Vietnam, an Indian's Eye View

Are you an Expat, want a driving license in Vietnam?

2018-01-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

Vietnam is one of the most beautiful country in Asia with friendly people, healthy and exotic dishes mesmerizing scenery and fun places to explore. One of the amazing fact that Vietnam moves on motorbikes. There are cars on road but comparatively lesser than bikes.
If there are 4 members in a family, there will be five motorbikes in house.

With few days spent in Vietnam, bike riding may turn to be your favorite adventure. Driving around city is mostly safe and no police will catch you if you are foreigner and driving without a driving license.

Although you might fall in trouble if you break traffic rules, jump a signal or drive in wrong direction.
Your insurance will cover you only when you are driving with a valid driving license. In case of accident and further cause of death, it will turn to be a case of murder, if there is no driving license.

If you are carrying your country's driving license, you can get a Vietnamese driving license with a mere expense of 10$ within 5-7 working days and hit the road on an adventure trip.
If your driving license is for both 2 wheeler and 4 wheeler, you will get similar one in Vietnam.

Below are the steps you need yo follow to get a driving license in HCMC, Vietnam.

documents Required:
a) Original Driving License.
b) Translated copy of your country Driving License.
c) Passport copy with copy of visa page(or resident card).
d) Original passport.
e) A form to fill and passport photo ( they will provide both)

1) Get your driving license translated in Vietnamese.
go to address : 184, bis Pasteur Street, Q1 HCMC .

This is FS (foreign services). Your driving license should be notorized as well.
It will take 2-3 working days to translate your Driving License.
Timing : 8AM to 4PM. Lunch break around 11AM to 1:30PM.

2) Post translation, carry your original passport, original driving License and translated copy to
Address: 252, Ly Chinh Thang, Phuong 7, Q3 HCMC
This is a small street. Go to last house first floor. Submit your documents and fill the form.
They will make photocopy if you are not carrying. They will take a photo of you.
Once done, you will get a collection receipt and can collect after 5 working days.
Timing : 8AM to 4PM. Lunch break around 11AM to 1:30PM.

Yay!! you got your driving license. you are free to drive in Vietnam now.
Driving license validity will be as per validity of your stay in Vietnam.

Message me if you have any further query.

Hue, the historical capital of Vietnam

2015-01-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

After accomplishing few important to do items in HCMC, we finally packed our bags to spend our first day of new year 2015 in Hue, the historical capital of Vietnam.

It took us one and half hour by air to hue. Weather was cold with mercury dropping down to 8°C. Luckily it stopped raining the day we landed after showering city for four continuous days. Hue gets cold and rainy season from August to Jan and is the best time to visit.

The city is located in the center of Vietnam and served as capital of Vietnam for almost 150 Years from 1802-1945.It is just few miles from south China sea. City witnessed many attacks and suffered considerable damage multiple times during war.
Perfume river (Huong Song) flows right through the city. Local style boats rowing on river and foggy weather produce a mesmerizing beautiful scene. Just like other cities of Vietnam, Hue city and river was clean and well maintained. two bridges built over river also create scenic beauty with special light effects in night.

We landed in middle of day and took a city bus which left us near our hotel. We decided to explore the city on first day and collect information on tourist spots around. There are lot of tour companies along the river side on le Loi road. You can find difference in prices for same trip. Le loi and streets connecting got lot of accommodation options starting from 150,000VND. This side of city is newly developed compared to city on the north side of river which is old and also holds king's palace protected with high walls.

Our first half day was dedicated to exotic Hue dishes. If you are history curious, foodie and love discovering exotic cultures, you will fall in love with this place. We tried varieties of mouth watering and moreover eye watering dishes. Chilly plays a special role in dishes here. This place is also known for its different style of noodles. Varities of Che (sweet dishes) is also unique about this city.

Evening was spent enjoying traditional song inside a slow moving boat on river.
Hue girls in their traditional dress with traditional music instrument created a nice environment. Dress is quite significant here. Although Ao dai, traditional long dress, is common across Vietnam, Hue is known for its Violet Ao Dai.

Traditional musical instrument, Hue

Our journey to explore historical sites started very next day. There are many one day or two days package tours available. Citadel is the most visible and exciting place to see. Citadel is a walled forbidden city which is only for emperor's family, concubines, and highest officials.City splendor is lost over different wars but still worth visiting. Mass killing happened when US took this city from Viet Cong army. Citadel is easily visible due to its great flag flying high with contrast colors. A massive square rampart is covering the city with water flowing around. You have to cross the bridge to get in the Citadel. The awesome Ngo Mon, mid day gate was entry for imperial palace. Center seat was for emperor. There are magnificent buildings inside, few are standing proudly while others are under repair.

Thien mu Pagoda(temple) is one of the attraction because of its architecture and picturesque nature around. You can spend long hours here enjoying the scenic beauty of river. Other pagodas like Tu Dam and tu Hieu can also be visited.

Thien Mu Pagoda

Budhhism is followed a bit more seriously here. It is famous for one monk, who set himself on fire to protest south Vietnam anti Buddhism policies. It is said the his full body was burnt but heart remained unburnt. Later heart was kept as in a temple.

Famous pagoda in Hue got the photos of his burning alive and his car which he drove to the place and was parked behind before he set himself on fire.

