Vietnam’s Hoi An tops UK travel magazine’s list of best cities

A leading travel magazine from the United Kingdom, Wanderlust, announced in late last month that central Vietnam’s historic town of Hoi An was ranked by its readers as their favorite city.

Hoi An achieved a 97.18 percent satisfaction rating from Wanderlust readers, based on their travel experiences between December 2011 and December 2012, beating out over 970 nominated cities.

Hoi An Town in the coastal province of Quang Nam, recognized by the UNESCO in 1999 as a World Cultural Heritage Site, finished second to Luang Prabang in Laos in the magazine’s poll two years ago.

 This year, Peru’s Cusco finished second with 95.76 percent, followed by Japan’s Kyoto, Myanmar’s Bagan and Denmark’s Copenhagen, which earned satisfaction rates of 94.81, 94.55 and 94.17 percent respectively.

Vietnam News Agency quoted the magazine as saying that nearly 3,000 of its readers, who are among the most active travelers in the UK, participated in the survey.

Lyn Hughes, Wanderlust’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, told the newspaper that tourists thought Hoi An was a beautiful town with wonderful beaches and scenery.

 Vietnam was ranked the ninth-best country to travel to by Wanderlust readers. Myanmar, also known as Burma, climbed three positions from last year’s ranking to secure the top spot this year.

 Established since 1993, Wanderlust now boasts more than 100,000 readers from 112 countries worldwide.

 Last October, Hoi An was ranked eighth among 10 Asian cities by over 46,700 respondents to a questionnaire for the 25th annual Readers’ Choice Awards held by Condé Nast Traveler, the world's premier travel magazine.

 Readers also ranked two Hoi An resorts: the Life Heritage Resort Hoi An and Nam Hai, 10th and 14th respectively, among the top 15 resorts in Asia.

Thanh Nien News 

 Source: thanhniennews.com

Thanh Nien News 

Bac Ninh

Bac Ninh is located in the Red River Delta region. It is surrounded by Bac Giang to the north, Hung Yen to the south, Hai Duong to the east, and Hanoi to the west. The topography is quite flat with a complex network of rivers and springs, including Cau, Duong, and Thai Binh rivers.

Bac Ninh has a quite flat topography with a complex network of rivers and springs, including Cau River, Duong River, and the system of Thai Binh Rivers. Thanks to the geographical location, Bac Ninh has the weather of monsoon and clearly divides into four main season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The average temperature of a year is approximately 24ºC. In Bac Ninh, there are also two main seasons: rainy season which lasts from May to October and dry season lasting from December to April next year.

Xoi gac - An essence of Vietnamese tet

Gac Fruit has many other names such as baby jackfruit, sweet gourd or cochinchin gourd. This dish is usually served at many special occasions as Engagements, Weddings and even in Lunar New Year. If you love Vietnamese Food, this is one of dishes you should not miss.

Growing up, our parents used to have us scrub down the entire house the days leading up to Tết. It was one of the many important traditions we used to follow to ensure a prosperous and lucky new year.

It’s hard to believe that Tết, Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is just a few days away.

Then, the entire clan would come together, cook up a feast of goodies, offer ancestral prayers at the alter, hand out lì xì (lucky money in red envelopes) to the kids, eat, drink, laugh, and well—gamble and play cards! Needless to say, it was always a fun time.

One of the traditional dishes often found around Tết is Xôi Gấc which is essentially, glutinous rice (sticky rice) that has been steamed with coconut milk and Gấc.

This is one of those Vietnamese dishes whose name just doesn’t translate well into English. The first challenge is “Gấc”.  It has several English names such as Baby Jackfruit, Cochinchin Gourd, Sweet Gourd, Momordica Charantia Fruit, and my least favorite–Spiny Bitter Gourd. I mean, c’mon now…… How unappetizing does Spiny Bitter Gourd sound? You might as well throw in some other funky words like gelatinous and congealed and call it a day.

But I digress…..

Since I’ve seen Gấc more often called “Baby Jackfruit“—–I’m going with it. But for the record, it does not taste like regular jackfruit or even “young jackfruit”. Could I BE more confusing???

The flesh of the Gấc fruit is deep red and is well suited to not only flavor Xôi (sticky rice) but also naturally dyes the grains of rice to an intense orange-reddish hue. It’s because of this that you’ll find Xôi Gấc served at celebrations such as Tết and weddings since the color red is considered to be very lucky.

Although fresh Gấc can now be found in many large Vietnamese grocery stores this time of year, I couldn’t convince myself to make the trek to Orange County to pick some up. I resorted to using frozen Gấc puree that my local Vietnamese grocery store has stocked year round.

If you can get it, I would HIGHLY recommend using the fresh fruit over frozen as you won’t be able to get the same rich and vibrant hue if you use the latter. Truthfully, my finished Xôi Gấc looked a tad anemic because I used the frozen puree—but it was DARN TASTY all the same.

Oh—and if being healthier is one of your New Year’s resolutions….the Gấc fruit has a supposed astronomic amount of beta-carotene and lycopene.

