A festival featuring the cuisine of Vietnam’s southern provinces will be held in Ho Chi Minh City next week.

Titled “2012 Southern Land Cuisine Festival,” the event, to be held by HCMC Culture, Sport and Tourism Department, aims to introduce the diversity of the southern region’s cuisine.

The festival will gather 45 enterprises with 83 booths showcasing around 200 dishes from 18 provinces. Each booth will be decorated in a distinctive style to give visitors a specific look at the cultural characteristics of the regional cuisine.

The highlight of the festival will be a cooking competition titled “The Delicious Food of Southern Vietnam.” It will include processing and serving food activities with the following topics: Central Vietnamese marine cuisine, Tay Nguyen cuisine, Southern cuisine and HCMC cuisine.

The event will also features cocktail mixing contests and traditional musical performances as well as folk games, offering visitors a chance to learn more about southern culture.

“2012 Southern Land Cuisine Festival” will take place from May 25 to 27 at Dam Sen Cultural Park in District 11.

source from: tuoitrenews

Vietnam’s first hovercraft, made by a group of students at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, is on a trial run on the city’s Saigon River. 

During the test that began yesterday and will end May 18, the group checked the boat in straight movement, rotation, and in rescuing people drifting on the river.

The boat, which is named Bakvee (Bach Khoa Air Cushion Vehicle) by the group, was made by the vacuum casting method with materials as like wood, composites and foam.

Bakvee is 4.2 meters long, weighs 180 kg, has a power of 26 CV and can travel at 30-40 kph.

The boat can be operated on land and in water and can accommodate 3 people.

Equipped with the Global Positioning System (GPS), it can function as a rescue and tourist boat at a maximum operating range of 150 km.

If the test ends in success, the group will set out a list of standard technical specifications for this kind of boat and prepare instructions for its operation.

As hovercrafts are totally new to the country’s maritime sector, the producers said it would coordinate with concerned agencies to set up procedures for registration of hovercrafts in Vietnam.

source from: tuoitrenews

I sometimes point them toward one of the city’s grandly conceived buildings – you know the type: vaulted ceiling, entrance fee, souvenir shop – but more often than not, my recommendation runs along much humbler lines, or should I say, wheels.

Practical, eco-friendly and as Vietnamese as any conical hat or a bowl of pho, the simple cyclo is one of those leftover relics of history that seems to be increasingly overlooked.

From my office window, I often glimpse the cyclo drivers napping or reading the paper on the sidewalks of Lam Son Square below. In the cooler hours of the day, it’s not unusual to see a procession of camera-toting tourists being pedaled down Dong Khoi Street.

The offspring of the two-wheeled pulled rickshaws that came to the country in the late 1930s (think of the outdoor scenes from the movie The Lover), Vietnam’s current three-wheeled bicycle-powered cyclos vary in height and width from city to city.

Used for transporting everything from building materials to brides, the cyclo enjoyed a few glorious years as Vietnam’s main means of inner-city transport during the 1950s and 60s, before it was eclipsed by the faster, more fashionable motorcycle.

But for at least one day every year, the faithful cyclo gets to be the hero of the city again, during the annual Saigon Cyclo Challenge.

Early last month, on a newly built promenade bordered by a line of palm trees and a small pond, the Caravelle’s four-man team captured the silver medal in the world’s only cyclo race.

Organized by the Saigon Children’s Charity, more than 1,000 people came out on March 10 to watch 10 local teams race their cyclos outside the Crescent Mall in District 7.

Earlier in February the Caravelle sponsored a press conference for the race that was well attended by the local media. On the day of the event, pedaling those cyclos in the stifling heat, even without passengers, was backbreaking work for our racers, who took at least one spill on the track.

But in the end, I couldn’t have been prouder of the hotel’s team. Even though we didn’t get to taste the winners’ champagne, we were part of an event that raised US$41,500 for a good cause.

Afterwards, one of the drivers who troll for fares outside the Caravelle shared some of his story.

Over a mug of café sua da, Nguyen Van Son, aged 45, told me he started with his first rented cyclo 20 years ago, after spending three years fighting in the Vietnamese army.