There are several tombs built along the perfume river. Tomb was the result of Emperors belief in life after death and was supposed to reflect the life they want to live after.
Tombs were built during emperor's lifetime. Each tomb is a proof of royal art and architecture. One of the most beautiful royal tomb is of Tu Duc's Tomb. Being a romantic person, his tomb also contains a lake and poetic scenery. Emperor's designated a place for burial which is not known to anyone. Although a center place is designated as a burial place, actual burial place kept as a secret to protect the treasure buried along with king's body.

Phong Nha Cave is 200 km from Hue. The one day trip would be tiring but worth visiting. Mouth gaping beauty lies in the limestone cave created over thousands of years. This is also world longest undeground river. Once you reach at the entrance of cave, you will feel like you are entering in the mouth of mountain.

Phong Nha Cave

Paradise Cave located 50km ahead of Phong Nha cave. You can visit only one cave in one day trip and we decided to see PhongNha cave and leave pradise cave for next trip.

Cho Hue, the local market may be your last destination to end your trip in Hue. It is a nice place to do a quick shopping and try varieties of traditional food. Hue is also famous for its handmade vietnamese hat.
After doing a quick shopping and satisfying our taste buds we headed to airport to catch our flight. It was a nice trip. We tried to cover all the major tourist spots of Hue but still few are left. Hope we will get an opportunity to see this beautiful city again.

Enjoy the slideshow below of all the pics of Hue.
You can leave your comments if you liked my post.

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Danang and Hoi an

2013-12-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

One of the major cities of Vietnam, Danang, situated very close to old Cham capital Indrapura, is a port city covered with scenetic beauties of sea beach.

HoiAn, spectacular view

Once you start moving inside city crossing the beaches, you will find that city is one of the master piece of art. The city looks like a very planned city settled on river touching sea side. 2 bridge made on river adds beauty in the city. The light arrangement on bridge and with the dancing effect makes people to enjoy the night on coffeeshop near bridges or taking photo on it.

Two cities closely coupled, a mere 30 minutes drive away from each other is one of the most beautiful cities of Vietnam.

The twin cities are definitely a must see places in Vietnam. Very close to nature and slow moving life will give you a sense of relaxation at the end.

Chuc mung Nam moi 2013, Kontum

2013-02-16T10:24:00.005-08:00

Chuc Mung Nam Moi, 2013 @ KonTum

Almost 2 years passed since I got the feed for this blog. This was a short although fun packed trip to VN. I stayed in VN for longer period before, but this time I got the opportunity to see tet (Lunar New year) festival closely by becoming one of them. Also I got opportunity to visit a small relaxed city with some historical and cultural importance.

My flight landed in a small airport, Pleiku, surrounded with hills. HCMC to Pleiku was almost 1 hour journey. We took one cab to cover 50Km to reach KonTum city. The wind was cooling and refreshing. City is located at the bank of river Dakbla, sharing its border with Cambodia and Laos.

House was not very new. It reminded of my maternal grand ma's house. Members were busy in preparing food for new year. I took a quick nap and got refreshed to see the new year celebration. Food were prepared to offer god. Nonveg was the part of offering. The head member of family have to do the rituals of worship and family members are not bound to participate in the rituals.

Different varieties of food would be prepared. Family memebers would gather around table and will enjoy lunch and dinner . On the new year night people will visit each other houses and pass their wishes for the new year. Some papers symbolizing money and sacred books can be seen on fire in front of almost all houses as they welcome new year. It is considered this is sent to their dead ancestors. City also witnessed fireworks done at some center open space of city.

Kontum

Due to influence of French colonies and being the administrative center for central highlands, a good number of Church can be seen here. A sizable number of population got converted to Catholic. The city is famous for its coffeeshops, many are located at the bank of Dakbla river. Some coffeeshops are quite old and marked a place in Kontum map. City is devided in two parts in terms of religion and language. Minorities language is not Vietnamese and have comparatively darker skin.
City fails to attract lot of tourist still few tourist can be seen enjoying the simplicity of this place. City is financially stable due to its border sharing with Cambodia and Laos. Few costly cars can be easily seen on the road.

City got 2 very old and beautiful church. One is "wooden Church" built in 1913. Complete church is made of wood. ANother is small Tan Huong church which is white washed and built in the 1850s.

City had a very big prison which was later demolished by govt.
There are plenty of trekking routes, and rafting availalbe in river during season. You can go toward attractive country side.

HolyCow!! This is India

2012-01-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow!! This is India

A visit of Vietnam in India. Hope you will like this article written in my own blog www.coffeefumes.com.

Click on the link to enjoy more.

Wrong guess this is not vietnam

Huong (perfume) Pagoda

2011-10-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

One among the largest and unique religious sites comprises of Huong Pagoda. The delightful and glamorous view of this Pagoda adds up the value when reaching to Pagoda itself becomes so adventurous and alluring.

Located around 60km South West of Hanoi, the pagoda is built in the limestone cliff of Perfume Mount. It is located in Ben Duc province and takes 2 hour to go to Ben Duc. Your journey does not end here in spite you can say this is the starting point to reach Pagoda.

