Top 5 things to do in Vietnam

Trung Nguyen Hotel

Trung Nguyen Hotel

Providing high quality accommodation services in the culture, shopping, sightseeing district of Chau Doc (An Giang), for both business and leisure travelers, Trung Nguyen Hotel is a popular choice. Thanks to its convenient location, it is easy to get access to all that the lovely city has to offer such as many myriad attractions and landmarks of the city containing of Mekong Tours, Chau Phu Temple as well as Chau Giang Mosque. Experience diving, snorkelling and boat trips in Phu Quoc

Ha Giang Fire Dancing Festival

Having a sorcerer do liturgy is a must-have condition to start the fire festival. Incense, a chicken, 10 cups of wine and paper money are the rite of the festival. Right after they burn a big fire does the sorcerer begin the rite. The liturgy is held about 1-2 hours before the beginning of the fire dance festival. The time for dancing fire is remarked with the sound of the guitar played by the sorcerer. Once hearing this beat, each youth will sit opposite to the sorcerer. Then, he leisurely jumped into the fire with no fear or sensation. Only men, who always get the admiration, respect of people can join in the fire dance. Wonderful places to stay in Mui Ne

Pho

Pho- the symbol of Vietnamese cuisine

The wide variety of stunning Vietnamese cuisine would not be complete without pho. Bumping into a huge crowd of hungry patrons eating noodles eat with a loud sloppy sucking noise at a makeshift pho stand is exactly what you want to do when walking a block in these major cities in Vietnam.

Cai Rang Floating Market:

This place specializes in buying and selling of fruits and agricultural products of the region. In the morning, hundreds of large boat parked close together baby, boat owners want to sell something, just hang it up without selling.

Floating market

Ideal time to visit is from 6pm to market 8 am daily except 1st in Lunar and Dumpling Festival. From the center of Can Tho visitors can ride a taxi, motorbike to dock later hired Cai Rang floating market visit, or may go entirely by boat from Ninh Kieu wharf.

Visit Tam giac mach flower field

Tam giac mach, buckwheat flower is a beautiful flower. You can visit the incredible field in the buckwheat flower season in Ha Giang. You should come there between late Oct and mid Nov to see the best time of it.

Buckwheat flower field

There are many places to see buckwheat flower field but the best place is Hoang Su Phi, you can meet many backpackers come here to have wonderful photos. Besides, you also have another choice in Sung La, Lung Cu, Dong Van… or you can come whole that places to see the different beauty of them.

Highlight dish in Vietnam

Salmon streams:

• Sa Pa is not only famous land by beautiful natural scenery, the fresh cool climate, but also where there are dishes with bold flavors are more tourists especially preferred. First to mention fish from streams Muong Hoa, Muong Tien brings up selling market town. Spring fish are more kinds. Black fish shaped like fried fish, squinting, black mixed with moss rocks. Notably spring fish never tasted. In addition to including more fish flower, spring goby... Eating fish simply cooked on charcoal or grilled and served hot right through meal, fried crispy and fried with tomato sauce and curry powder spices, pepper powder on the tray was made ​​a delicious meal. Travel to Vietnam with Indochina tours Vietnam
Grilled pork noodles
Step 1: You give the material from dried minced onion ... to vegetable oil and a large bowl , mix up . Then you have sliced ​​pork in general, you use your hands to knead spices infuse the meat evenly, then brought to the cabinet. Travel to Vietnam

Crush peanuts is pointed 
Step 2: After you skewers marinated meats and brochettes, then roasted on charcoal or stove for about 20 minutes. While rotating meat grilled attention constantly to avoid burning.
Step 3: You can give the meat skewers on grill grates and then clamped again, so meat is not contaminated before baking you spread a little oil on both sides of the grill. Bring on charcoal grill with moderate temperatures, constant flip meats are 2 sides to not burn. When it done, you move out and eat cooked meat with noodles and vegetables.
Step 5: You mix sweet and sour sauce with the ratio: 1 sauce, 1 sugar, lemon water and some Chili and garlic crushed and put in the same. For just mouth tasting.
Step 6: Vegetables eaten raw: little basil, cucumber, lettuce ... (other vegetables if you like), add a little crushed roasted peanuts, shallots

Tam Ky chicken rice
We can see the yellow of the chicken broth cover in the rice and the rice has a beautiful yellow color. The chicken meat is steamed in the stove with some salt, scallion, herb…. to have a specific aromatic. The sauce is used with “Tam Ky” rice chicken is the sauce with the spicy of chilli, the source of minced lemon, the sweet of sugar. All of this mix with fish sauce to have perfect sauce. Retired Air ginger very fine sugar, fish sauce, chili for slightly sweet, salty concentrate. When we eat, we put ginger sauce into the rice, served with chicken and rice.