Two decades later, Son has been through 10 cyclos, none of which he has owned. He pays VND1.5 million a month to rent the vehicle that he pedals for about 80 km, from sunup to sundown, seven days a week. Ten dollars, or VND200,000 an hour, is his minimum fee for giving visitors tours around District 1 and 3.

Son remembers the days when there were as many as 5,000 cyclo drivers in the city. Today he estimates only about one-fifth of that number remain, while the number of people on the city’s streets seems to have doubled.

Other changes he points out are the big buildings and hotels, new roads and bridges – which didn’t exist when he started as a cyclo driver. Son emphasizes that the life of a cyclo driver is very hard, but with a wife and five children, he sees it as his only option.

After this rather melancholy exchange, my thoughts turned to the future of this slowly dying profession, and then back to my first cyclo ride.

I remember feeling overtaken by everything else on the road, but soon quit mentally urging the driver forward, and realized that at that pace, there was time to see everything.

I took in the river breeze together with the old houses and enormous trees, and started looking, really looking, at the street life, the people in the alleys, the food on display.

All these little memories come back when guests, a little disoriented but excited by their first visit to Saigon, ask what they absolutely must do before leaving. I know just what to tell them.

source from: thanhniennews

The Asia Taekwondo Championship 2012 will take place in Ho Chi Minh City from May 4-11 with martial artists from 34 countries and territories worldwide taking part.

The information was released by the Vietnam Taekwondo Federation (VTF) and the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism at a press briefing on Apr. 27.

The event will host the first World Junior Poomsae championship, the second Asia Poomsae championship, the sixth Junior combat tournament and the 20 th Asia combat tournament.

VTF Deputy Chairman-cum-General Secretary Truong Ngoc De said it is the largest taekwondo sporting event ever held in Vietnam .

He added that the results will be always updated on the website of the World Taekwondo Federation and the opening ceremony, semi-final and final matches will be broadcast live.

source from: gov

I have been cursed with a sweet tooth my entire life – that is eight cavities and two root canals in 29 years. I hoped, when I moved here, that all of my sweet eating would stop or at least slow.

But Ho Chi Minh City offered more sweet junk than any town I have ever lived in. And the offerings are getting better every day. For those of you who grew up in the States and miss your mom’s cookies, consider this a guide to some of the town’s best comfort food. For those of you who grew up elsewhere, but can eat a box of cream puffs for breakfast and feel no remorse (VND100,000 at Chewy Junior 34 Tran Hung Dao Street, District 1), consider this your guide to an early onset of diabetes:

A fleeting donut

Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants own all of California’s best donut shops. And yet, bakeries in Southeast Asia fall short. Last summer, a wholly-Vietnamese shop called Fresh Donuts began making them the way Uncle Sam intended – cake rings covered in a firm frosting shell. The manager attributes the quality of their product to imported American flour, which they will stop getting (due to an inexplicable hiccup in the supply chain) some time next week. The clock is ticking.

Address: 33 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 1. VND17,000.

Durian for dummies

If you do not understand durian yet, you need to get yourself to the Golden Elephant. The fruit itself is the best dessert on earth – proof that someone up there loves us and wants us to be happy. But for all you clueless whiners out there, this Thai restaurant serves a tiny slice of God’s custard with sweet coconut milk and salty sticky rice. If you don’t like
that, you are not getting in to heaven.

Address: 34 Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1. VND50,000.

The late breakfast

Last month, a bad case of hypertension kept Thanh home for nearly two weeks reducing
her popular sidewalk chè spot to a barren green wall. She has recovered and now shows up to work at around 2 p.m. From then on, Thanh slings bowls and bags of cow bean sticky rice, hot tapioca soup, corn porridge, and green bean goo until there is nothing left in her pots – and there never is.

Address: Corner of Cong Quynh and Cao Ba Nha streets, District 1. VND5,000 per bowl.

