Vietnam Travel & Tourism

We were picked up by an agent at our hotel exactly on time and they actually escorted us right onto our train for our night trip to Lao Cai. The train station at Hanoi can be somewhat intimidating and getting tickets can be frustrating so this was really appreciated.

Our guide and driver were waiting for us when we arrived in Lao Cai. They drove us to Sapa where we had breakfast and then our guide, Duc, took us on a walking tour around Sapa. Duc spoke very good English and he was very informative and receptive to all of our questions and needs. We then did a short drive to a trailhead and our trek began [...Read more]

Surface of the Ba Be Lake

Of all the places I’ve been to in Vietnam, causing nowhere and touched fresh my soul with Ba Be Lake that day. That day, we went back a video with beautiful images of Vietnam, suddenly there are six women in traditional costumes of the Tay is smooth sailing on the lake near where we shoot. So glad we invited two people to model for us. Do not hesitate, despite the weather and the director asked to turn back, return, the two women still try to smile real big to get the best picture for us.

Back now though Ba Be lake many times since taking this picture, it’s hard to see the picture of Tay people wearing traditional dress here, but the image of two women always keep [...Read more]

Halong Bay has been declared a UNESCO World heritage site and it really deserves the designation. It is one of the most exciting unusual places I have been to in my life.

Halong Bay -Halong meaning “Descending Dragon”- is named after the thousands of island with bizarre rock formations and limestone cliffs that are within the Gulf of Tonkin, in the north shores of Vietnam. It is composed of more than 3000 islands of all shapes and forms, covered in green vegetation and protruding from the ocean’s surface.

If you are a nature lover, this place will enchant you with its many awe striking sites, and majestic natural composition.

Halong Bay has plenty of grottos created by the wind and the emerald water of the gulf; it is a beautiful example of the effect wind and water erosion has on the landscape.

Among the sculptured islands and rock formations, Halong Bay also hides [...Read more]

Three days and two nights in Vietnam’s nature reserve, an experience with ethnic tribes on rice terraces amidst a limestone landscape. Our guide knows this place by heart, every turn of the ridges and hidden waterfalls and shorter trails, every native house where tourists like us will have to stay.

We set off in pairs, in puny 100cc motorbikes riding through 130 kilometers of the country’s ephemeral rural setting – the rice paddies that may one day give way to modern development, small towns bustling with artisans and vegetable markets, vast plantations of sugar cane, and the vision of what was once the heart of Indochina.

The Pu Luong conservation area is Vietnam’s answer to ecotourism. It was declared a reserve only in the past two years, effectively putting a stop to logging and keeping the enclave as alluring and authentic as possible in the eyes of foreign tourists who see Vietnam with a weight for history in this corner of Asia.

A solitary farmer works silently in the rice terraces inside the Pu Luong reserve.

On our first day, we arrive in the small village, the southern edge of the sprawling 17,200-hectare nature park in Thanh Hoa province. Mid-afternoon, we chance upon high school students pedaling home in their bicycles, wearing their blue-and-white jacket uniform. All the girls have ponytails down the length of their backs. They smile at us. They know this park is gaining reputation among foreigners.

But it feels as though it is just us, the first [...Read more]

Chinapost

These days it’s hard to feel like an independent traveler on the road from Hanoi to Saigon.

Anyone who tackles the around 1,145 kilometers from north to south, or in the other direction, will find themselves running into the same people at the pagodas, hostels, bars and restaurants recommended by the same leading travel guides.

“Hello again” might easily be the motto of the trip, although fortunately the familiarity of the travel companions underway does not detract from the many things this part of Vietnam has to offer.

Most tourists in Hanoi check into a hotel in the old part of the city where swarms of clattering mopeds roam the congested streets. Visitors allow themselves to be pedaled around in rickshaws and amid the chaos the odd chicken still manages to hop unscathed from one side of the narrow carriageway to the other. [...Read more]

By GEOFFREY CAIN

Kitchen confidential The upper floor at Pho Binh commemorates its wartime role HOANG DINH NAM / AFP / Getty Images

At first glance, pho binh resembles many eateries in Ho Chi Minh City, with its tables lined against bare walls and chef doling out pho bo, the Vietnamese beef-and-noodle soup. But the ironically named restaurant — in English, Pho Binh means “Peace Noodles” — tells an unnerving story of the Vietnam War. On the top floor are photographs of agents of an elite Vietcong cell called F100. For three years in the 1960s, using this shop as a base, dozens of operatives smuggled weaponry from communist North Vietnam to caches around the southern capital. Pho Binh’s patriarch, Nguyen Kim Bach, is one of the cell’s last living members. [...Read more]

October 31, 2010
By Judy McEuen
Travel Writer – Troy Media

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and lost amidst the Hanoi’s bustling streets and the countless mopeds and bicycles moving around.

But don’t get discouraged, even if you want to immediately hop on the nearest van and set off to the more tranquil and eerily beautiful Halong Bay. While not at first glance obvious, Hanoi has several attractions that are worth seeing and its charm will grow on you if you give it a chance. So, rather than escape the hubbub straight away, don’t be afraid to get lost in the city for a while: I guarantee you will enjoy what it has to offer. [...Read more]

In late September, we went on a tour called “Conquering the roof of Indochina” held by Local Tours to climb Mount Fansipan, 3,143 meters above sea level. We met at Hanoi railway station at 8:30 p.m. to catch the train to Lao Cai. That night we could not sleep and the weather was very bad.

Conquering Fansipan mountain Vietnam

At 9 a.m. the next morning, we transferred from Sapa Town to Tram Ton pass, which is at an altitude of 1,900 meters, where we started the climb. Dressed in proper mountaineering gear, we were eager for the journey ahead. On our shoulders were light backpacks with water, cookies and fruit and clothes and we carried the “Truong Son stick”. The local porters took the tents, sleeping bags and food ahead of us. [...Read more]

Fraudulent contributors to TripAdvisor, and other user-generated review sites, are to be named and shamed, reports Charles Starmer-Smith.

People who post fake online hotel reviews are to be granted a two-week amnesty to remove them or face legal action, it emerged this week. [...Read more]