You can go to ben duc in your personal vehicle or a car can also be rented. The local tours and travels also organizes it in a well professional manner. From Ben Duc you need to take a boat. As soon as the boat starts moving on Day river you will be astonished with the beauty of nature. small hills will be covering you from both the sides and your small boat will be moving along with many other boats. A drizzle may add your ecstasy to your zenith if you are lucky enough. After a 40-45 minute of romantic and scenic boat ride you will reach in the foothill of huong Mount.
There are a number of restaurants down at the foothill. Many unseen and rare animals as well as birds can be seen here hanging upside down for their meat. If you are a vegetarian, carrying your own food will be better idea. All the restaurants will be swarming with people.If your trip is organised by your tour and travels agent they will arrange your food in one of these restaurants.

At this point you can Den Trinh(presentation shrine). The large shrine have a gate with two kneeling elephants. Trekking uphill will be tiring but not complex. A artificial trekking path is constructed to make the transition easy. On the way you can find shops on both the side.
On the way you can find Thien Tru Pagoda also known as heaven kitchen pagoda.
After crossing Thien Tru Pagoda you will reach Huong tich Cave. It is in the center of chua huong complex. The mouth if the cave is appearance of open mouth of dragon with Chinese characters carved on it. Inside cave there are many statues. There is large statue of lord Buddha.

Huong Pagoda festival is celebrated between middle of Feb till March end. Number of tourists and pilgrims flock in this duration.

Phan Thiet, Mui Ne

2011-05-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Mui Ne

Enjoy the desert right beside Sea. When the sun is very bright and where sand dunes kisses the sea tides, you are in Mui ne.
200Km east of HoChiMinh City lies, the one of the most beautiful beaches of Vietnam, preserving its beauty at its best. You can take a train or a bus to Mui Ne from HCMC which will take 4 to 5 hours to reach Phan Thiet. Normal buses take 100.000VND to 150.000VND while trains takes 70.000 to 200.000VND depending on the sleeper or chair car services. The railway station is not in Mui Ne city. The Phan Thiet is the connecting city for Mui Ne. you need to drive more 22Km to go to Mui Ne from Phan Thiet. City buses are available in quite cheaper rate. There is no local airport in Mui Ne.

Sliding on sand

Phan Thiet is the fishing town well known for its product of this city is nuoc mm ie Fish Sauce. From phan thiet on the way toward mui ne you can find a thick layer of fishes being dried up on both the side of road. A good variety of restaurants are here which can satisfy your taste bud with continental dishes. Mui ne appeared on map after some foreigners happen to fall on this place in search of a place to relax away from city crowd and noise. Sooner some resorts appeared with the idea of providing a place with all comforts and let the tourist enjoy the nature as it is .

You can find many resorts including 3 and 4 star resorts as well. Can find a room in minimum of 30 $ to 100-120$ per day with swimming pool and sea beach view. you can let your taste buds enjoy different new dishes from different part of world in mui ne. Specially french and spanish food are easily available including one indian Restaurant :
Sree Ganesh
57 nguyen dinh chieu
062 3741330

Mui ne is nice place for water sports an also held some Sports meet during Tet holidays. Famous for its resorts and sand dunes , Mui ne have on dark side. It helds many road accidents during night when road is deserted, driving is fast. It took many foreigners life. Mui ne is setting record for foreign deat after american war. So it is suggested that dont hire any motorbike for driving there. Cycling is also not advised.

one of the most famous site for mui ne contributed by one foreigner
http://www.muinebeach.net/ may help you to get good idea Mui ne.

Nha Trang is 5 hours by road from mui ne and Dalat is 3 hours.
http://www.muinebeach.net/toursntransport.htm

Although long back I visited Mui ne, memories are withered, this is my effort to recollect and present the best.

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Sapa, The love Valley

2011-02-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

Take a luxurious train from Hanoi, the capital to LaoCai station. The complete package for 2 days may cost not more then 90$ depending on the tour you book. The sinh cafe tour group can be one of your good choice for the trip but same time you should mistake in recognizing the correct SinhCafe group. There are many other tour group which are not original sinh cafe. All tour group are located near hoam kiem lake. A pickup will be provided from your hotel which will drop you to Ga Hanoi(hanoi railway station). 9pm the train will start which will drop you to LaoCai station in morning 6:30AM. A minibus will be ready for you to take you to Sapa from there which may take 1 more hour. You can checkin in Hotel and have breakfast. Checkout time is 11AM for all hotels.

Basically a beautiful hill station and climate is the main thing to enjoy here. Although there are some tourist spots and Villages around which may be interesting fi you like to study new culture and living style. Black Hmong tribe of CatCat and Sin chai villages can be included in tour program.

Trekking to these villages is really a fun and luckily if you get a little drizzling. If you have planned such that you land on saturday you will be lucky to enjoy the local culture in night called "love market". Choosing groom and bride is the main purpose of this market.

The naother side of SAPA have tay and Dzay tribes in ta van and la cai village.

Night is very beautiful with night markets and pubs and restaurants serving delicacies of world including indian restaurants. the church is standing in the middle of city and around it is spread you may call as walking street with all tourists enjoying the market and new delicacies.

People here are more comfortable in english then in Hanoi, with friendly behavior and giving you all comforts to make your stay comfortable in SAPA.

Vung Tau,Brazil of vietnam

2010-07-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Vung tau, only 60 kilometer from Saigon(HCMC) is a nice place for Saigon people to relax. It is also called as the place of rich as most of the rich people have at least one house in VungTau.
The distance can be covered with a fast funfilled trip in motor boat which will take 80 minutes to reach Vung tau or the bus services, which will be cheap (only 50000VND) but will take 2 and half hour.

