Quoc Dat shrugs off his concerns about fine dining and heads out for a celebratory night on the town at a fancy restaurant that makes you feel right at home.

Who said the feeling of not belonging to a place has to be bad?

I definitely didn’t feel at home in this place, but that’s that best part. Now here’s why.

I was never a fancy person. I didn’t wear fancy clothes. I didn’t have a fancy ride. I didn’t hang out at fancy places. And I especially didn’t dine at fancy restaurants.

But I was never one to refuse a treat. I mean, who can, really?

So, with all the treats I’ve received in life, I’ve had quite a few fancy experiences. The only problem was, I never felt at ease.

Just last month, a friend of mine took me to the opening of this new bar. Everything was really nice, except for the fact that I felt totally under-dressed. I threw myself into a corner of the bar for the entire night.

Learning my lesson, I tried very hard to over-dress my usual self for a birthday bash for a baby, the first child of a filthy rich couple who happened to be my high-school mates. This time everything was fine, except the price was absolutely over the top. I thought the whole party was a massive rip-off, and I felt very bad for the couple, even though I knew they wouldn’t mind paying for a party ten times bigger.

So when a very close friend rings me up and tells me she is going to treat me to dinner because she’s just got promoted to PR Manager of a big media and event company – possibly the only job in town that is still paying during this economic downturn, which is good for her – I am on full alarm.

“It’s very special,” she says. Now that freaks me out.

What is the place like? How fancy is it? How should I dress myself appropriately? After all, I don’t want to embarrass my friend – the new power girl in town.

But the moment I arrive at the place, I immediately know all the preparation was unnecessary. Or at least I guess, because from the very first sight, it looks just like home.

The restaurant is set in a newly renovated French-style three-storey house, which I heard was built in the late 19th century. It has an open rooftop and double staircases that lead to the first floor. It is basic, with beige paint on the front, but very classic and beautiful. The beauty lies in the simplicity, and the odd feeling only an old-style building, a classic taste of architectural art, could bring about in the middle of a busy and modern street.

I am a little surprised as I step inside. From the exterior of the building, I’d expected something very European, like a French dining room. Instead, it is a large room with a combination of different styles. It is more like a combination living room/dining room, with comfortable couches and tea tables in between dining tables and chairs. The furniture is classic European style, but the other decor— shelves holding antique chinaware, lanterns and lamps, and even the curtains— are traditional Hue Royal style. The combination of East and West sounds like a funny mess, but I later learn, it is the Indochina style, something only found during the French colonisation of Viet Nam.

I am later told that a lot of thought has gone into these small decorative touches. All the silk lamps and lanterns are hand-embroidered. The antique chinaware comes from the owner’s own collection, and they are worth more than the entire restaurant. No wonder these small details are amazing.

But what I find even more amazing is, although the place looks totally luxurious, I feel absolutely comfortable, no matter where I sit in the room. It is not only because the furniture was comfortable, but also because the atmosphere is relaxing, warm and cosy. It feel like I am sitting in my own dream living-plus-dining room. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like an outsider in a high-end place.

We finally settle down in the upstairs room, where there is more light coming through the windows. There is also a small stage at one end of the room, which, according to the manager, is a copy of the Royal Stage in Hue’s Forbidden Palace. We are a little early for the daily evening show of Vietnamese traditional music, but I heard that all kinds of traditional music and performances are available upon request.

Even the food is made in the Indochina style. There is a Vietnamese menu and a Western one. So my friend and I order from both. We find that the Vietnamese food tastes a little westernised and the Western food tastes a little Vietnamese. It’s all about cultural exchange to prevent culture shock nowadays, I guess. Our orders weren’t much different from any other high-end restaurant, except for the fact that it is the first time I ever felt full— really full— on a set menu, in an expensive place.

What really impresses me, and contributes to the fact that I don’t feel out of place, is the service. The waiters and waitresses look me in the eye and treat me so well that, for once, I completely forget I have never been a part of the luxury world.

