Market full of fresh flowers and gifts      

Presents for couples such as jewelry, teddy bears, T-shirts, decorative objects and gift boxes are on sale along Luong Van Can, Lo Duc and other main streets.

A small box of domestic chocolates costs from at least VND50,000-100,000 up to VND300,000-500,000. Imported boxes of chocolates with particular designs are worth more than VND1 million each.

Meanwhile, the price of roses hovers around VND10,000 per flower. A bunch of roses sells for VND150,000-250,000, and orchid goes for VND250,000-350,000. Especially, each basket of artistic flowers on order is between VND400,000-700,000.

Home-made name cards attached to gifts cost VND15,000-30,000 each while foreign ones are three or four times more expensive. Name cards made in China are fairly cheap at VND2,000-3,000 each.

Supermarket promotions

Valentine’s Day in Vietnam is celebrated with special promotion programmes at many commerce centres and supermarkets.

BigC supermarket has already offered customers a generous discount on chocolates, roses, T-shirts, and other kinds of gifts from January 26 to February 14.

Co.op Mart has also launched a sales promotion with a discount of 40 percent for over 400 products as from February 2.

Pham Van Son, a customer from Cau Giay quarter, says, “Valentine’s Day is a chance for me to thank my girl-friend, so I will choose roses and a romantic gift. I hope she will be happy on this special day.”/.

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The Australian press has dubbed Cabramatta “Vietnamatta” and considers it a miniature Vietnam.

Centre for cuisine

Covering an area of two square miles, Cabramatta has nearly everything that is found in Vietnam. The most popular attractions are the restaurants and snack bars, varying from cheap food stalls to high-end fine dining establishments, where visitors can taste many well known Vietnamese dishes such as rice, pho, hu tieu, instant noodles, banh canh, bun bo, and roasted pigeons.

People say that the food in Cabramatta is relatively inexpensive and cooked in a purely Vietnamese style.

The ‘Vietnam Town’ also boasts numerous fish and meat shops. Every 100 metres there is a food store owned by a person of Vietnamese descent.

Luke Nguyen and Thang Ngo are two men in Cabramatta who have played an important role in promoting Vietnamese cuisine.

Luke Nguyen is famous for his outstanding street food while Thang Ngo has a passion for presenting Vietnamese dishes at restaurants in the area.

Vietnamese pagoda in Cabramatta

Thang Ngo has even held a vote for the best Vietnamese pho (beef or chicken noodle soup) in Sydney and has become a culinary ambassador for introducing Australians to Vietnamese cuisine.

“The food is the most popular attraction in Cabramatta, which is known as the capital of Vietnamese food,” says Thang Ngo. “Generally speaking, Vietnamese dishes have exciting, complex flavours and are very healthy.”

Preserving the national culture and language

Cabramatta is also home to many Vietnamese people who are lawyers, doctors, accountants, and architects. The main language spoken is Vietnamese and most of the customers are people of Vietnamese origin.

Every weekend, Vietnamese from across Sydney flock to this area to go shopping, meet their friends, have breakfast, and drink coffee in the cozy and friendly atmosphere as if they are in their homeland.

Huy Nguyen, 38, says he has loved the Vietnamese language and culture since he was a small child. “I feel very lucky because all generations of my family are able to speak Vietnamese. However, I worry that the younger generations are using Vietnamese less, which poses a challenge to preserving traditional Vietnamese culture.”

Cao Bui, 82, who has lived in Sydney for over 50 years, remarks that the Vietnamese community in Cabramata has made many contributions to the development of this suburb. “Many successful Vietnamese doctors and lawyers in Australia have returned to help this community,” he says. “Old people like me now receive much better care… we even have our own rest home.”

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While many tourism hotspots around Vietnam are ripping off foreign tourists and turning them away, a handful of farmers in the Mekong Delta are winning the backpackers’ trust with their gardens designed as an original and interesting ecotourism area.

Only a few of the hundreds of tourists, both foreign and domestic ones, visiting the Ba Duc ancient house at Dong Hoa Hiep Commune, Cai Be District of Tien Giang Province every day know that 12 years ago the house could not hold a visitor’s interest for more than fifteen minutes.