Dessert for the dead

Most Central and Southern Vietnamese families place bánh ít (banana leaf-wrapped sticky rice pyramids stuffed with beans or fruit) on the altar during the anniversary of a loved one’s death. Evidently, these are a hot ticket in the spirit world. But
I am already a fan. Thankfully, a family of hủ tiếu vendors cranks out bright purple bánh ít for 25 cents a pop. Their best rendition contains a pungent paste of dried coconut, durian and chopped peanuts. Please remember to put a few out for me when I’m gone.

Address: 16B Street 762 (essentially an alley that begins at 762), Hong Bang Street, District 6. VND5,000 apiece.

Pumpkin pie redux

Traffic hits a wild bottleneck around the intersection of Nguyen Trai and Chau Van Liem. Every night, the corners overflow with waiters carrying blazing hotpots and plates of chicken rice into packed restaurants. A few steps away from all this madness, hidden behind a phalanx of dour condom vendors, sits Coconut and Pumpkin. This clean quiet shop sells a huge range of cool, tasty desserts, everything from custard-stuffed crullers to jellied coconuts. On a hot night, consider going out for a wedge of flan-filled bí đỏ (pumpkin squash) – a cool, sub-tropical riff on the heavy Thanksgiving Day pie.

Address: 85 Chau Van Liem Street, District 5. VND100,000 per kilogram.

The cupcake I hate to love

Up until a few years ago, cupcakes were considered the most banal and wholesome of America’s dessert items. Then Sex and the City hijacked the innocent cakes and turned them into its calling cards for vapid promiscuity and conspicuous consumerism. Eight years after the show stopped airing, a pair of bored rich ladies opened Cakewalk, a boutique “cupcakery” in downtown HCMC. Their logo is a high-heeled shoe with cake in it. It hurts that their PB&J (vanilla cake filled with real strawberry jam and topped with peanut buttercream) tastes so good. But it does.

Address: 84 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, District 1. VND50,000.

The cupcake I love to love

Barbara Kuehne, a Vietnamese-American mom who grew up in North Carolina, has been baking cupcakes in her HCMC kitchen for the past two years. You have probably seen them on sale at L’Usine Café. Kuehne recently opened the Sweet + Sour Bakery on the ground floor of her ritzy apartment in Thao Dien. Soon, her cupcakes will invade the shelves of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Eventually, I suspect, they will take over the world. Which is fine by me. Because everyone deserves a taste of her cinnamon butter cream frosted banana bread cupcake before they commence an eternity of bánh ít.

Address: Ground floor of AVA Residence 40/4 Nguyen Van Huong Street, District 2. VND50,000.

Tofu me? Tofu you!

If you find yourself driving around Ho Chi Minh City sweaty and aggravated, pull over at Banh Canh Trang Bang Hoang Ty. Ignore everything about this restaurant – a hot, crowded pork roll place that stinks of mắm nêm. Flip to the back of the menu and point to the picture of chè khúc bạch, a chilled cup containing buttery cubes of “cheese tofu” (they allegedly contain heavy cream), preserved longans, slivered almonds and a few hunks of ice. This thing will make you feel ten degrees cooler and, somehow, lighter.

Address: 70-72 Vo Van Tan Street, District 3. VND28,000.

source from: thanhniennews

However, local travel agencies say that this year, despite offers of so many promotional programmes, the numbers of tourists have not increased, causing much anxiety in the travel industry.

Travel agencies offer low-budget tours

Many people have put a lid on spending for the last two years, due to the economic downturn. Therefore many travel agencies have to design economy and low-budget tours to attract clients.

Visitors at Tam Coc tourist area in Ninh Binh Province (Photo:SGGP)

Travel firms have reported a sharp decline in the numbers of travellers. Though there are still many travellers booking tours for the April 30 holiday, the numbers are way below expectations. Many clients have enquired about the cost of tours but few have made bookings.

The numbers of tourists registering for tours for summer are quite modest, even though summer is a high tourist season. Saigontourist Travel Service Company is organising 300 domestic and international tours and expects to serve 16,000 travellers, an increase of 10-15 per cent over the same period last year.

This year, most visitors registered for short distance tours to the Central Highland region, Mekong Delta region, Dang Nang, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet and Buon Ma Thuot cities and Phu Quoc Island.