Including the beautiful and clean beaches of Vung tau, the other main attraction also includes its beautiful pagodas and coffee shops, the hound race (only on saturday evening) and above all a Jesus Christ big statue made in the style of Brazil which is the must see place. Weekends the hotel prices goes up and the place will be mostly crowded with the Saigon people. If you are planning to visit Vung Tau in wekend it is always better to book the hotel in advance before you drop down there.
Hound Race is arranged a little away from sea beach and a taxi can be taken to reach there. If you can predict better that which dog will win, will make you earn money in few minutes. The betting on hound Race is legal and there are counters to manage this.

The jesus Christ statue is really the centre of attraction and can be seen from far distance. Climbing all the way to the top of mountain and sneaking inside the small stairs and places to reach on the top of jesus to see the complete VungTau city will leave you in an unforgettable experience.
The pagodas location and beauty will pull you inside when you are crossing it. Some pagodas are located right beside the sea beach and endless water can be seen form top of pagoda. The incense sticks and and silence in pagoda with a view of Ocean will let you enjoy an intense pleasure.
Bicycle and bikes are easily available on rent. If you are never tired Kind of person renting motor bike and exploring the city is the best way I can propose.

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Nha Trang

2010-05-19T11:49:00.001-07:00

Nha Trang

Situated at a 7 hours journey by train and takes

some 8 hours road ways from Saigon(HCMC), Nha Trang is considered as the one of the top 29 bays in the world. Nha Trang city also attracts quite a good number of international tourists and backpackers for its Scuba diving, beautiful beaches and mud bath one of its kind. Nha Trang have their own domestic AirPort also having direct flights from HCMC.

Nha Trang photos can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/kumar.prashant108/NhaTrang

If you are not in holiday season it is easy to find sleeper buses and train to go to nha trang starting in night which will take u to see sunrise in Nha Trang. You can just book 2-3 days in advance. In holiday season planning 10-15 days in advance and then booking hotel on phone will make your trip pleasant. Try to get hotel on tran phu Street which is the main street of Nha trang and adjacent to beach. Many tourist spots and tourists offices are situated on this road. You can find all kind of hotels on this road. A descent room for two in 10$ to 20$ with sea facing balcony is easily available.

Historic name of Nha Trang city was kauthura which was under champa dynasty. Founded in 781AD Ponagar was the name of the place. The main city of nha trang was dense forest populated with tiger and different wild animals. In early of 20^th century Nha Trang went under a rapid change. At that time Nha Trang five ward and villages merged to make a town which is now one of the most busy tourist point in Vietnam. There are still the remains of Ponagar and the Hindu temple of goddess Bhagvati. Also god Shiva and shivalingam was worshipped in this temple. The remains of temple are still standing high and telling the stories of centuries.

Ponagar is located 3 kms from city centre and open till 6pm. Entrance fee is 11.000VND.

Nha Trang is a popular destination of two very different kind of activities you can cherish here. First is Scuba diving and second is Mud bath.

There are few certified Scuba Diving centre in Nha Trang which start their trip in morning 7:30 and will finish by 1pm. Cost varies from 40$ to 50$. Don’t mix your scuba diving with any other activities. You will end up with wasting money. Also at the entire tourist centre you can have scuba diving trip which they divert to the certified Scuba diving centers. You can take the address from these tourist centres and go to scuba diving centre directly to get a discount up to 15-20% which they give as a commission to these tourist companies. The Scuba Diving team includes trained and certified divers who will take you for diving at 3-4 different island locations and will include lunch. There is no cheating and all scuba diving trips are well planned.

Situated 2 km away from Ponagar is located one of its kind hot Mineral water mud bath. They have mud bath tub for 2 for 4 for 8 and for 12. Will cost around 200.000Vnd per head and includes swimming pool and sprinkler which can be enjoyed after mud bath. The best time to go in evening and it closes by 8 Pm. Ypu can spend 3-4 hours here. Also have massage center which is charged separately.

Also there is a full day trip to 4 islands on boat which starts by 8am and ends by 3Pm. Try to get the trip from sin Café .

They have nice dance and singing program on boat and also have floating bar in ocean where you will swim in sea and can drink.

Halong Bay

2010-04-11T11:40:00.001-07:00

Means 'Descending Dragon bay' is located in Quang Ninh Province of Vietnam, almost 160Km from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. It is a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the Great natural Wonders. With its picturesque view it is one of the world's most beautiful natural spots. Expanded in almost 1500Km dotted with thousands of rocky islands , it is really a heaven for nature lovers.

Going:

You can plan your trip with any tourist company. Most of the tourist companies are well organized and planned. You can start early morning from Hanoi to reach Quang Ninh province in 3 hours. The boats will be ready to take you in Halong bay.
A 2 day one night trip will be a nice idea. Riding the silent sea when the sun sets in the west will make your trip memorable. You can spend your night on boat or in hotel as preferred.

Kayaking can be included in your trip organized by locals who have floating houses on the sea. Beaches are not comfortable for swimming. although you can go to Cat Ba, Cat Ca islands which have very beautiful beaches an also a small city settled down only for tourism. The place is packed with hotels and restaurants all around.
The hotels in Halong City or Cat Ba, Cat Ca city is starting with 8$ till 12 $ for an average hotel.

