Travellers Notes

(21-09-2007)

Tokyo expo showcases Viet Nam’s history, culture to travellers

Nine Vietnamese tourism companies took part in the three-day Japan International Expo in Tokyo which ended on Sunday, showcasing their country to Japanese visitors.

Surveys done at the expo revealed that most people were attracted to Viet Nam’s food, beautiful landscapes, and the traditional long tunic ao dai, and worried about its poor infrastructure and services, especially transportation.

So far this year, 270,000 Japanese have visited Viet Nam, 15 per cent higher than last year. Half a million are expected to visit the country annually by 2010.

Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations ready in Ha Noi’s Old Quarter

The Mid-autumn festival in Ha Noi’s Old Quarter, an annual cultural event, was inaugurated last week at several locations from the main gate of Dong Xuan Market to the Hang Dao-Dong Xuan walking area.

A series of events will take place at the heritage house at 87 Ma May Street to familiarise visitors with this traditional festival. Documents and images will be on display, and visitors shown how to make traditional moon cakes and toys.

The main activity will be a ceremony on the last day, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which falls next Tuesday. Many folk games and art performances, including a procession of lanterns, lion dancing, music, and dance will be organised.

HCM City coastal district holds traditional whale worship festival

The Nghinh Ong (Whale Worship) Festival, a traditional festival of southern fishermen, will be held from September 24 to 27 in Can Gio District in HCM City.

It will include meditation, bridge-building, and classical singing ceremonies among many cultural and sports activities.

Saigontourist will operate an all-included, two-day-one-night tour to the festival priced at VND1,070,000, departing the city on the 26th. Besides taking part in some of the festivities, tourists will also be taken by boat to see the mangrove forests recognised by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve, the Sac Forest, a crocodile farm, and a troop of monkeys living in Can Gio Park.

The annual Nghinh Ong festival is celebrated all the way along the coast from Quang Binh Province in the central region to Phu Quoc Island in the south.

HCM City hotel highlights cuisine, launches Ramadan food festival

Amara Hotel Sai Gon has launched a special programme highlighting the food served by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. Meant to revive energy after a day of fasting, a wide selection of such food will be served at the hotel’s Cafe Singapore restaurant.

Four menus have been designed, priced from US$7 – 12 per dish. The promotion will run from 6.30pm to 11pm for the next month.

Ha Long Bay leads world’s seven natural wonders poll

Ha Long Bay is leading a poll to nominate the world’s seven natural wonders, Tia Viering, the media manager of NewOpenWorld, a foundation involved with the media and entertainment, said.

Many media agencies and social organisations are backing a campaign to vote for the bay.

The Quang Ninh Province People’s Committee has held a conference together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to consider ways to widely advertise Ha Long Bay, which has been recognised by UNESCO as a world natural heritage under two different criteria – landscape and geology.

Asian Trails to organise tours for European visitors

The HCM City-based Asian Trails Co is preparing to receive large groups of European tourists who will come to Viet Nam on regular chartered flights in December.

The tour company’s director, Bui Viet Thuy Tien, said a foreign partner would send tourists from Stockholm, Sweden, by 10 flights over four months with the first arriving in the city on December 16.

Asian Trails will service half the visitors, or around 2,000 people, with other travel agents in HCM City handling the rest.

Tien said during their 15-day trip, the visitors would stay in HCM City for two nights and fly to Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, and Phu Quoc Island. — VNS