The whole concept, as the manager told me, is to make customers feel like royalty the moment they step in through the door.

Despite the strangeness of this idea, I decide I don’t mind. And, by the time we left, I hope that another friend will be promoted soon.

Ly Club

Add: 4 Le Phung Hieu St.

Tel: 04. 3936 3069

Price: from VND300,000

Hour: 11am-11pm

Comment: Fancy yet cosy restaurant, Indochina style

Source: Vietnam News

by Lan Hoang

Vietnamese traditions teach people to be kind to others, respect their elders and be concerned for the poor.

But many young people are ignoring these traditions, though they benefit all of society.

Nguyen Thi Hai, 55, says that her family has to suffer loud music from her neighbours all day and night.

“We’ve asked them time and again to turn down the volume, but they seem to ignore us despite the fact that my 72-year-old family-member had to go to the emergency room because of the noise,” she says.

Instead, the neighbour’s children yell bad words at Hai.

Hoang Que, 75, from the central province of Nghe An, says he has been pushed out the queue at the supermarket by impatient youngsters.

“When I ask them to stay in the queue, they speak many bad words to me,” Que says, adding that, in the past, Vietnamese had to queue up to buy everything from rice and meat to sugar— a skill the younger generation has forgotten.

Everything was always in order; people lined up and took turns buying thing without any complaints or quarrels.

Que says it upsets him to see people speak harshly to each other while they go about their daily life, or to see young people being noisy on the roads and laughing during funeral ceremonies.

It’s not strange to see young people using coarse speech and swearing on the road or in public, says Que. It’s like they think it’s ‘cool’, he adds.

“Many have money, or knowledge, and are even highly-educated. But they all lack self-discipline,” says a teacher at National Economics University.

“According to research on housing and urban life conducted in 1983 by our institute, a person in Ha Noi would spend an average of one hour per day queuing,” says Professor Mai Quynh Nam, director of the Viet Nam Academy of Social Studies. “Service was limited to state-controlled shops. Queuing, thus, became a part of the lifestyle back then.”

In his opinion, things changed when the market opened up and private shops began to bloom.

“Life has become so much easier. People don’t have to queue up any more. Food is sold at their doors. And there went the queuing habit,” he says.

The disappearance of long lines in front of shops was once considered a positive development, he says.

To deal with such behaviour, the Ministry of Education and Training has added a section on “Education of Citizens” to school text books to help inculcate good behaviour among youngsters.

Ninth-grader Khanh Toan says lessons learned from the text book are very helpful. He says he was very selfish before, but now has become a kind-hearted person.

He often collects books to donate to orphans, says Toan’s mother.

Meanwhile, the Ha Noi Department of Education and Training will begin adding a programme on “education of traditions and ethical behaviour” to primary and high schools to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi in October of 2010.

Education experts say the programme will help kids treat the people around them with respect.

“It will help them learn to obey and respect their parents and elders as well as teachers at school and people in society,” says one expert.

Professor Le Thi, former director of the Research Centre for Family and Women under the National Centre for Social Science and Humanities, says parents should teach their children about traditions and social responsibility so they will become productive members of society.

Source – Vietnam News

What’s Your Tripping Style!

by Quoc Dat

Even the smallest of things, like a motorbike’s registration plate, can cause a great deal of trouble, as I learned just last week.

Considering everything that could ever be stolen from me, the last thing on my mind was the theft of my motorbike’s registration number. But one fine day last week I took out my motorbike only to find that my registration plate had gone missing without a trace.

Being a logical thinker, I tried to figure out why someone would steal something so small and seemingly worthless; I didn’t think it would pay for much more than one meal.

The first thing I did was to report the incident to the local police. They took my information, but confirmed that it was too small a crime for them to spend much time on it.

“We can’t send out police officers just to go searching for a registration plate,” said Tu, a police officer at Bach Khoa police station.