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Dalat

2010-02-22T02:14:00.000-08:00

Dalat , The City of Flowers

located 300Km away and 6hours journey from HCMC is one of the most beautiful place of Vietnam also referred as honeymoon capital, Dalat. At an elevation of 1500 m, bears the look of an Old French city. Dalat can be reached through airways as well. Dalat is a bit of french legacy.

You can get continuous running buses from Sinh Café, Thanh Buoi , Phuong Trang.The buses (sleeper150,000VND and sitter110,000VND) are available 24/7- every hour, especially per 15minutes on weekends. Also the buses are available from many bus company offices around the city.It’s better to take bus in night around 11pm or mid night so youcan reach Dalatto(old name) in the early morning by 6. The hotels are easily available provided you are not going in pick tourist time. Better try to rent a hotel near the Cho Dalat , Ho Xuan Huong Lake to enjoy Dalat beauty in night as well. Hotels are available of all the ranges starting from as low as 6 Dollar. Around the Ho xuan Lake there are many spectacular flower gardens.

Try to locate all the tourist places of city and plan the tour accordingly. There are many package tour for one day ranges in 200-300K VND.If you are comfortable driving bike, list out the tourist places of Dalat, can be done easily using a map and enquiring a little with locals, rent a bike which will cost you from 50,000 to 100,000Vnd depends on the Brand and the condition of the bike, and explore the beautiful city of your own. You can find many places where it is Just keep an eye when you are roaming on road and you can find where u can getbike on rent. Every Hotel also provide bike on rent.

Cho Dalat (Dalat Market) Can be your last destination to hang around till midnight. you can have close look on the culture and the specialties of this place. you can happen to

find some souveniers and lot of Dalat special freshy fruits here. Soya bean soup is a popular drink here can be seen sold many places by street vendors. you can buy some tea with medicinal values ie Atiso Tea. helps your hair more black and smooth skin. Don’t forget to try Dalat wine which is famous through out the country. Close to dalat market is a beautiful lake reflecting the colorful lights of city.

Places to Visit:

Since the Dalat is not spread in a wide area, you can get a map and locate tourist places and then can visit all following the map. 30 to 45 minutes is enough to go to the farthest tourist spot.

1)Ho Tuyen Lam (Tuyen Lam Lake) about 15 km from city center. A cable car (2,267 m long) will take you to Thien Vien Truc Lam (Truc Lam Meditation Centre) temple, situated on the hill top. This is the biggest buddha meditation center and education institute of Viet Nam. The temple surrounded with beautiful flowers and greeneries. A Lake at the end of temple adds the beauty to max. An ideal place to do meditation and feel the healing power of nature. The lake at the end of temple is bful and big lakes surrounding some island.You can take a boat (200k VND) for 4 people to Suoi Da Island to enjoy forest meat (chicken, pork, rabbit, fox, deer (mien) etc… riding on elephant, drinking A-ma-cong wine (highland minority’s wine).

2) Dalat train station– the image of Langbian mountain as well as combination of romantic Western and special Highland house construction – located in 01 Quang Trung, Da Lat. You can take the return ticket of 86k to Trai Mat Village (about 7km from Dalat). Good news for Vietnamese – if u are Vietnamese and u act as you are a tour guide you will get a free ticket ;). Go sight seeing the landscape of the suburb and Linh Phuoc pagoda. Once in Trai Mat, u can visit ornate Linh Phuoc pagoda (DSC05897) – decorated with colourful wall carvings all around the temple giving an impression of sounth Indian temples. build in in 1950, the pagoda is a great piece of art. It is said that sometimes a bright circle surrounded the temple. You can see some photos on the entrance of pagoda giving the details of this incidence.

3) Xuan Huong Lake (06052) 5,1km2 square – in the centre of DaLat lies the Xuan Huong , meaning “fragrance of Spring”, aquiring a shape of plantain. Walking around the lake in cool weather of dalat and enjoying the pedal boat ride in lake in a warm sunny day and eating baked eggs, sweet potatoes, corns sold by street vendors on the bank of lake will be a nice experience of Dalat.

4) Dalat Flower Gardens (DSC05922) – 02 Tran Nhan Tong, Da Lat. The area is 7,000m2 square with many colourful and beautiful flowers like hydrangeas (DSC05585), especially orchids (DSC05637) - the most famous and beautiful flower in Vietnam (DSC05942…). If you would like to have a feeling of being a part of minority people you just spend only 10k VND for wearing a traditional dress of minority people here (DSC05965). Women carry their infants on their backs in a long piece of cloth worn over their shoulder and tied in the front .

5) Crazy House - 03 Huynh Thuc Khang, Da Lat – DSC 06041

This weird and creative edifice is the brain child artichect Dang Viet Nga – the daughter of Vietnamese former President – Truong Chinh. The rooms in this hotel are decidedly odd. The carvings and the architecture can not be explained. Moreover the building looks like you are seeing something in an ununiform mirror. You can lay your head in the bamboo forest, Kangaroo room or the Termite room a nice piece of art will leave your mouth wide open.(DSC05980).

There are caves, giant spider web made of wire (DSC05997), concrete tree trunks and scary-looking animals with glowing red eyes (DSC05995).Some part of scary house is carved on the tree stading stiff in the middle of the construction. You can also rent the crazy house rooms though it will be costlier than the normal hotels of Dalat and will cost you around 25-70$ for a night. With a nominal entrance fee you can visit a 5 storey crazy building which is more popular then the architect owned 5 storey hotel few doors from there. With the entrance fee, the crazy house is under construction. Inspite of noisy dove, colorful birds, hens, Crazy house, situated in silent place, is a proper place with relaxing environment.

