Hotels celebrate National Day

For the celebration of Vietnam’s 65th National Day on Thursday September 2, hotels have organized some special programs.

*Caravelle Hotel (17-19 Lam Son Square, District 1, tel: 38234999)

Restaurant Nineteen of the Caravelle Hotel offers a large selection of carving stations as well as a unique cooked to order fresh seafood selection for VND888,000++ per person including a glass of Mumm Champagne and unlimited orders of Margaritas & Martinis and free flowing house wines, Italian and Spanish wines.

*Duxton Hotel Saigon (63 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1, tel: )

The hotel offers special Independence Day rates at only US$85++/night with breakfast included. An additional US$10++/night is charged for double occupancy. The rates are valid from Aug. 27 till Sept. 5.

*Legend Hotel Saigon (2A-4A Ton Duc Thang Street, District 1, tel:)

Chefs of Atrium Café of the Legend Hotel Saigon will add gourmet Vietnamese dishes to the buffet spread at the Café for the occasion. Gourmets can leisurely enjoy authentic Vietnamese delicacies from Northern, Central and Southern regions while enjoying live music from Jamm’n Essence Band. Vietnam National Day Buffet is priced at VND418,000++ Adult and VND209,000++ Child for Lunch (11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.); and VND722,000++ Adult and VND361,000++ Child for Dinner (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.).

*Ramana Hotel Saigon (323 Le Van Sy Street, District 3, tel; )

The four-star hotel is serving an authentic Vietnamese buffet dinner for VND299,000++ per adult and VND150,000++ per child. Diners are offered a sumptuous buffet with more than 60 Vietnamese dishes which vary between fresh herbs and deliciously spiced meats and lettuce and herb rolls with shrimp, rice noodle rolls with beef, grilled seafood with onion and oil, bitter squash broth with minced pork ball among others. Enjoy free flow of soft drink and take in the live music of a traditional band at the intimate Café restaurant. The promotion goes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. only one day on September 2 at The Café Restaurant.

*Windsor Plaza Hotel (18 An Duong Vuong Street, District 5, tel: 3 833.6688)

The hotel’s Café Central An Dong offers a range of regional tastes from Japan this September. For starters there’s a choice from 20 kinds of tempura - crisp vegetables to fresh fish, lightly battered and fried to perfection.  Other unique dishes abound like rice wrapped in seaweed to sukiyaki, a Japanese hot pot with glass noodles, vegetables and thin strips of beef among others. The regular dinner buffet runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and costs VND295,000++ on weekdays and VND325,000++ on weekends and holidays. Children 10 years and under are half price. 

The TOTT Bar and Restaurant on level 25 of the hotel presents genuine Australian rock lobster prepared with a wide selection of savory styles. Some recommendations are homemade ravioli stuffed with lobster mousse, saffron and pearl caviar or oven-roasted fresh lobster, basted with barbeque sauce and choron sauce and a touch of tarragon. The TOTT Bar and Restaurant opens daily from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

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Culture sharing at Vietnam-Japan Day

The Consulate General of Japan in HCMC in collaboration with the HCMC Youth’s Cultural House is putting on a show of Japanese culture for Japan-Vietnam Day at the HCMC Youth’s Cultural House  in HCMC’s District 1 on September 12.

A diverse Japanese cultural program will include a performance of traditional Japanese theater by students, Kendo performance, origami demonstration, Japanese toys, exhibition of Japanese comic books and a Cosplay show.

The highlight of the program this year is a demonstration and workshop on Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

People attending the workshop will learn about the origin, history and style of Ikebana flower arranging under instruction of Professor Sasaki Yasihito, and the work of some of Japan’s top Ikebana artists, will be on display.

You can also meet Vietnamese artists who have performed in Japan such as meritorious artist Thanh Loc, director Nguyen Quang Dung, song writer Duc Tri, visual artist Nhu Huy, singers Hien Thuc, Minh Thu and Phu Sa band. The artists will share about there experience of performing in Japan.

