Sep
22
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Discovering the beauty of northern provinces
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In the market for love: Mong young women flock to the centre of Moc Chau town to enjoy the love market and celebrate the Independence Day. — VNS Photos Lan Dung
(VNS)There's a reason why the mountainous provinces of northern Viet Nam top the to-do lists of countless backpackers and visitors. I've been fortunate enough to trek through the westernmost forests of Dien Bien Province, drive a motorbike across Ha Giang Province's Ma Pi Leng (one of the most beautiful passes in the north), and wander around the Khau Vai love market until midnight. However, despite these adventures, I had never seen terraced mountian fields of ripened rice before.
To remedy this exception, I joined a four-day motorbike tour with 11 other people to the northern provinces of Son La and Yen Bai during the Independence Day long weekend earlier this month.
From Ha Noi, we drove 200km to Son La Province's Moc Chau District and spent one night there. Our group missed out on tasting stone crabs at a market on Thung Khe Pass but experienced unforgettable moments at Moc Chau love market.
The love market is held annually from August 31 to September 2 for Mong ethnic people. Unlike Khau Vai market in Ha Giang and Sa Pa market in Lao Cai, few tourists visit it. Upon our visit, groups of girls and boys dressed in traditional attire walked the streets, enjoying a live music show, complete with song and dance routines. We also caught boys attempting to make friends with girls and young men flirting with beautiful young women.
The darker it got, the more fun it was. However, we had a long journey the following day and reluctantly retreated to our hostel for an early night.
We drove nearly 180km in the next day to reach our destination – Ngoc Chien Commune in Muong La District. We had no difficulty driving along the concrete roads from Moc Chau to Muong La, but the route from It Ong Town to Ngoc Chien was more challenging due to loose rocks and small stones that had fallen onto the path, preventing us from picking up speed.
To overcome the steep slopes of the natural terrain, our drivers were forced into first and second gear while the passengers held them tightly. Only our leader, with his mighty Minsk motorcycle, was able to coast smoothly up the gradients.
Despite concentrating heavily on driving, we still managed to observe some beautiful sights along the way, stopping several times to take photographs of breathtaking green terraced fields stretching down from the mountains and Thai people bathing in the springs along the sidewalks.
Ngoc Chien Commune is located about 1,800m above sea level with a cool climate all year round. Home to Mong, Thai and La Ha ethnic people, there are no hostels or guesthouses here, with homestays the only accomodation option for visitors. As such, we opted to stay in a stilt house of a Thai family.
Tough terrain: Drivers find it difficult to overcome muddy roads from Ngoc Chien to Nam Khat.
There is a saying that "Ngoc Chien Commune's women are most beautiful in Muong La District". The local people claim their beauty comes from bathing in hot springs. Although we reached Ngoc Chien late in the day, we still tried to enjoy the famed hot springs ourselves, driving 5km to the neighbouring Muong Chien Commune. For only VND5,000 (US$0.25) per person, we bathed for as long as our hearts desired. The natural hot water helped to reduce our tiredness and regain full possession of our senses.
Following our soak, we had a quick dinner consisting of simple local dishes before cutting loose at a nearby karaoke house. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk with our hosts as we had to go to bed early in order to save our strength for the most difficult stage of our trip the next day.
No one can explain why, but it rains on Independence Day in Ha Noi every year. However, when celebrating this important event outside of the capital for the first time, I realised that it rains in other areas, too. The road from Ngoc Chien to Nam Khat Commune in Yen Bai Province's Mu Cang Chai District opened in 2005 without any concrete laid. As a result, the paths are full of gravel and stones, meaning driving motorbikes under added rain was always going to be taxing.
With our wheels covered in mud and our tyres unable to grip the road, we dismounted our motorbikes and helped our drivers to push them along.
After nearly two hours of pushing and driving, our efforts were paid in kind with a stunning view of the hallowed ripened rice fields. Ypoundsellow flecks of colour spreading across the terraced horizon appeared in front of us, resembling a beautiful painting by a masterful artist.
We eventually arrived in Van Chan District's Tu Le Commune in the afternoon and had lunch there before heading to Nghia Lo Town. After one night there, we spent a whole day travelling back to Ha Noi.