6. Love Valley ( Valley D’amour) – 07 Mai Anh Dao, Dalat – 5km north of center of city, the valley of love is surrounded by mountains and covered with flowers and manmade attraction points. In the middle lies a beautiful lake placid reflecting the mountains standing over it. Makes you feel like nature have put all the colours here and left a painting from which you can't move your eyes. Coffee shop aided by governemnt situated on Human Paradise Hill, right in the cradle of nature, at the bank of lake surrounded by greeneries will make you feel a experience of heaven. Horses are available in valley to have ride.

Eat & Drink: Considered as a city of flowers is bestowed with lot of juicy fruits. Strawberry is the main fruit here also used for trade. THe city have countless restaurants to serve the delicacies to tourists. Finding western style food is pretty tough since most of the tourist are vietnamese. Even though you will find beautiful restaurants serving really delicious vegetarian food. Most of the tourist leave place loaded with candies, dried fruits, Dalat wine, dalat fruit drinks. Also different type of tea is avaialbe with medicinal value. Dalat doesn't offer many good handicrafts compared to cities.

Enjoy Dalat. Leave comment and queries here.

Cu Chi Tunnel

2010-01-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnel issituated in the town of Cu Chi, a district of HCMC, almost 40Km from City Center. It takes about 2 hours to get to Cu Chi tunnels by road.There are good government bus services also.

You can go through one day package trip which will include Cu chi and black lady pagoda in a day. It’s better to start early in the morning to avoid traffic jam and enjoy fresh air. There are many coffee shops, situated along the highway.

You can relax there lying on the hammock with lot of fresh fruitjuice.

Historical Fact: The tunnel network of Cu Chi became legendary during1960s for its role in facilitating Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30 – 40 km from HCMC. Viet Cong used this tunnel for guerrilla war and hiding place. American called this tunnel the black Echo. The tunnel network includes threestorey underground. Life in the tunnel was difficult. The tunnel was acquainted with ants, poisonous centipede and mosquitoes. The second highest death during war was caused by malaria. During American bombing Viet Cong were forced to live in the tunnel for many days. The two operations Operation Crimp and Operation Cedar Falls were launched to study and destroy the tunnel. Operation Crimp began in January 7 1966 with B52 bombers dropping 30Tons loads of high explosive only on Cu Chi. Later the bombing plan changed to Carpet bombing exposing most of the tunnel and turning lush green forest to a bare land. Ultimately both the operation failed. Cu Chi was a big frustration of American soldiers. Courtsey:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Củ_Chi_tunnels.

The 1^st is 1 meter deep for kichen, guest room, dining room, field hospitals , weapon factories – 2^nd three meters for bedrooms, command centre and the last is 6 meters deep here there are lots of trap door.

The whole tunnel is very dark and humid. This will make

the American soldiers could no

t find the way in or out and easily stuck in

many traps .

When the American began using shepherd dog, trained to use their keen sense of smell to locate trap door guerrillas, the Viet Cong began washing with American soap or put American soldier death into this chimney

which gave off scent the canines identified as friendly. Trapdoors were installed throughout the network to prevent tear gas, smoke or water from moving from one part of the system to another.

The Cu Chi Tunnel have lot of hidden traps which gives a merciless end to the enemy which falls in it.

The Cu Chi tunnel is one of the special and must see tourist place. Experiencing it yourself will give you a real scenario of war and pain as well the way Vietnamese fight for their independence.Tourist can fire the rifle and AK47 with a cost of 10Bullets for 250.000VND.

On the way back to HCMC, you can visit Ben Duoc Temple

build in 1993 in the memory of the Vietnamese killed at Cu Chi. It’s nine storey with flower garden in front.

Mekong Delta, Ben Tre

2009-11-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

The Mekong river - The longest river in Indochina is divided into nine tributaries within Vietnamese territory and has given birth to the vast Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is often referred as the ‘rice bowl’ and the ‘garden of heaven’, because of its rich soil which is the breeding ground for dozens of vegetables, fruit and flowers. A visit to this region allows you to experience the ‘life on the water’ of the local people.

The Mekong River Starts from China and is a cradle for Vietnam.

The soil brought by this river makes the area

surrounding this delta, Very fertile and hence the reason of water of Mekong looks soiled and dirty. The Mekong Delta is devided in two parts.

1) Cai Be

2) Ben Tre

Cai be is little farther then ben tre and if you are planning for one day trip choose Ben Tre first.

Your journey will be for less time and you will have more time to enjoy.

It takes 3 hours for Cai Be and 2 hours for ben Tre.

There are many Tours and Travel company but the most famous one is Sinh Cafe, Situated in Pham Ngu lao Street. The trip for Ben Tre starts at generally 8:30 in morning and by 10:30 you will reach near Mekong River My Tho,

The Place where you can get boat to start your Mekong visit.

You Can also plan a bike trip to Mekong Delta, Ben Tre island. The distance is around 70Km from HCMC and the condition of road is quite good.You can get Ferry to carry your bike to the other end of Mekong.

At My Tho you can find some nice shops where they might be selling belts made of crocodile skin or snake skin but make sure and take help of your guide since the belt can not be made of real skin.