They could only provide me with a piece of paper to confirm I was the owner of the registration number so that I could go to the general office to apply for a new plate.

It was here that I learned it would take about 30 days to get a new plate, including several day-long excursions to the registration office. Also, my motorbike was second- or even third-hand, so my biggest problem was finding the first owner, the only person that had the right to register for a new plate.

Then I tried to imagine how many times I would be stopped by traffic police to check my registration papers over the next 30 days while driving around town without one. I couldn’t come up with a figure.

I could take the bus for a month, plus all the walking and waiting under the summer sun. Or I could take a xe om, the price of which has become ridiculously expensive lately, almost as much as taking a taxi.

I was terribly close to giving up my comfortable way of life for a month, when a friend of mine enlightened me.

“You could just go to Cho Gioi (the only market in town known as the Heavenly Black Market). They sell all kinds of stolen things, including registration plates,” he said.

The rest played out like a fairy tale.

We got to the market and asked a random shopkeeper for a registration plate. She pointed us to another shop further inside the market. Another woman at this shop asked me for my registration number and the day the plate was stolen, and miraculously, within minutes, my old registration plate was handed back to me.

I realised at that moment that I was in black market heaven.

“We’ve got everything,” said the shopkeeper, who wouldn’t disclose her name to me. “Usually the plates will get here about half an hour or an hour after they’re stolen, depending on how far from the market it was stolen,” she said.

She also said that her shop was not the only one in the market selling stolen plates. Each shop would buy different plates from different thieves. Then when people came in to ask for a certain plate, they would contact each other to find out which shop had it, and swap with each other accordingly.

“Most of the owners eventually come to us,” said the shopkeeper. “They’d rather pay to get the stolen one back than go through all the troubles for a new one.”

This brought me to the nearest police station. I couldn’t help but wonder how an illegal trade like this could be left to operate.

An officer at O Cau Den police station, who wished to keep his name private, told me that it was very hard for them to take action on the issue. “The plates are small enough to be very well hidden,” he said. “We’ve swept through the market a few times before hoping to weed out the businesses, but they always grow back.”

“As for the thieves, even if we catch them, we are unable to charge them with a crime, because only a thief holding valuables worth more than VND500,000 (US$30) is chargeable. A registration plate is only about VND50-100,000 in the market,” he said.

The shop charged me VND500,000 to get my plate back, five to 10 times more than what they paid for it. I later learned that the more valuable your motorbike was, the more you had to pay for the plate. So if you owned a Honda Wave, for example, you’d probably have to pay about VND200,000 ($12).

When I left the market, I couldn’t help but wonder who, or what, I could blame for letting such a business exist. Was it the complicated procedure of getting a new registration plate? Or the people like me who would rather pay for the stolen item and a little piece of mind rather than go through the trouble to do the right thing?

But then again, the thing to do at that very moment was to find a way to protect my newly-acquired plate, now that I knew people were making money from it. Interestingly enough, when I left the shop a man approached me and offered to make a fake version of my plate. I could keep the genuine one in my motorbike’s trunk, he suggested. It would cost VND200,000. That sounded a lot better than paying VND500,000 every time a criminal ripped it off my bike.

Source: Vietnam News

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Ha Long Bay ascended to second place in Group G in the voting for the new Seven New Wonders of Nature on Monday. The world heritage site surpassed the Great Barrier Reef of Australia to take the position behind Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar beach.

Voting will continue until July 7 this year and the N7W (New Seven Wonders) panel of experts will choose finalists for short-listing. In July 2009, 21 sites will be chosen to enter the next stage of voting.

The final round of voting will take place between 2010 and 2011, during which the New7Wonders World Tour will visit all 21 sites. The seven chosen Wonders of Nature will eventually be unveiled in the summer of 2011.

To vote for Ha Long bay can visit, one can visit http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/vote – on – nominees.