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Shopping fun at Dalat Market

This girl looks at warm hats for sale at Dalat Market - Photo: Tuong Vi

“Ham lam, ba lam, bon lam…” (meaning VND25,000; VND35;000; VND 45,000). It is the voice of the sellers that you hear when you visit Dalat market in the evening. We spent some late evenings in the market listening to all the spruikers competing for the customers’ attention. In the evening, after 6p.m. the market that locals call Hades market was bustling with activities from selling woolen products such as coats, hats and scarves, to the street food vendors. In the cold weather and light drizzling rain that had people dressed in coats, the tourists could not resist the smell of the grills or the cups of hot milk. Hades market is thronging every day in the streets around the main market in Dalat.

Smack in the center of town, Da Lat market was built from 1958 to 1960. It was designed by architect Nguyen Duy Duc. The market has a prime position in Hoa Binh district beside Xuan Huong Lake. It’s a good place for tourists to bargain, and there are some great products that are cheaper than HCMC. After going around the market and filling your bags with bargains you should try one of the special milk drinks made with soya beans, green beans, or peanuts before returning to your hotel. Other great smelling local grill specialties are sweet potato, corn, chicken’ legs or chicken’s wings. Woolen and brocade products also make great gifts or souvenirs.

In the morning, you can buy beautiful flowers, vegetables, fruit, artichokes, fruit jam, processed apricots, wines, syrups and a huge array of sweets made from local fruit.

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Have a whale of a time at Phan Thiet festival

A traditional dance show at the Nghinh Ong De Quan Festival in Phan Thiet City on Monday - Photo: Khai Nguyen

Nghinh Ong Quan Thanh Festival (Whale Worship Festival) had a jubilant start on Monday at Ong Pagoda in the coastal city of Phan Thiet.

After joining in early celebrations early on Sunday morning at Thien Mau Pagoda, thousands from the local and Chinese communities flocked to Ong Pagoda to join the rituals, ceremonies and palanquin processions. Other activities included music shows, traditional dance performances and dramas re-enacting legends of Buddhism and folklores.

On Tuesday in temples around Phan Thiet, locals will continue rituals and an artistic program to worship skeletons of whales and pray for a good harvest and a better life. They will also hold a colorful lantern display and offering ceremony and release paper boats in the sea.

 The highlight of the festival is the Quan Thanh De Quan procession with about 800 people accompanied with many folk performers on the city’s main streets. Performers walk on stilts, do dragon dances, and dress as religious characters.

The traditional Chinese festival goes for three days and is held once every two years.

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Dambri, the girl longing for love

Tourists stand on a look out to see Dambri waterfall- Photo : Thai Hang

Once upon a time, in a village near a big river, there was a young couple who were deeply in love. They wanted to spend their life together but the girl’s father was a rich village chief who wouldn’t allow his daughter to marry the young man from a poor family. The chief then forced the boy to leave the village causing his daughter great sorrow. She came to the river to cry every day, longing for her lover to return but he never did. The girl died in desperation, turning into green leaves on the hill and her tears flowed into the river forming a beautiful waterfall that was named Dambri or “Longing for love”.

This is the legend of Dambri waterfall, about 20 minutes ride from Bao Loc Town. Many like to retreat to the more comfortable pace of Bao Loc to getaway from the city for a few days. The cooler weather is another draw card.

From the center of the town, the road winds around the hills to the fabled waterfall. Riding a motorbike is the best way to get there – the cool air on your face, French colonial houses and the great smelling tea plantations along the road. The waterfall is down in a green valley and the stairs can be a little slippery. From half way down you can hear the roar of the roaring water like thousands of elephants running, as if the grief of the girl is pushed to the limit. The seasonal heavy rains at this time of the year, have made the force of the falls unstoppable.  Water from the upper streams thunders down from the 60 meter falls, smashing into white foam and mist on the water-worn stones below. The majestic power of the waterfall is bordered all around by nature. After the soaking at the waterfall’s misty base, you can go to the top to Chau Ma minority village, where you can learn how to playing traditional musical instruments, and make brocatelle fabric products under instructions of Chau Ma villagers.

The tea and coffee processor, Tam Chau of Bao Loc, that manages Dambri has opened restaurants, souvenir stores, remade the paths and erected statues. There is a gentle roller coaster and for tourists who are too lazy to climb the stairs there is a lift right next the falls. Some people have criticized the developer for interfering with the pristine beauty of the place.

