Northern culture fest to highlight folk traditions

The Bac Ninh Province People’s Committee March 31 announced an upcoming festival from April 14-18 titled “Bac Ninh Literature – Gather and Shine.”

Quan ho performances, a unique tradition of Bac Ninh Province, will be officially recognized as “World intangible heritage” by UNESCO on April 17 during the “Bac Ninh Literature – Gather and Shine” festival Addressing the press at Kinh Bac Cultural Center, event organizers said the festival will feature several activities related to art, culture, music and sport.

In addition, there will be a relics exhibition and folk music singing contest along with local art displays including Dong Ho paintings, Phu Lang terracotta, Dai Bai bronze works, Dong Ky woodworks, and time-honored Quan ho performances.

Bac Ninh Festival 2010 to be organised at national level

 The Bac Ninh Festival 2010 will be held at the national level at the Kinh Bac cultural centre, said Nguyen Dang Tuc, Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on April 1. Party and State leaders, representatives from ministries, agencies, embassies and Ly clan representatives from the Republic of Korea will attend the opening ceremony on April 17.

The five-day festival will feature a ceremony to mark the Quan Ho singing’s recognition by UNESCO as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Other highlights of the festival will include the 20th annual Quan Ho singing contest as well as wrestling, badminton and other games.  A trade fair, exhibitions of cultural artifacts, paintings, sculptures and photos and other activities to mark the 35th anniversary of Vietnam-Germany diplomatic relation will be held during the festival.

Exhibition tells lives of Mekong residents

Nine stories of the lives, dreams and struggles of the people of three Mekong River countries – Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia – are featured at an exhibition in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

“The Mekong’s story: Challenge and dream,” a mobile exhibition, was jointly opened at the provincial museum on March 30 by the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Department of Heritage and Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Arabs fascinated by Vietnamese cuisine

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hosted an Asia Culinary Fair, at which guests and diplomats from many countries had the chance to enjoy Vietnamese food. After the opening of the fair, hundreds of visitors, including local people and foreign ambassadors, called on the Vietnamese stand and tasted the food. They especially favoured such dishes as chicken and beef noodle soup (pho), spring rolls, and pickled vegetable. The fair, which took placed in the capital city of Abu Dhabi on March 13, was attended by the embassies of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Seeking beauty through pain

Tattoos have been imported into Hanoi for nearly a decade, but actually tattooing was very popular within the gang world for several decades and has even older historical roots in Vietnam.

When a client comes, tattoo artists will show him/her tattoo designs on the Internet. Like painting, tattoo uses three basic colors: red, yellow and deep blue to make other colors. Tattoo artists use different kinds of needles, which run at frequencies of 50 jabs/second.

 

Because of the pain caused by tattoo machines, tattoo artists only work from 20-30 minutes on a tattoo. 

 

Tattoo artists are also art students, so they also design original tattoos.

 

Each tattoo is a message.

Paintings made of rice and tree bark

A group of students in HCM City has made unique paintings of landscapes, animals and still-lifes using rice, tree bark, newspaper and bamboo toothpicks to raise funds for charity.

 

 

Hanoi’s One-Pillar Pagoda is made of rice.

 

 

Hoi An town, made from bark, bamboo and gravel.

 

 

The portrait of a young girl is made of wool, chicken feathers and dried grass.

Saigon, Vietnam - Saigon Seafood Stalls

You don't need to go far to find food in Saigon. All you really have to do is stand and do a 360, and you'll realize that it is actually the food that finds you. Pho was cooking on the left. Banh mi was being prepared on the right. But straight ahead, we were attracted to a small stand lit by the greenish, fluorescent lights that seem to be so prominent in Asia. Like moths in flight, we headed towards the light source.

There are many tough decisions you make in life, like friendships, relationships and careers. Add this seafood dilemma to the long list because there was just too much going on. I love extensive menus but when almost everything looks appetizing, I get very annoyed. So we picked a few, mainly rarities, and she asked if we wanted a choice of garlic, spicy garlic or sweet & sour tamarind sauce. We asked for one of each with our dishes.

Life is more beautiful at Quang Ba flower market

Located along Yen Phu Dyke in Tay Ho District, the market opens at dawn. In the mist of the morning, the flowers at Quang Ba are regarded as the most beautiful and freshest in town and come from many places such as Quang Ba, Nghi Tam, Nhat Tan, Dam-Cau Dien, Dong Anh, Soc Son, Me Linh, Sapa and Dalat.

A foreign tourist poses for a photo with a flower seller at Quang Ba Flower Market in Hanoi.

People sometimes go to the market just to relax on the weekend or to enjoy the atmosphere of the buyers and sellers and get away from the deafening noise and stifling smoke and dust of the traffic. The fresh air in combination with the colorful roses, daisies, orchids and many other flowers ease the soul and help make life more beautiful.

Anyone visiting the market will understand the challenge which the gardeners face. To have fresh flowers, they have to cut them at night and get them to the market by 4 a.m. The market arranges bouquets as colorful flower carpets. On holidays, a bouquet of about 100 roses is only VND12,000 to VND15,000.

