boiled shrimp before being placed in either thick or thin rice paper and wrapped to produce thumb-sized spring rolls.

People often use monosodium glutamate instead of salt to enhance the flavor and taste.

To keep the spring roll crisp, some lemon juice is added to the oil or some sugar is put in the water used to dip the rice paper before wrapping.

The spring roll can be fried or grilled.

It has a greasy, salty taste from the shrimp, fragrance and sweetness from the corn seeds, and a crispy texture from the rice paper.

It should be enjoyed with a dipping sauce, pickles, lettuce and herbs.

Carrots, radishes, and green papaya are thinly sliced and added to sweet and sour vinegar to make the pickles.

The dipping sauce is made by adding lime, chili, garlic and sugar to fish sauce.

Photo exhibition on Dong Van stone plateau

A photo exhibition to promote tourism and products of Dong Van Stone Plateau in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang is being held in Dong Van town.

The exhibition is held by the Management Board of Dong Van Stone Plateau Global Geo-Park in coordination with the Dong Van district People’s Committee and the Youth Newspaper.
The organizing board will present local ethnic people with the most beautiful photos made by photographers in this place. Diverse cultural activities such as art performances are being held during the exhibition. Perhaps best of all, tourists can enjoy special foods of the plateau.
According to Dr. Nguyen Le Huy, head of the Management Board of Dong Van Stone Plateau Global Geo-Park, this is an opportunity to introduce the land and people of Dong Van, which is the northern terminus of the nation and vital for ensuring border security and national sovereignty.
UNESCO officially recognised the plateau as a global geo-park in November 2011.

Ha Long Bay is much safer place to visit-say BBC

Ha Long Bay is much safer place to visit, Carmen Roberts has reported in a TV broadcast recently on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Carmen said that thanks to great efforts by local authorities, Ha Long Bay cruise services have improved remarkably with new safety equipment for tourists.

Through the BBC film “How safe are tourist boats in Vietnam?”, viewers can see the positive changes in Ha Long Bay since 12 people died on a tourist boat sinking in the bay a year ago.

Tourism boats are now well-equipped with rescue facilities, such as life jackets, life boats, underwater lights and hammers in case of emergencies.

In recent months, the number of foreign arrivals has increased sharply. The local Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism said Ha Long Bay, one of the new seven wonders of the world, welcomed more than 337,000 tourists in January 2012, up 14 percent compared to the same month of last year.