Since Xôi Gấc has a slightly sweet profile to it, it’s best served alongside something savory like roast pork or Chả lụa (pork sausage). But it can also be enjoyed as a breakfast item as well.

And with that Dear Friends, I better get back to cleaning my house before Tết is here. But before I sign off, let me wish you and your loved ones a joyous, adventure-filled, and delicious Year of the snake!

Internet

Perfume Pagoda pilgrimage continues to attract visitors

Water taxis: Pilgrims and tourists boat along the Yen Stream to reach the entrance of the Perfume Pagoda. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tung

(VNS)The boat is drifting softly along the Yen Stream under the blue sky, passing a landscape of peaceful rice paddies, lillies and limestone mountains.
Sitting in the boat, my friends and I feel as free as birds, enjoying the gentle wind and the peaceful scenery passing gently by. We are travelling to the entrance of Huong Pagoda, better known as the Perfume Pagoda, Viet Nam’s most famous pilgrimage site for Buddhists.
Built in the late 17th century, the pagoda is located in My Duc District, 70km southwest of Ha Noi. It spreads out among the limestone hills and tropical forests around the Huong Mountain where a cluster of Buddhist shrines are housed. These surround deep caverns filled with marvellous kinds of stalactites.

Vietnamese Lunar New Year - Tet 2013 - Year of the Snake, Saigon Timelapse

Most videos have just been filmed for the Lunar New Year of the Snake. The New Year starts on the 10th February 2013.

Clip created by: Guy Dalma

Vietnamese Tet flower in foreign newspapers

New Year flowers, the unique culture of the Vietnamese people, have appeared in many international newspapers and magazines. Let's admire Tet flowers in many regions of the country, through the lens of the foreign reporters.

The peach trees like this are an honor of the man who plant them, at the same time, it is also considered as "lucky money" for the New Year of farmers. If they plant nice trees, they will be very excited. (Photo: Telegraph)

A farmer is taking care of his peach garden. All Vietnamese these days are preparing for the lunar New Year - the most important festival of the nation. Many northern families prefer to buy peach or kumquat trees to display in the house, besides a variety of other flowers to make New Year flavor. (Photo: NBC News)

A soldier is choosing a kumquat tree for the New Year. (Photo NBC News)

Southerners generally prefer yellow apricot trees. (Photo: Flickriver)

A young girl carrying peach flowers to sell at a New Year flower market in the city. (Photo: Aaron Noel Santos Photo)

Cherry, plum flowers on the front porch of the house in the northwest region. (Photo: Diary of Kathya)

Plum flowers in the northwest region. (Photo: Asia Finest)

Daisy flower garden, the flowers that are often solemnly placed on the altar.

Wild peach flowers. (Photo: Flickriver)

Plum flowers by Pham Ngoc Bang, a reporter of Lao Cai newspaper published on a foreign newspaper.

Wild peach flowers. (Photo: Flickriver) Source: english.vietnamnet.vn

Sài Gòn - Tết 2013 (the Year of the Snake)

2013 - the Year of the Snake

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Snake shaped and flower works on Nguyễn Huệ boulevard.

Greetings from Sài Gòn and Happy New Year! This is a special Tết (Vietnamese lunar new year) for our family. My sister, who lives in Sài Gòn, had a baby boy two months ago. My nephew is half Vietnamese and half Swedish as my sister married a Swedish man working in the same company two years ago. We decided that all members of our family would fly from Hanoi to Sài Gòn and celebrate Tết with her this year. We had never experienced Tết in Sài Gòn, so this would be an interesting experience for all of us, as my sister always flew back to Hanoi and celebrated new year with our family.

The flower festival

Saturday 9 February 2013 was the last day of the old year (the Year of the Dragon). It is so hot in southern Vietnam these days (34oC). We went to see the flower festival along Nguyễn Huệ boulevard. This is the 10th anniversary of this flower festival (2004 – 2013). This year the subject is “Vietnam’s heart”. There are three different sections of the road with typical features of the spring, for example the spring in the countryside (with images of the rice fields, simple houses, lotus ponds, monkey bridge, rice paper sheets etc); the spring on the sea and islands (with images of a 7m long ship full of fishes made from flowers, round shaped boats, oil rig, fishing nets etc); and the spring in the Central Highlands (with images of a communal house, waterfall, musical instruments and traditional dresses of the ethnic minority people made from flowers).

Orchid flowers at the festival

The center of the festival is a model of a couple of snakes because 2013 is the Year of the Snake. They are over 4m high with heart shaped tails as a message of loving spring to everyone. The main material for making the art works is wood. 120,000 flower pots were used for this event. The festival is opened from 7 to 13 February 2013.

Another highlight of my visit to Sài Gòn was to watch fireworks on the New Year’s Eve from my sister’s new apartment. It’s on the 22nd floor of a hi-rise building and we could enjoy a great view of the city. At 12pm I heard the sound of horn from ships on the Sài Gòn river and bell from cathedrals. The fireworks lasted 15 minutes. I haven’t seen fireworks during the last five Tết as I always traveled somewhere.