As well as laying eyes on the one sight I had so longed to see, the trip provided me with so much more: bathing in hot springs, experiencing offroad terrain and so on. Now, I'm left with the idea by Father Alfred D Souza: "Happiness is a journey, not a destination". He couldn't be more right. — VNS
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Sep
22
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Discovering the beauty of northern provinces
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In the market for love: Mong young women flock to the centre of Moc Chau town to enjoy the love market and celebrate the Independence Day. — VNS Photos Lan Dung
(VNS)There's a reason why the mountainous provinces of northern Viet Nam top the to-do lists of countless backpackers and visitors. I've been fortunate enough to trek through the westernmost forests of Dien Bien Province, drive a motorbike across Ha Giang Province's Ma Pi Leng (one of the most beautiful passes in the north), and wander around the Khau Vai love market until midnight. However, despite these adventures, I had never seen terraced mountian fields of ripened rice before.
To remedy this exception, I joined a four-day motorbike tour with 11 other people to the northern provinces of Son La and Yen Bai during the Independence Day long weekend earlier this month.
From Ha Noi, we drove 200km to Son La Province's Moc Chau District and spent one night there. Our group missed out on tasting stone crabs at a market on Thung Khe Pass but experienced unforgettable moments at Moc Chau love market.
The love market is held annually from August 31 to September 2 for Mong ethnic people. Unlike Khau Vai market in Ha Giang and Sa Pa market in Lao Cai, few tourists visit it. Upon our visit, groups of girls and boys dressed in traditional attire walked the streets, enjoying a live music show, complete with song and dance routines. We also caught boys attempting to make friends with girls and young men flirting with beautiful young women.
The darker it got, the more fun it was. However, we had a long journey the following day and reluctantly retreated to our hostel for an early night.
We drove nearly 180km in the next day to reach our destination – Ngoc Chien Commune in Muong La District. We had no difficulty driving along the concrete roads from Moc Chau to Muong La, but the route from It Ong Town to Ngoc Chien was more challenging due to loose rocks and small stones that had fallen onto the path, preventing us from picking up speed.
To overcome the steep slopes of the natural terrain, our drivers were forced into first and second gear while the passengers held them tightly. Only our leader, with his mighty Minsk motorcycle, was able to coast smoothly up the gradients.
Despite concentrating heavily on driving, we still managed to observe some beautiful sights along the way, stopping several times to take photographs of breathtaking green terraced fields stretching down from the mountains and Thai people bathing in the springs along the sidewalks.
Ngoc Chien Commune is located about 1,800m above sea level with a cool climate all year round. Home to Mong, Thai and La Ha ethnic people, there are no hostels or guesthouses here, with homestays the only accomodation option for visitors. As such, we opted to stay in a stilt house of a Thai family.
Tough terrain: Drivers find it difficult to overcome muddy roads from Ngoc Chien to Nam Khat.
There is a saying that "Ngoc Chien Commune's women are most beautiful in Muong La District". The local people claim their beauty comes from bathing in hot springs. Although we reached Ngoc Chien late in the day, we still tried to enjoy the famed hot springs ourselves, driving 5km to the neighbouring Muong Chien Commune. For only VND5,000 (US$0.25) per person, we bathed for as long as our hearts desired. The natural hot water helped to reduce our tiredness and regain full possession of our senses.
Following our soak, we had a quick dinner consisting of simple local dishes before cutting loose at a nearby karaoke house. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk with our hosts as we had to go to bed early in order to save our strength for the most difficult stage of our trip the next day.
No one can explain why, but it rains on Independence Day in Ha Noi every year. However, when celebrating this important event outside of the capital for the first time, I realised that it rains in other areas, too. The road from Ngoc Chien to Nam Khat Commune in Yen Bai Province's Mu Cang Chai District opened in 2005 without any concrete laid. As a result, the paths are full of gravel and stones, meaning driving motorbikes under added rain was always going to be taxing.
With our wheels covered in mud and our tyres unable to grip the road, we dismounted our motorbikes and helped our drivers to push them along.
After nearly two hours of pushing and driving, our efforts were paid in kind with a stunning view of the hallowed ripened rice fields. Ypoundsellow flecks of colour spreading across the terraced horizon appeared in front of us, resembling a beautiful painting by a masterful artist.