It is delicious and beautiful dish
Shredded chicken, put to pepper, salt, seasoning salt, a few drops of lemon juice and mix well to coat spices. When we close to eat, mix onion, laksa leaves, herbs, non- gold pilgrims into rice and enjoy.

Sa Dec Noodles

First rice-noodle strands. If rice-noodle strands featuring My Tho small stems, slender, you often see the thread white this rice-noodle to "score points" with prosecutors, with milky white as rice. Shaping was strange, even more stranger when enjoying the feeling of soft chewy, slightly crunchy and the sweetness remains that people do not think about stopping chopsticks.
Broth of rice noodles for this kind of feeling also different. It does not have a sweet taste is enhanced by the accompanying materials or by glutamate which is the sweet dark tunnel of water is 100% from pork bones.

About 800m central beach area Dao Garden, it focused midrange hotel restaurant that many travel groups choose when to Bai Chay. If you stay here, just walking down the street is able to enjoy seafood in the restaurants next door. However, due close to downtown so the price here is still quite high.

For those travelers who travel Halong at obvious time, they often look to the seafood restaurant across town. That's sidewalk cafes on coastal embankments in the area of ​​Ben Doan, Bai Chay by about one kilometer. From far away you can smell the fragrance nose tingle of oysters, clams, snails baked. Call sip a beer and oyster plate with baked milk, will not have anything more wonderful when you enjoy the salty sea in windy bouts. Rustic style at affordable prices is a plus that many whisper travelers to this place.

Places in Mekong delta Vietnam

Places in Mekong delta Vietnam
Touring the orchards, paddy fields and swamplands of the Mekong Delta, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve stepped into the pages of a geography textbook. A comma-shaped flatland stretching from Ho Chi Minh’s city limits southwest to the Gulf of Thailand, the delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl, an agricultural miracle that pumps out more than a third of the country’s annual food crop from just ten percent of its total land mass. Rice may be the delta’s staple crop, but coconut palms, fruit orchards and sugar-cane groves also thrive in its nutrient-rich soil, and the sight of conical-hatted farmers tending their land is one of Vietnam’s most enduring images. To the Vietnamese, the region is known as Cuu Long, “Nine Dragons”, a reference to the nine tributaries of the Mekong River cruise, which dovetail across plains fashioned by millennia of flood-borne alluvial sediment.

Surprisingly, agriculture gripped the delta only relatively recently. Under Cambodian sway until the close of the seventeenth century, the region was sparsely inhabited by the Khmer krom, or “downstream Khmer”, whose settlements were framed by swathes of marshland. The eighteenth century saw the Viet Nguyen lords steadily broaden their sphere of influence to encompass the delta, though by the 1860s France had taken over the reins of government. Sensing the huge profits to be gleaned from such fertile land, French colons spurred Vietnamese peasants to tame and till tracts of the boggy delta; the peasants, realizing their colonial governors would pay well for rice harvests, were quick to comply. Ironically, the same landscape that had served the French so well also provided valuable cover for the Viet Minh resistance fighters who sought to overthrow them; later it did the same for the Viet Cong, who had well-hidden cells here – inciting the Americans to strafe the area with bombs and defoliants. South Vietnam tours packages

A visit to the Mekong Delta is so memorable because of the region’s diversity. Everyday scenes include children riding on the backs of water buffalo or cycling to school through country lanes clad in white ao dai; rice workers stooping in a sea of emerald; market vendors grinning behind stacks of fruit; bright yellow incense sticks drying at the roadside; flocks of storks circling over a sanctuary at dusk; Khmer monks walking mindfully in the shadow of pastel pagodas; locals scampering over monkey bridges or rowing boats on the delta’s maze of channels.

MY THO
The closest Mekong Delta city to Ho Chi Minh City, My Tho is a city with a fascinating history. It was the center of the ancient civilization of Funan from the 1st to 5th centuries AD, before the culture mysteriously disappeared—no one really knows the reason—and it wasn't until the 17th century that the modern city was established, by Chinese refugees fleeing Taiwan (then known as Formosa). During the Vietnam War, My Tho was one of the centers of operations for American and Australian troops. The largest battle in the Mekong Delta was fought in 1972 at Cai Lai, only 20 km (12 miles) outside the city.
Now mostly known as a supplier of fruit and fish, My Tho is considered a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City, and consequently the dining and accommodations options are somewhat basic.