Tomorrow I will go to Phnom Penh by bus with my parent, as they wished to see Cambodia for a few days. It has been 10 years since my last trip to Phnom Penh. Then I will go back to Sài Gòn (aka Hồ Chí Minh city) and travel in southern Vietnam. Happy travels!

Sài Gòn Xuân Quý Tỵ – tháng 2/2013

Cat model at the flower festival

Blog số 167 của tôi được gửi từ Sài Gòn vào đúng ngày mùng một Tết (10/2/2013). Tôi xin được gửi lời Chúc mừng Năm mới tới tất cả mọi người. Đây là một cái Tết đặc biệt với gia đình tôi. Em gái của tôi sống ở Sài Gòn mới sinh con trai hai tháng trước và em bé là con lai Việt Nam và Thụy Điển. Hai năm trước, tôi vào Sài Gòn để dự đám cưới của em gái tôi với một người Thụy Điển và từ đó đến nay tôi mới quay trở lại thành phố này. Bước chân ra khỏi sân bay là đã có cảm giác thân quen, vì tôi đã tới Sài Gòn rất nhiều lần trong suốt 20 năm qua. Tết này, cả nhà quyết định vào Sài Gòn ăn Tết. Tất cả chúng tôi chưa bao giờ đón Tết ở Sài Gòn, vì em gái của tôi năm nào cũng về Hà Nội ăn Tết, nên đây là một trải nghiệm mới mẻ và thú vị cho tất cả mọi người.

A couple of mice at the flower festival

Thứ bảy ngày 9/2/2013 là ngày cuối cùng của năm cũ. Thời tiết ở miền Nam rất nóng, thường là 34oC và trời nắng gắt. Chúng tôi đi taxi ra đường hoa Nguyễn Huệ. Đây là năm thứ 10 Sài Gòn tổ chức đường hoa Nguyễn Huệ (2004 – 2013) và chủ đề của năm nay là “Trái tim Việt Nam”. Tại đây có ba khu vực chính là Xuân đồng bằng (với hình ảnh cánh đồng lúa, mái nhà tranh có giàn bầu bí, ao sen, cầu khỉ, tấm liếp phơi bánh tráng v.v.); Xuân biển đảo (với hình ảnh chiếc thuyền đi biển dài 7m đầy ắp cá tươi, những chiếc thuyền thúng. nhà giàn DK1, những tấm lưới đánh cá trông giống như một làng chài thu nhỏ) và Xuân cao nguyên (với thác nước chảy trên tảng đá, mô hình nhiều nhạc cụ đặc sắc của núi rừng Tây Nguyên và những trang phục của các dân tộc ít người được cách điệu từ hoa tươi). Mỗi khu vực mang một vẻ đẹp và sắc thái riêng.

Orchid flowers at the festival

Linh vật năm Quý Tỵ có chiều cao hơn 4m, đuôi uốn cong tạo kiểu dáng hình trái tim như muốn gửi thông điệp xuân yêu thương đến với mọi nhà, mọi người. Vật liệu chính để làm nên các tác phẩm nghệ thuật là bằng gỗ. 120.000 chậu hoa đã được sử dụng cho lễ hội hoa này. Đường hoa Nguyễn Huệ mở cửa từ ngày 7 đến ngày 13/2/2013.

Một điểm nhấn khác trong chuyến thăm Sài Gòn lần này của tôi là ngắm pháo hoa trong đêm giao thừa từ căn hộ mới của em gái tôi. Căn hộ này nằm trên tầng 22 của một chung cư cao cấp. Vào lúc 12 giờ đêm, tôi nghe thấy tiếng còi tàu từ sông Sài Gòn, tiếng chuông nhà thờ đồng loạt ngân nga và những chùm pháo hoa rực rỡ từ bến cảng Nhà Rồng. Màn pháo hoa kéo dài 15 phút. Suốt 5 cái Tết vừa qua, tôi không xem bắn pháo hoa vì đang đi du lịch ở đâu đó. Hai Tết trước, khi ở Hội An và Nha Trang, tôi cũng không đi xem bắn pháo hoa.

Hanoi_girl

Source:travelblog.org

Tiger model at the flower festival	A bear and water lemon
Cock model at the flower festival	Flower baskets
A couple of snakes at the flower festival	Flower festival on Nguyễn Huệ boulevard
Outside a building at the flower festival area	The flower festival
The flower festival	Musical instrument at the flower festival
The flower festival	Model of girls picking tea at the flower festival
Model of communal house in the Central Highland	Orchid flowers at the festival
Model of house in the countryside at the flower festival	Model of buffalo at the flower festival
Flowers at the festival	Rice paper sheets at the flower festival
At the flower festival	At the flower festival
Model of a ship (7m long) at the flower festival	Model of dolphin at the flower festival
Fireworks on the New Year's Eve View from the 22nd floor of the City Garden in Bình Thạnh district.	Family dinner before New Year's Eve Vietnamese and western food
Ritual on the New Year's Eve Offerings include chicken, square rice cake, fruits, flowers and burning incense sticks.	My Vietnamese - Swedish nephew He was born two months ago.
The flower festival	Flowers at the festival
Spring on the sea & islands With model of an oil rig.	Symbol of the sea
Round shaped boats and fishing nets