Fewer clients with less money are putting in harm’s way many women forced into the sex industry by job cuts, advocates say

HOY Channy has been a sex worker since 1997, and right now, she says, business is as bad as she has ever seen it. Since the global economic crisis struck Cambodia, her monthly income has dropped  by US$100, and less money means less food for the 11 family members she supports.

“Even though society does not value me, I earn money by my own strength and spirit. If I don’t do it, I don’t have anything for my children and family to eat,” the 32-year-old said.

According to the United Nations, nearly 60,000 people have lost their jobs in the garment sector. While many of those have found new jobs, many thousands more women have few work options outside of subsistence farming.

As a result, more women are turning to sex work to support themselves and their families, flooding a shrinking market of increasingly poorer clientele, said Am Sam Ath, a technical superviser from the rights group Licadho.

“The global economic crisis has closed many factories, which results in job losses for many people. They have to look for other jobs, and so the number of prostitutes increases, even though the customers are getting scarcer and scarcer,” he said.

This situation has led to a decrease in sex-worker income, and that has made them more vulnerable to exploitation, said Ly Pisey, a technical assistant at the Womyn’s Agenda for Change.

“When you’re starving, you have to reconsider what you’ll do. The powerless mostly lose.”

Sou Sotheavy, director of the Men’s and Women’s Network for Development, said, “The economic crisis is a reason for the decrease in income for sex workers…. My women are in miserable conditions now.”Though having 11 dependents like Hoy Channy is on the high end, it is not unusual for sex workers to give their earnings to their families.

Sara Bradford, a technical adviser for the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers in Cambodia, said that sex workers here on average have 3.1 dependents, according to UNAIDS.

Bradford said that with less income, sex workers are more likely to put themselves at risk to attract customers.

“They might be willing to do things they wouldn’t do before – like unprotected sex – to increase the amount of money they’re making,” she said, adding that women new to sex work, such as laid-off garment workers, are also more likely to be abused.

“Someone who is new to sex work might not know what they’re doing and what could put them in danger,” she said.

Controversial human trafficking legislation that was passed in February 2008 criminalised sex work and led to months of brothel busts.

As a result, most sex workers moved from brothels to less centralised locations, away from outreach programs.

“After they leave the closed brothels, they will become secret prostitutes on streets, at gas stations, night clubs and karaoke parlours,” Am Sam Ath said.

Ly Pisey said that sex workers who work independently of brothels are more likely to be affected by the economic downturn, because they are less protected and often more desperate for money.

“Some clients think ‘I have money. I can do anything’,” and that can be dangerous for a sex worker, Ly Pisey said.
“When you do not have power to negotiate, you are vulnerable,” Ly Pisey added.

Though Am Sam Ath does not support prostitution, he says the anti-trafficking law puts sex workers at a greater financial risk, a problem exacerbated by the current economic crisis.

“The government should reconsider closing brothels, because closing them down can be an extra cause of poverty,” he said.
Ing Kantha Phavi, the minister of women’s affairs, said her goal was to raise women out of sex work and into reputable jobs, not to improve the incomes of prostitutes.

“The policy of our ministry is to raise the face, value and reputation of Cambodian women. If we support that job [sex work], it means that we are not doing our job. That their income decreases because of the global financial crisis is their own problem,” she said.

Sex workers have other options, she said, and the government is doing what it can to help train women in these other sectors.

“Our goal is to get them to have legal jobs, especially in the agricultural sector. To do this, the Ministry of Commerce has budgeted to train them with skills so that they can look for a legal job,” she said.

But Hoy Channy says she is not looking for another job because she says there are no other options for her. She just wants to be able to safely feed her family.

“I have been a sex worker for a long time. I depend on this job. I don’t have anything else,” she said.

Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com

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Beds on trains to cost more from HCM City and Ha Noi

As of June 1, 2009, the fares for berths on trains running between Ha Noi and HCM City to tourism spots like Nha Trang, Da Nang, Dieu Tri, Vinh, Dong Hoi and Hue will increase by 5 per cent on average.