CAN THO
The meeting point of various waterways, Can Tho is the capital of the Mekong Delta and the region's gateway. This bustling hub of activity is connected to other centers in the Mekong Delta by a system of waterways as well as by road. For those seeking a comfortable base from which to explore the delta, Can Tho has a number of elegant accommodations options, as well as several river cruise companies with trips ranging from half-day explorations of the nearby floating markets to multiday cruises through the region.
Can Tho retains a hint of its colonial past as one of the largest French trading ports in Indochina. During the Vietnam War, Can Tho was almost constantly surrounded by hostile Vietcong forces, but the city itself stayed loyal to the Saigon regime and many American and South Vietnamese troops were based here. It was the last city to fall to the North Vietnamese army, on May 1, 1975, a day after the fall of Saigon, as North Vietnamese forces moved south.

Passport and Visa to Vietnam

Passport and Visa to Vietnam
Still, as a foreign tourist, you should learn about things to do and things to avoid for traveling in Vietnam in terms of customs, religious, social relationships, and so on. Such information is given to you here. In addition, tips on shopping, eating, using transportation as well as money and cards are included for the sake of your favorable trip in Vietnam. Vietnam travel tours

Passport

First of all, you need a valid passport, and it should be valid for more than 6 months after the date when your journey finishes. Currently, airlines, cruises and trains require the passport’s number, date and place of issue as well as birth date which are needed to confirm services. The first and last names displayed on your passport should be the same as those listed on your travel tickets. Princess Junk cruise Halong bay

Passport and Visa to Vietnam

Visa

Foreign visitors holding a valid passport regardless of nationality are obliged to have entry visas which are obtainable at Vietnam diplomatic agencies for about 3-7 days of processing. With trips to off-limit areas like border provinces, military bases or remote islands, travel permits are required. Exceptions are for citizens of countries which have signed unilateral or bilateral visa omission agreement with Vietnam such as Japan, South Korea, Scandinavians and most ASEAN countries as seen below. JAHAN CRUISE

Unilateral visa exemption agreement

Officials from ASEAN secretariat when holding valid passports are exempt from visas within       30 days.

Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Japanese and South Korean citizens holding valid passports are exempt from visa requirements and are allowed to stay in Vietnam for no more than 15 days.

Bilateral visa exemption agreement

Citizens of Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia with valid ordinary passports are excluded from visa requirements and are allowed to stay in Vietnam no longer than 30 days.

Citizens of France holding valid passports are excluded from visa requirements when visiting Vietnam, and they are allowed to stay for up to three months at one time or on several visitations within six months in Vietnam since their first days of arrival. Similarly, Vietnamese citizens with valid diplomatic passports also enjoy such privileges when travelling to France.

Citizens of the two countries Chile and Vietnam with official or valid diplomatic passports from one of them when visiting the other’s territory are exempt from entry, exit and transit visas requirements. Also, they are allowed to stay for up to 60 days per visit.

The visa can be obtained from the Vietnamese Embassy at your home country. If you find dealing with paper work is rather difficult for you, you can seek for an online service at Holidays Vietnam Travel. Please contact our Travel Consultant for details.

Visa on arrival

Vietnam travel agencies can easily provide each foreign visitor with a “Visa on arrival”, which means visa stamped on arrival. Here at Holidays Vietnam Travel, we need you to fill in an application form. Then, you have to pay the service fee and wait to receive your “Visa approval letter” as well as its copy (through email or fax) within three working days. Another copy of the approval letter will also be forwarded to the Vietnam Immigration checkpoints at International Airports on your behalf. Finally, in your arrival in Vietnam, at your destination airport, your visa will be given to you by the Immigration Officers.

Ha Giang Forest Festival

Although the Pu Peo is ethnic people in Ha Giang, they still preserved many liturgies and a folklore treasure. Along with other liturgies are held in the New Year, people prays dryad for the green of forest, security for people in the forest fest. Also, from this ceremony, the forest has the Pu Peo protected very well, especially, the sacred forest. They protect the forest in order to have water for farming and have wood for making house. Each year, on June 6th lunar calendar, people held this fest with the most solemn rites. North Vietnam tours

The fest takes place in the forbidden forest, the sorcerer faces in a big tree and bow in the ground in order to pray dryad for protecting their village. The Pu Peo always understands that preserving forest is keeping water.