Sooner you will be cruising along small creek to Mekong River estuary, to Con Phung (Phoenix Island) and stop over a garden restaurant at a local house for Vietnamese lunch. They Take care of your vegetarian or non-vegetarian taste and also h

ave a menu to select food for lunch which will be chargeable. IF you are not so specific in food, you will not find any difficulty in enjoying the food.

The motorized boat having a capacity of 40 people will go along the river giving you a nice scenery with lush green islands on both the sides and some boats going around carrying goods or fishing boats or some personal boats. Sooner the boat will stop right in the middle of natural beauty and quiet village in Ben Tre Province. After landing in Ben tre you can go inside the village. Here you can find horse driven carts

and can see the real Vietnam Closely their culture, their housing style and their way of living.

Along with farming which is the major source of income they have some small industry of bee farming and snake culture. you can also taste natural Honey wine and honey. You can find few things made of snake skin there. You can enjoy the traditional music and see some traditional home made instruments. The traditional music is entertaining and you will really enjoy it.

You can try some peculiar and tropical fruit. Here Coconut is a good subject for research for village people. They are quite good in using i in many ways

. The coconut is used to make coconut candy which is tasty but sticky and comes in many flavor. Can see the Making of "Coconut Candy'. Also they make Soap from coconut.

The upper part which cant be used for any purpose is used for making show items, and also used in making spoons and other things.

explore the local coconut candy production process, taste candy & coconut pulp here and then move to the small boat which goes through small canal, also called back water.

This will lead you to your big motorized boat and will lead you back to My Tho. Your bus will be waiting there. and again it will take 2 hours to go back to HCMC.

A Small Introduction about Vietnam

2009-10-07T11:40:00.004-07:00

Vietnam, with area 127,243 in sq mi and population 86,967,524 is a small and beautiful country. It is mainly spread linearly and devided in three parts north south and middle vietnam. A large part of Vietnam in East and south is touching the ocean and hence providing many clean and spectacular sea beaches.The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi located in north though ho chi minh city is considered as the business center of Vietnam, which is situated in south. The wide spread language in Vietnam is Vietnamese still the accent in north and south is different along with some words and speaking style. In some parts of remote areas and village the some other language is spoken which is totally different from Vietnamese language.

The main widespread religion is budhdhism which came here from China and hence you can find many essence of chinese tradition in the pagoda (budhdhist temple) here. A good part of population dont have any religion and they worship their ancestors. Christianity is also followed here along with muslim religion. Muslim religion came here from Indonesia, although a few people you can find who came from bangladesh and India who are muslims.

Food habit. Using hand for eating food is considered a disgusting thing here(my personal experience). Sometime you are forced to hold food like chicken leg or something like that then you have to use only your thumb and index finger. mainly chopstick is used in cooking and eating food. There will be food kept in the middle and you have to use your chopstick to hold the food and keep it in your bowl. there will be a sauce kept in the middle where you can dip your food before eating. you can easily find a big pile of green leaves on your table

and they are supposed to be eaten uncooked.

"banh mi thit" is something which we generally say vietnamese burger is a fast food kind of thing you can easily find on the road side or even in good shop in a variable range from 10,000 VND to 20,000 VND depends on the stuff inside. Generally Vietnamese dont have any restriction on eating any living being on earth (Human are still safe) except people who dont follow budhdhism.

Those who follow budhdhism dont eat frog , dog and some other animals. Dogs and cats are taken as delicacy in north part of vietnam.

Hotpot is one of the most preferred dish here. There will be one big pot placed on a small stove kept in the middle of dining table. The pot will have soup with some vegetables. once the fire is on and soup starts boiling the sea food , fish and other things are pushed inside it. once the sea food and meat is cooked vegetables are pushed inside. Shrimps are also put in this boiling water, sometimes wthey are put live in boiling soup. Once the food is cooked you have to use chopSticks to bring the food into your bowl. This makes you sure that your food is fresh and it will be hot throughout the time you are eating it.

In south you can find many live animals and birds on roads like dogs cats pigeon sparrow but it is quite tough to find any live animal in Hanoi (north of vietnam).

Dress: The traditional dress of Vietnam,for girls, is really beautiful and called Áo Dài. It resembles more or less like salwar samiz of Indian traditional dress.

Normally people wear the western style dress but in special occasion or in many offices it is mandatory to wear Áo Dài.

There is remarkable difference in Áo Dài generally wore in villages and Áo Dài in cities. Áo Dài of Village have the upper part shorter than what generally girls wear in cities.

You can hardly find any fat guy here . People are health conscious and there food habit also have a great contribution in that. Here you can find many sports club and many independent clubs where there is a good arrangement of playing games like football, tennis, billiards, swimming, pingpong(table tennis), golf. The important thing is if you are interested in some game you can easily find a club near by your house. Also people give importance to games and don't hesitate to pay for it. For my surprise when I was in Hanoi, the north part of Vietnam, My owner and his wife used to go to play tennis twice a week near my flat and he was simply enjoying the pink of his health in spite he was touching 60. I also didn't miss the opportunity and learnt swimming and a new game billiards.