This flower paradise allows visitors to forget daily stress with a delightful escape to a world of brilliant colors and fragrances.

The life of the eldest man in Red River’s floating village

Born and bred in Thailand, the oldest man in the Red River’s floating hamlet lives on a simple and deteriorating boat in the dry season.

 

 

For the last decade, Mr. Vu Dinh Bai, 77, and his wife has been living in a small boat, which is enough for a sedge mat, a wardrobe and a kitchen. The life of Bai’s family and 16 other families in this floating village has been affected by the drought.

 

 

Bai said his family owned a small house in Hanoi over ten years ago. “It is our fate to live on this boat,” he commented.

 

He sold the house for 45 million dong (around $3000-4000) to pay hospital fees and buy this boat. His two sons have become drug addicts.

 

 
 

Bai and his wife live on this boat. The woman collects plastic bags and paper for her husband to clean to sell. This is the only source of income for this family.

 

 
 

Bai was born in Thailand. “My mother is over 100 years old and she still lives in a pagoda in Thailand. I dream of having some money to visit her,” he remarked.

 

 
 

The old couple earns over 1 million dong from collecting plastic bags and waste paper a month.

 

 
 

When his wife goes out to collect waste, he stays at home with some dogs.

 

 

Their life is affected by the Red River’s water exhaustion. “When the water is high, I can catch some fish,” he explained.

 

 

A corner in the boat, which is used as a kitchen.

 

   

Bai showed his certificate of automobile repair skills.

 

Bai’s wife has to buy a jar of clean water each day. The couple has to pay several thousand dong for clean water every month.

Sapa Culture Week to be held with lots of surprises

A week-long cultural festival will be held in Sapa, one of Vietnam’s top holiday and relaxation destinations, from April 30 to May 4, in an effort to increase the northern mountainous area’s tourism potential. Called “Walking in a Cloud in Sapa”, the festival is designed to lead visitors from surprise to surprise with a series of activities highlighting the rich and distinctive aspects of Sapa’s diverse ethnic cultures.

Visitors can join local ethnic minority people to discover how they dye, weave and decorate their garments, or make their sandals.

Frenchmen to update Da Lat City plan

Lam Dong People’s Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Hoa said on April 13 that the Paris Urban Planning Institute and a prestigious French architectural firm have been chosen because “French characteristics” are a uniquely attractive aspect of the older parts of the city. 

The original plan for Da Lat was the work of the architect Ernest Hebrard in 1923. Though Hebrard also developed city plans and designed important buildings in Saigon, Hanoi, Haiphong, Phnom Penh and Vientiane, Da Lat is the first and only city in Vietnam that was built from scratch according to a Western style city plan..

However, due to loose management, many French-style villas in Da Lat have been “ravaged.” Despite the local government’s efforts, luxury villas and palaces have become untidy apartment blocks. Nearly 100 French-style villas are still used by hundreds of families and they are seriously downgraded.

Vietnam’s Hoan Kiem turtles on brink of extinction

The Hoan Kiem turtle is one of the most famous and rarest species of tortoise globally. There are just four left in the entire world, including two in Vietnam: one in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake and anther in Dong Mo Lake. The other two are living in a Chinese zoo.

 The tortoise caught in Dong Mo Lake.

 The turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake has been observed rising to the surface frequently since the beginning of the year, said Ha. But scientists worry about the animal’s health and the environmental condition of the lake.

In Dong Mo Lake, the sole turtle is also feared to be in danger as water levels have continued to drop due to drought conditions. According to Dong Mo Lake’s management broad, the lake is losing water by the day because of prolonged hot, dry weather.

Hanoi's sunset

In the fading sunlights at the end of the day, Hanoi appears brilliant and romatic. Enjoy a shot of Hanoi in the sunset taken by Xuan Chinh from above:

Hanoi in the rainbow

A cloudly sky

Fading in the dusk

Yellow cloud in the sunset

Paceful West Lake

Romantic Thanh Niem Road

Historical Long Bien Bridge

Hanoi Flag tower

Hoi Ky Village: a window into Vietnam’s past

Nestled along the romantic O Lau River in north-central Quang Tri Province, the 500-year-old village of Hoi Ky remains a national treasure of Vietnamese heritage.

The small community, situated in Hai Chanh commune, was once home to 60 households along the riverbank. Courtyards shaded by banyan trees created a nostalgia for residents, reminding them of a time when their ancestors founded the new land. 

 

 The antique house built in T-shape is 121 years old.

But as the centuries passed, the little village was subjected to the ravages of war and little was done to preserve its unique character. While it continued to stand, signs of dilapidation increased. Later, as the country began to recover from the devastation of war times, new businesses moved into the area, looking to raze much of what was left of the old village.

Today, the very existence of the ancient homes is in jeopardy and local officials say that more preservation efforts are urgently needed to save this precious part of Vietnam’s history.