Many travel agencies have not increased tour prices, except for Nha Trang and Da Lat City by 10 per cent.

A representative of Viet Travel said that their company ties up with hotels and restaurants to offer tour prices that are attractive and competitive. The company is offering a discount of VND2 million on its northern tours, VND600,000 to VND1 million on central region tours and VND500,000 on Phu Quoc and Nha Trang tours.

Slump in inbound tours

Pham Duc Hoa, deputy head of domestic tourism in Saigontourist, said that the company’s turnover in the first quarter of the year grew well, but its turnover is decreasing since beginning of April. People tend to travel by themselves or register through Free-Easy tour service, which operates within your tight budget, Hoa added.

Hoa said the tendency of cutting down spending can be seen clearly in the tourism sector. Most travellers from HCMC choose two to three day tours to Phan Thiet, Ninh Chu and Vung Tau to save money.

In previous summers, his travel firm received many orders from companies and institutions who wanted to take long tours to Hue City or Hanoi. But now many of the loyal clients have decided not to travel this year, or have chosen short tours to Phan Thiet or Vung Tau.

Meanwhile, many international tours are fully booked. Fiditour has sold 60 per cent of its international tour quota. Tours to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China that departed on April 27 were full.

One director of a travel firm believes that in general, the number of travellers this summer have not decreased as sharply as people think, but have chosen outbound tours instead of domestic tours.

People tend to travel abroad because outbound tours are getting cheaper.

source from: saigon-gpdaily

No casualties were reported, but machines, equipment and material inside the under-construction cinema hall were burnt, so was the roof of the building and all the furniture.

The sudden blaze sent dozens of workers rushing out of the building in panic. 

An initial investigation showed that sparks by a careless welder ignited a pile of foam and corrugated paper lying nearby an air conditioner.

Supposedly, the gas in the air conditioner exploded spreading the fire to the rest of the cinema hall. Inside the cinema hall building, there was a lot of highly inflammable material which fueled the fire further.

source from: saigon-gpdaily

Four members of the well-known South Korean band Big bang excite their Vietnamese fans by sending a greeting through a clip before the group’s trip to Ho Chi Minh City for the “Sound Fest” music festival this weekend.

“Hello Vietnam. This is Big bang. Hope to see you guys at the Sound Fest concert on April 14,” the band said in the video.

Besides Big Bang, the concert held by Coca Cola in collaboration with Samsung will feature British singer Taio Cruz, Top 7 American Idol 2003 Kimberly Caldwell, talented Thai singer Tata Young and a number of local singers.

Tickets for the event have been officially released at prices ranging from VND500,000 (US$25) to VND2.2million (US$110).

Under the organizer’s plan, the festival will open with cuisine, cosplay and game booths from 2pm to 6:30pm.

Local artists including Buc Tuong, Unlimited, rock band Microwave, Ha Okio, Thao Trang, Tien Dat, Thanh Bui, Suboi, Van Mai Huong, Phuong Vy and Pham Anh Khoa will perform at the event from 2pm, and then the foreign singers will join in from 7 pm to rock the air with a big concert.

Last month, Hanoi fans of the Korean band performed a flashmob against the background music from the band’s hits to welcome the four men.

“Sound Fest 2012” will take place at Phu Tho Outdoor Stadium at 1 Lu Gia Street in District 11.

source from: tuoitrenews

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb expressed his hope that the two cities will cooperate in transferring technologies and techniques to deal with big challenges, such as rising sea levels.

In another meeting with Manila mayor Alfredo S.Lim the same day, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan affirmed that the long-established good relations between Vietnam and the Philippines are considered a firm foundation for closer cooperation between the two cities.

Mayor Alfredo expressed hope that the two cities will strengthen exchange visits and share experiences in the fields of mutual concern.

The two leaders agreed to boost cooperation in the fields of education and training, water supply, tourism, relics management, and cultural exchange.

Manila is willing to grant scholarships to HCM City’s students to study at two leading universities in Manila, Alfredo confirmed.

source from: dtinews