We eventually arrived in Van Chan District's Tu Le Commune in the afternoon and had lunch there before heading to Nghia Lo Town. After one night there, we spent a whole day travelling back to Ha Noi.
As well as laying eyes on the one sight I had so longed to see, the trip provided me with so much more: bathing in hot springs, experiencing offroad terrain and so on. Now, I'm left with the idea by Father Alfred D Souza: "Happiness is a journey, not a destination". He couldn't be more right. — VNS
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Sep
22
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Travel firms want more money to promote tourism
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Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon has quoted Hoang Thi Diep, Deputy Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), as saying that due to the lack of money, it is very difficult to implement the programs to advertise Vietnam’s tourism and its destinations.
In 2011, VNAT budgeted 35 billion dong to the activities of marketing the destination points. Meanwhile, the budget has been cut down to 30 billion dong for this year.
Diep said that strengthening tourism promotion activities is the thing that needs to be done now, in the context of the stiff competitions of destination points. Therefore, it is really questionable to see the budget for tourism promotion activities cut down.
Diep, when answering the questions of the press, affirmed that VNAT and travel firms lack money to fulfill the drawn plans, but did not say how much more VNTA wants more.
In the past, VNAT once asked to apply the mechanism under which one dollar collected from every traveler to Vietnam would be spent on tourism promotion activities in Vietnam and overseas.
If so, with 6 million foreign travelers received in 2011, the tourism sector would have six million dollars, or 120 billion dong to carry out promotion campaigns this year.
Analysts also think that Vietnam has spent little money on promotion activities. In 2011, Vietnam budgeted only 35 billion dong for tourism promotion activities, while the revenue from the industry reached 130 trillion dong, contributing 5 percent to the GDP.
However, the mechanism remains on the table of relevant ministries and it has yet come true.
Commenting about the sum of money, travel firms said with the limited spending on promotion activities, Vietnam would continue lagging behind regional countries in attracting travelers.
Thailand spent 130 million dollars in 2010 on tourism promotion activities, while it is considering raising the budget to 237 million dollars in 2012, hoping to attract 180 million travelers. In 2011, Thai tourism made up 10 percent of the country’s GDP.
Singapore reportedly spent 171 million dollars to popularize the image of the country to 10 million travelers. Malaysia spent 40 million dollars in 2011, attracting 25 million travelers.
It’s obvious that 1.5 million dollars is a too small sum of money. Despite all that, the sum of money would be divided to different agencies and travel firms. VNAT would enjoy 70 percent of the budget, while the International Cooperation Agency 20 percent. As such, the strength has been dispersed, while the money, in many cases, cannot come to the right addresses.
It happened that VNAT regularly has to move heaven and earth to arrange money to prepare for the trade fairs or big international tourism events, because it lacked money to organize supporting events on the sidelines of the events, such as press conferences.
According to VTV, in 2000-2010, the national action plan on promoting tourism was budgeted 250 billion dong.
In 2011, VNAT participated in six international trade fairs. The tourism administration is building up a thousand-page plan to attract more tourists from eight key markets by 2015, namely, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Japan, France. The thing that needs to be done now is turning the plan realistic.
According to VNAT, in the first eight months of 2012, Vietnam received 4.3 million foreign travelers, an increase of 10 percent over the same period of the last year. Travel firms served 23.2 million domestic travelers, a seven percent increase in comparison with the same period of the last year.
The turnover from the tourism industry increased by 15 percent to 98 trillion dong.
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Cooking in Hoi An in top 10 most interesting travel experience
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22/09/2012 10:07:36
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Nguyen Truong Son wins first prize at Davines hair show
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22/09/2012 09:48:08
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The Voice’s Liveshow Round to make voting results public
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22/09/2012 09:46:32
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Enlightening books win awards
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22/09/2012 09:42:58
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Museums swap Cham objects
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22/09/2012 09:40:15
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Space for single disabled mums
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22/09/2012 09:32:20
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Voi Phuc temple excavated
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22/09/2012 09:29:17
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Dang Thuy Tram diary published in Russian
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22/09/2012 09:23:05
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Vietnam-Korea exchange concert
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22/09/2012 09:21:48
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