With or without human interference Dambri is a natural wonder. The water from the falls also supplies the local tea and coffee plantations.

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The chè lady

The best dessert in Ho Chi Minh City is being ladled up on a street corner

Ms. Thanh preparing chè đậu at her spot near the corner of Cao Ba Nha and Cong Quynh streets in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1

Thanh, 50, lives in an endless cycle of chè.

Every night, before going to bed, she starts soaking the beans and glutinous rice for tomorrow’s batch. Up at 3 a.m., she begins boiling pot after pot of the subtly sweet, bean-based dessert.

By nine, she hires a man to help her haul her low red stools, washing buckets and serving bowls to her little corner on Cong Quynh and Cao Ba Nha streets in District 1. The operation takes two trips. The xe om (motorbike taxi) driver doesn’t seem to mind. And no one has ever bothered to steal her dented aluminum vessels filled with sticky rice and sweet coconut soup.

“They’re very heavy,” she said.

Thanh cracks on a coal fire and begins simmering the dessert just as the streets fill with throngs of motorbikes and mini-trucks. By 11 a.m., she is open for business. For the remainder of the day, she navigates between the pots like an octopus – ladling coconut milk soup on top of wads of rice on top of more soup.

She moves in fluid sweeps of her hands and arms. Occasionally, she rises to tend her fire, or to lift a shopping bag hanging off the rusty coils of barbed wire behind her and dump a mass of cubed taro, manioc or sweet potato into the pale sweet broth.

The motions follow a sort of flawless pattern, one that has been practiced seven days per week for some 30 years. Thanh hardly ever takes a day off and she only goes home when she has sold off every last scoop of chè. This may happen as early as 4 p.m. Don’t expect to find her after 6 or 7 p.m.

Once home, she usually eats half a bowl of rice and is in bed by 9 p.m.

In her free moments on the corner, when she is not being harried by customers, she uses an open-bottomed cup to fill clear plastic baggies with the various desserts. When customers sidle up on motorbikes, she twists a rubber band quickly around the baggies and hands them over with a grin.

She doesn’t eat her own concoctions. Instead, she lunches on a cup of tepid winter melon soup. Some days, she says, she doesn’t get around to eating it.

Thanh has an excellent stomach, she swears, and it tolerates whatever she chooses to eat or not eat.

She used to make many varieties of chè, but she is getting old, she says. So, now, there are just five – all of which are slathered in her frothy coconut broth. Chè khoai combines al dente bits of purple taro in a gummy sticky rice porridge. Chè táo xọn consists of a clear tapioca gel studded with green lentils while chè bắp eats like some sort of condensed creamed corn. Chè bà ba simmers bright orange chunks of cassava and chewy translucent tapioca cubes in a lighter version of the coconut base. She serves it with a spoonful of boiled peanuts.

Thanh says that even if we watched her make her chè đậu, we still wouldn’t know how to cook the white cow beans without turning them to mush. They are perfectly firm as your teeth sink into the glutinous mass of sticky rice swimming in the creamy coconut soup.

Chè đậu has a familiar feel in the mouth, not unlike Christmas cookie dough, though all of Thanh’s concoctions maintain a subtle flavor that can’t be found in most western sweets. She is selling comfort food – simple, gooey – with a soft homey flavor that can only be likened to the taste of carrot soups.

Even though her little spot is located on a neat stretch of sidewalk under a striped awning, she wears a conical famer’s hat on top of her tidy hair bun. On two separate visits, she wore a long-sleeved sweater – even in the stifling midday heat.

One day she forgot the items. She looked down to see her arms covered in grime. When she ran a hand through her hair, it came away caked in dust and dirt.

“I was so ashamed,” she said as she deftly moved between her pots. “I worried my customers would think I wasn’t clean. But it wasn’t me. It’s the dirty street.”

Over the years, Thanh has cultivated a certain amnesia about this corner that, she says, keeps her sane. She has seen many strange things in her days there. “But I don’t want to keep them all,” she says. “So the following day, I just let them pass.”