All thing were displayed on the banana leaf forest, the altar was constructed of green bamboo with nearly 2 meters height, facing the mountain. The square glutinous rice pounded to a pulp to make cakes, sliced carefully. On each piece of rice is a small boiled egg. It the bottom of the altar, there has 2 chickens which are still alive. Around the altar is bottle wine and bowl. Besides, they have forced a female goat near the altar. The fest lasts several hours; sorcerer holds a fresh bamboo waving in all time of liturgy. Sometimes, he holds a dried gourd. The rite shows the respect of human divided into three stages. The first stage, chickens and goats still live, the second stage, the youngsters cut their neck and finally, people have meal in this place right. The families do not attend, they also were divided food. Halong Jasmine Cruise

During the day, with the jubilant atmosphere and the unity of ethnic groups in the village, the liturgy was implemented by the Pu Peo ethnic. The festival part is involved by whole people in the village. Having traditional sports such as: push sticks, tug, playing “ao”…attract a large number of ethnic groups. Besides, folk song programs will be presented by the Pu Peo ethnic. Jasmine Cruise

Harmony with nature, respect and protect natural forest as friend become a common sense of Pu Peo community, shown in each family, village. Each sacred forest is protected by people. It not only brings physical value and spiritual value but also contributes to protect and develop environment.

Ha Giang Praying for Rain Festival 

Praying for rain festival of the Lo Lo is common religious in agriculture. On the festival occasions, almost all activities of the Lo Lo are aimed at praying for rain. They wish the rain down to the Meo Vac field and they pray for a prosperous forever.

Every March, when the climate is dry and trees lack water, Lo Lo ethnic people in Meo Vac, Ha Giang Province often held a praying for rain festival. With typical rituals, the festival, handed down from generation to generation, is also an opportunity to meet one another.

Ha Giang Praying for Rain Festival 

The praying for rain festival is often held on the 15th, 17th, 19th of the 3rd lunar month. It is only organized when the weather is harsh or drought appears. Previously, rich people in villages used to pay for the cost of the festival but nowadays each villager contributes an item to the festival. Objects include a chicken, a dog or a kilogram of rice is taken to the house of a sorcerer or village chief. To have a successful praying for rain festival, the first procedure that cannot be avoided is to organize a ceremony to ask ancestral sorcerers for aid.

The procedure is quite easy, including a cup of water, incense and bamboo paper (a kind of papers that is used for sacrifices of the Lo Lo people). First of all, the sorcerer burns incense at the family ancestor’s altar and then, the cup of water and the paper are placed at a house corner. After that, the sorcerer starts worshipping. He covers the water cup with the bamboo paper; if the water in the cup is not absorbed or poured out of the cup, “permission is granted” and then, the praying for rain festival will be successful. Finally, the sorcerer burns the bamboo paper and the procedure is completed.

The Lo Lo ethnic people believe that after organizing the festival within three to nine days, it will rain. The festival is divided into two parts: the ritual and the festival. The ritual is made with the participation of villagers. Live objects such as dogs and chicken will be taken to the praying place and worshipped twice. After being used for worshipping for the first time, village’s boys will slaughter them and use the meat for worshipping again.

When the worship finishes, villagers drink the alcohol, eat the meat and dance. Beautiful Lo Lo girls dance in their traditional costumes weaved with colorful patterns.

The rain praying festival is a typical cultural activity bearing unique characteristics. The festival is an opportunity for villagers to pray for luck and show their faith in God

Motorbiking in Vietnam, Tips for Vietnam Motorbike Trip

Renting a motorbike is an increasingly popular way to explore Vietnam. But the traffic conditions, roads and rules are extremely different from those in America or Europe. In the West, rules are strictly (in most cases) adhered to. Generally speaking, drivers stay on the correct side of the road, stop at red lights and don’t carry water buffalo on their scooters! Vietnam travel Packages

Here, things are a little different. Reading these tips will ensure you have a safe and enjoyable journey!

1. Protect your head
Vietnam law requires both motorbike drivers and passengers to wear a helmet. It’s also just plain common sense. If you can, make sure your helmet is made by a reliable manufacturer such as Protec.

2. Learn before you ride
Many travelers have never ridden a motorbike before they rent one in Vietnam. Before setting off, ask someone for a five-minute rundown on how to start/stop/accelerate etc. Paradise Cruise in Halong

3. Left are gears, right is brake
Self-explanatory, really.

4. Think right
In Vietnam, people drive on the right. Especially important to remember when you turn corners!

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5. Expect the unexpected
Drivers don’t follow the rules. Be prepared to think on your feet.

Motorbiking in Vietnam, Tips for Vietnam Motorbike Trip

6. Park it
Most cities have parking areas to leave your motorbike. This usually costs around 2,000VND, so don’t listen to entrepreneurial parking attendants who try to charge you more than 10,000VND - they are likely trying to hustle you. Hold onto the ticket to get your bike back!