Fares for hard seats will not change while fares for cushioned seats will be five per cent lower.

According to a recent decision by the Viet Nam Railway Corp, during June 1 to July 31, if passengers buy tickets 30-59 days before the date of departure will enjoy a 3 per cent discount; and those who buy them at least 60 days before the departure date will get a 5 per cent discount.

Son My War Vestiges Memorial welcomes 30,000 visitors

The Son My War Vestiges Memorial in the Central province of Quang Ngai’s Son Tinh District, site of a brutal massacre by the US army on 16 March 1968, has attracted nearly 30,000 visitors so far this year, a year-on-year increase of 300 per cent.

To commemorate the 41th anniversary of what is known the world over as the My Lai Massacre, Quang Ngai authorities are building a bell-tower in front of the Son My Memorial. It will have a bronze bell that will be rang 504 times at 6 am every morning in memory of the murdered victims.

Cambodia includes Phu Quoc island in new tour

The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism has decided to open a new tour that links its four coastal provinces with Phu Quoc island in Kien Giang Province of Viet Nam.

Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said the new tour connecting the island with the provinces of Koh Kong, Kongpong Som, Kampot and Posat, would help increase the number of foreign travellers, including those from Laos and Viet Nam to Cambodia.

Four-star hotel opens in Ha Long Bay

The four-star Novotel Ha Long Bay hotel was officially put into operation last week in the coastal city of Ha Long in Quang Ninh Province.

Under management of the world’s leading hotel management company, Accor, the Novotel Ha Long Bay is the first-ever international-standard hotel in the coastal city. The 12-floor hotel has 214 rooms that have been equipped with modern facilities. It also contains a 150-seat restaurant, a 300-seat ballroom, a 80-seat bar and an open-air swimming pool.

Novotel Ha Long Bay is the ninth hotel in Viet Nam to be managed by Accor.

Source – Vietnam News

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I travelled to Vietnam in October 2008 and just loved this beautiful country, the friendly people, and the variety in the scenery, culture and experiences. With family living there, we were fortunate to have some insider’s tips on things to see and do, restaurants, transport etc which I share along with further information on the northern and central areas of Vietnam at http://www.fascinating-travel-destinations.com/travel-to-vietnam.html

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Sea festival gets green light

The Khanh Hoa Province People’s Committee has greenlighted the 2009 Sea Festival to be held in Nha Trang from June 6 to 12.

The programme will feature 70 cultural, art, sport, economic, and scientific events, including a Cau Ngu (Fish Worship) festival. There will also be coracle racing, exhibitions of human chess and calligraphy, and a sand sculpture contest.

Several national records are set to be broken at the festival, including for largest folk orchestra, the largest coastal wifi cafe, the longest piece of embroidered work, and the largest pho bowl.

Other events will include a beach football tournament, an international book fair, and a joint Viet Nam-South Korea concert.

Tourism festival puts HCM City in the spotlight

The HCM City Tourism Festival 2009 will be held at the Dam Sen Park in District 11 between April 3 and 5.

The annual event, organised by the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with the city’s Tourism Association, will include a tourism fair with 120 counters, a culinary fair featuring southern cuisine, the HCM City Tourism Golden Voice Contest, a game show called “HCM City spotlight of Asia” and a tourism photo exhibition.

Garuda Indonesia plans direct service to HCM City

Garuda Indonesia has disclosed a plan to launch direct services to HCM City after more than five years of operating daily flights between Jakarta and HCM City via Singapore.

The Indonesian carrier would commence the direct Jakarta-HCM City service after the airline takes delivery of new aircraft including the Boeing B737-800 that it has already ordered from US plane manufacturer.

Currently there are around 70 weekly flights between HCM City and Singapore.

Source – Vietnam News

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