Things you can experience and call as vietnam specific experience:

Seeing the road flooded with small motorbikes.
Notice how many people can sit on one small motorbike and how many things they can carry on one bike.
Sitting on the road side pavement slurping a boiling hot Pho (noodle soup). The low rise chairs will add some more points when after sitting on it you will find yourself sitting just few centimetres from ground.
The traffic signal is for 20-30 sec hardly giving you time to cross the road. Also the signal are managed such that you will feel that all signals went green together. Don't wait for traffic to stop. Cross the road without waiting a moment.See the people driving bike. They can drive wherever they find the space irrespective of traffic norms.
Enjoying the party and get together in the restaurants as soon as the sun goes down. you can do mot hai ba yo. (1 -2 - 3 up) and mot tram phan tram (100%) with the beer glasses.
Seeing the guys driving bike with one hand and holding their bạn gái (girlfriend) with another hand.(all the bikes here are without clutch so your one hand is always free).
notice their special wine which have snake and lizards and sometimes some unseen species inside the bottle and preserved. It is considered to be a very healthy and precious drink.
Ask for ca fe Nong (hot coffee) in any coffee shop and find a real kicking coffee in front of you.
Enjoy sitting behind a biker and bargaining down him to knees. here after Bus and Taxi you can find Xeom(bikers) as public transport.
How to guess if somone is vietnamese: flash a camera in front of them .. their index and middle finger will go up automatically forming V. it means hi or hello.. in vietnam 2 is called hi and so they show two fingers.

Money Exchange:

No need to be in hurry to exchange your dollars at airport. you can easily get good rate for your dollar at any Gold shop. Also in district 1, ben than market in HCMC. there are many authorized shop who converts foreign currency at good rate. BUi Vien, Pham ngu lao street in hcmc have many shops open late in night till 10 for forex.

Also Hang Bac Str, near Hoam Kiem lake in Hanoi you can find shops who provide good exchange rate.

Means of communication:

The bus service is good in spite if you can make them understand where you want to go. except buses Taxi and Xeom(Bikers) are a good option. Try to take government taxi like MaiLinh, VinaSun ,Vina Taxi instead of any private one. The meter of private taxi will run faster then the taxi. Also be sure about the logo and name of Government Taxis. There are many duplicate taxis with same soundex name and same looking logo.
Also you will get Xeom, the bikers, you can bargain a biker to go somewhere if you are alone. Bikers xeom have talent to sleep on their bike in night. they will park the bike on pavement and strange to see that they can balance themselves on that small bike and sleep over it. Vietnamese font is english and hence finding any address is not a tough thing for anyone. You can see address written in front of each house and shop with the number. Just knowing the road name and house number is enough to reach the correct destination.

Make sure that you carry your own mobile phone and as soon as you land in vietnam buy one sim card which easily available on airport and in mobile shops. You need to submit your passport copy to get the sim card. Here you can not find even a single telephone booth.

Some common Vietnam phrases:

Thanks                : Cam on
please                 : Lam on
hello                    : Xin Chao
See you again   : hen gep Lai
tasty    : Ngon Qua
not tasty              : khong ngon
bill                       : tinh tien

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first day in vietnam

2009-10-01T11:29:00.001-07:00

Vietnam, not the first chance to travel abroad but of course a new

chance to put my self in completely different cu

lture away from my country.

was more of excitement

then a slight fear about handling a project all alone. the day was 17th of october 2007 when I landed in Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City. The time was around 8:30 Vietnam Time

which is 1:30 hours ahead of Indian

time. Before I was planning

to come here I inquired a few informations about Vietnam.

The Family Luxury apartment Pacific Garden was booked for me and somebody was expected to receive me at airport. My Visa was VOA (Visa on Arrival) and that time getting a Business Visa for

Vietnam was not a tough job. After going through the formalities of Visa stamping and taking my Luggage I thought to convert some of my Dollars

in Vietnam Dong (The currency of Vietnam is Dong VND). being unaware of the conversion rate and the world out

side I got converted some good some of Dollars at whatever rate they offered.

Later I realized that you can get the dollars Converted in any Gold shop at a good rate rather then converting it at airport or in any bank. Also

in areas of Hochi minh city which are mainly crowded with foreigners

you can find some good unauthorised shops who can offer you a good exchange rate.

When I came out of Airport two girls of Pacific garden were waiting fo

r me with my name written on a play card. I thanked god for welcoming

me warmly in Vietnam and landed my self in the Van they sent for me. in the mean time when I was trying to be comfortable in the Van my luggage was kept inside the Van and we started

moving. I was enjoying the view outside when I heard a question thrown at me. "How many months You will stay here?". They were struggling in speaking english and I soon realised that I will soon

be creeping in explaining things to my client.

Outside the Van I saw that there is a huge number of bikes in comparison to car or any other vehicles. Most of the people going on bike were covering there face with mask and girls were covering the exposed body part with longest size gloves possible and socks. The journey was may be for 40-50minutes from airport to pacific garden.

It was a big aprtment spread over a quite big area with 8 or 9 building. After keeping luggage I came out of my flat to check what all things are available in apartment. I was happy to see that there is a facility of swimming pool and gym inside apartment which was very important for my growing tummy.

Sooner I took bath and found that I forgot to bring comb. So I came out of aprtment searching for a provisionary store. It was tough time to find a provisionary store since there were all mobile shops selling mobile accessories or second hand mobiles. Somehow I got one shop and bought one comb cost 3000VND (3000VND ??

yeah that was my reaction but the conversion rate is 1 dollar = 18000VNd yr2009)