7. Fuel up
When you rent a motorbike, check the tank (don’t trust the fuel gauge) and find out where you can fill up if needed.

8. Biggest wins
The biggest vehicle has the right of way. So avoid buses, cars and trucks!

9. Think about what kind of bike you need
100 cc-or-more semi-automatic motorbikes are best for roads in Northern Vietnam’s mountainous areas. Look for a strong engine, gasoline-saving potential and flexible packing space.

10. Be well-prepared
When traveling to remote areas, bring a motorcycle repair tool kit. It might also be advisable to bring a spark-plug and extra key. Remember to ensure the motorbike is in working order before setting off. Change the oil and check the tyres, brakes, mirrors, horn and light. Fill up your motorbike with gasoline and make sure you know where you can make your next filling stop!

11. Check the weather
Plan the season of your trip carefully. The best time for exploring mountain areas is from late September to the beginning of December or after Tet Nguyen Dan (Vietnamese New Year, in January or February), when there is almost no rain and the temperature is cool. Spring rain and summer heat are hazardous not only for your own health but for the road.

12. Statistics don’t lie
Thousands of people die on the roads every year. Drive safely so you can make the most of your Vietnam road trip!

Da Lat – the city of flowers

The poetic city of Da Lat in Vietnam has a lot of charming name such as “city of love”, “City of thousands of pine trees”, “city of mysty”,… and the most impressive name is “city of flowers”.

Coming to Da Lat, you will be impressed by so many kinds of beautiful and gorgeous flowers. Flowers are in everywhere in the city, from large fields on the valleys to small corners or on the sides of the streets. Centre tours Vietnam
Da Lat Rose

Rose is not a rare flower in Vietnam, but roses in Da Lat are the most beautiful and preferable kind. The flower comes in all sorts of colors and shades, such as red, pink, velvet and yellow. Da Lat rose is grown as a agricultural products to export. MANGO CRUISE
Da lat city
Mimosa is a very popular flower in Da Lat city not only because it is found in anywhere in the city, but also because it has a special position in local people’s hearts. It has bright yellow flowers and leaves that are green with a silvery luster. The tree blossoms two or three times each year and flourishes during the sunny seasons. Da Lat has two types of mimosa trees: long and short-leafed.the flower has a sweet scent and be considered as the symbol of secret love. Jasmine Cruise
Da Lat – the city of flowers
Asteraceae flowers blossom all year round. There are more than 20 species of asteraceae in Da Lat, such as san-souci, hortensia, pansy, violette, immortelle, arum, etc. Lots of them have origin from Western countries or Africa, but many others also come from Vietnam. Some of them are cultivate on field to provide for market, and others are wildflowers which naturally grow on streets or pine tree hills or along the streams.

Da Lat – the city of flowers

Another unique species in Da Lat is purple flamboyant (flame tree). Instead of having red color like its brothers in northern Vietnam, the flower is purple. In the end of winter and through the spring, many streets in the city are covered up by a romantic purple of flame trees.
Orchid is another Da Lat attraction. Named “queen of the world of flowers,” the orchid is a common sight wherever you go in Da Lat. Among the world’s 100,000 species of orchids, Viet Nam already has many of which grow in Da Lat. Da Lat grows all four types of orchids found worldwide, including those on other plants and trees as parasites, those on high rocks and cliffs. Those are in leaves and mud. Those are on other kinds of vegetation.
Da Lat – the city of flowers
Lang Biang and Da Lat have a very interesting kind of orchid, Lan hai. In Vietnamese, “hai” is a beautifully embroidered shoe that used to be worn by noble ladies. The flower is so named as it has the shape of a “hai”. It originates from the species P. Delnatii. The flower received attention and praise at an international orchid exhibition in 1995 in Tokyo, Japan.
Da Lat – the city of flowers
A wild but beautiful flower which symbolize for Langbiang Highland is Japanese sunflower (or wild sunflower). On October or November every year, this glamorous flower blossom on roadsides, slopes, tea hills, pine forests, covering the whole city with a bright yellow.
Cultivating flower is a key sector in Da Lat’s agriculture. And these flowers make the city more stunning and shining. Moreover, thousands kinds of wild flower contribute to the outstanding beauty of Da Lat.
Da Lat – the city of flowers
Flowers in Da Lat can be found in every corners of the city, in the forests, pine hills, tea hills, on the roadsides, valleys, stream banks or in cultivated fields,… There are also a lot of flower parks and flower gardens in the city where a lot of species of flowers are planted and designed on purpose to decorate the city. And each year, Da Lat held Flower Festival to display and promote local flowers as a product.