In the past three decades, Thanh has remained one of the few constants on this stretch of Cong Quynh.

She estimates that 70 percent of the families sold their homes and moved away since her mother started selling chè here before her.

“It used to be small homes,” she says. “Now I’m surrounded by palaces.”

Those that bought into the neighborhood knocked down the old homes to build bigger ones. While the value of the buildings around her has shot up several million dollars, Thanh’s treats remain an immutable bargain.

Three years ago, she had to move her operation across the street because a new restaurant opened up behind her. Last year, she raised her prices from VND3,000 to VND4,000 (15 to 20 US cents) per bowl.

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A giant tortoise, a whale and upturned bowls

Tourists angling at Ha Ba (Sea God) Tail, also known as Dua Beach, one of the scenic spots on Tre Island

From afar, it looks like a giant tortoise swimming in the sea, and locals appropriately call it the Tortoise Island.

It takes about an hour on an express boat from the Rach Gia Port to get to Tre Island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

With its mountains, rocky beaches and coves, the island’s rugged and wild beauty is eye-catching by itself, but it also offers places of cultural interest that add to its attraction.

To discover the island fully, hiring a motorbike or a bicycle to ride along the 12-kilometer long road that circles it is the best option. The fresh and cool air from the sea, the wild flowers growing wildly on the mountains and some scenic spots make the ride a highly enjoyable activity.

Around 15 minutes of riding our bicycles clockwise from the wharf, we arrived at the Ong Nam Hai Temple, which is dedicated to a five-ton whale that beached on the island in 2006.

In Vietnam's fishing culture, whales are considered sacred. Legend has it that whales have saved the lives of many fishermen by pushing their boats through rough seas.

Whenever whales arrive on land, dead or alive, local fishermen believe they bring luck and safety at sea. When they see a dead whale, they pull the carcass ashore and hold a burial ceremony. Several years later, they exhume the skeleton and enshrine it in a temple.

From the Ong Nam Hai Temple, we continued to go along the road which formed a unique promenade with the sea on one side and a mountain on the other. Soon, we reached the Ha Ba (Sea God) Tail, also known as Dua Beach. The transparent water tempts you to swim, and both tourists and locals love to catch oysters, or do some fishing. We didn’t miss the opportunity to take some spectacular pictures.

We then went to the Chen (Bowl) Beach, the most famous scenic spot on the island. Along the shore for about two kilometers, numerous large and small rocks dot the seascape. During high tide, most of them are submerged, and when the waters recede, they reappear like so many overturned bowls.

GETTING THERE

• From Ho Chi Minh City, tourists can take a flight or a bus to reach Rach Gia Town in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. The town is 250 kilometers west of HCMC. • Then, visitors can take a bus, taxi, or xe om (motorbike taxi) for a 15- minute drive to the Rach Gia Port. • From 7 a.m. everyday, express boats carry passengers from the port to Tre Island. The last boat that travels back to the port departs at 4 p.m. • For tourists who want to stay at Tre Island overnight, there are guest houses near the wharf on the island. Children living on Tre Island play at Chen (Bowl) Beach

Sitting on these upturned bowls after swimming, we watched locals’ fishing boats bob about in the distance as well as the spumes left from the express boats that came in and left the island. Not far from us, some relatively flat-bottomed “bowls” formed ideal perches for some visitors to try their luck at fishing.

There are only two families living on Chen Beach. They were willing to let us hire necessary utensils to cook the seafood that we had bought from the small market near the wharf. You can also bring your own utensils to the beach.

Having a self-cooked meal on the beach was a pleasant experience that we are going to remember for a long, long time.

Our final destination on Tre Island was Dong Dua, a small bay where coconut palms reach out to the sun along the coast. Apart from swimming at the rocky beach here, local guides accompanied us as we attempted to conquer the mountain. On the way up, we were sustained by the sight of mango, banana and jackfruit orchards

We had to climb over large rocks and sometimes get into small caves before scaling the 400-meter-high peak. It was challenging, but the prize was worth it. We could see wild orchids growing out from the caves and more important, the panoramic and dazzling overview of the island from atop was a fitting finale to a most memorable weekend.

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