Prior to 2000, Phan Van Duc and his six family members entered into an agreement with the Cai Be travel agency to receive VND2,000 for every tourist the tour organizer brought to his ancient house for an excursion.

The ancient-house tour was so boring that few tourists returned to his house for the second time, he said.

“I know I could do better on my own, if tourists were to participate in more activities when visiting my house, rather than just going on a mere sightseeing trip.”

In 2000, Duc had his 2.5-hectare orchard transformed into an ecology garden. At the garden center, he dug a pond and raised fish for tourists interested on fishing. To meet the tourists’ lodging needs, he built many rooms around, fully equipped with modern facilities.

On top of that, his wife, besides cooking meals for the tourists, began to teach them how to cook local specialties.

At present, Duc welcomes around 100 tourists every day, most of whom are foreign backpackers.

Entrance admission costs VND5,000 each, and fee for a homestay night is US$22 a person, Duc said, adding the money from doing tourism had enabled him to recoup his investment, and begin to reap profits.

Duc said he collected feedback from visitors to better his services.

“Some foreign tourists have returned three to four times because they are interested in my family’s form of tourism,” he proudly said.

Originality: the most crucial key

Similarly, Le Hoang Vinh of Binh Hoa Phuoc isle, Long Ho District of Vinh Long Province, renovated his 2.2-hectare fish pond into an ecotourism place in 2004.

Vinh succeeded in buying and raising some African ostriches, making the ostrich-riding services an original feature on his farm.

He also brought exotic birds and animals to the farm to pique the tourists’ interest.

“If your garden is just like all other gardens and does not have anything special, visitors will feel bored and leave soon,” Vinh, now CEO of Vinh Sang Co Ltd, concluded.

From the initial investment of VND20 billion ($960,000), Vinh is now firmly on the highway to success, with some 300 tourists visiting his Vinh Sang tourism area a day.
Vinh said he was considering joining hands with 20 neighboring farmers to expand his tourism model.

“We will link with other households on the isle to create a community tourism area, which will benefit all of the residents on the isle,” Vinh shared.

Meanwhile, Huynh Thanh Bach, a farmer in Long My Commune, Long Ho District of Vinh Long Province, chose to make his 4-hectare ecotourism garden stand out from the rest by operating a floating restaurant boat worth more than $1.5 billion.

“We need something new, strange, and unique to attract tourists,” Bach said.

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However, the locals continue their normal lives. While protecting their buffaloes against the cold spell, many are busy growing vegetables or flowers for the upcoming traditional Lunar New Year festival (Tet). Foreign tourists like to stay in Sapa town, Lao Cai province at this time of year.

Sapa shrouded in fog

Kindling a fire

Keeping buffaloes warm

Setting up tents for buffaloes

A flower market

A stone church

Farmers prepare for winter crops

A large number of foreigners visit Sapa

Some people wear raincoats to keep warm

A pub on O Quy Ho Hill

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But the Hanoian (another word for Hanoi people) have already started to look for peach blossoms – a symbol of spring arrival.

The beauty of flower villages not only attracts the old residents of Hanoi but also foreign visitors to the city. Not surprisingly, many come to Quang Ba Flower Market, located at the corner of West Lake, in the very early morning to experience the feeling of freshness and relaxing in the garden.

Many villages in the suburbs of Hanoi, such as Nhat Tan, Tu Lien, and Phu Thuong specialize in growing peach trees. As spring is coming every household in the capital city makes a point of procuring at least a small branch of peach flowers to decorate their house.

Petals are single or double according to the variety, and their colors range from a delicate pink to carmine red. Connoisseurs like double petals and tender rosy tones, but popular preference goes to more vivid tints.

Peach blossoms owe their popularity to reasons that vary according to age groups and individual taste. Most people like them because of the beauty of their slender petal, but some see a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in the vividness of their colors. The older generation believes in the power of peach blossoms to repel evil.

“We are not hesitating to introduce the real pictures of Hanoi and the people living there to foreign travellers”. The places are definitely not somewhere full of new, shinning and modern architect but where we call “local touch”, that means traveller can have a chance to experience the local customs of this beautiful city, a travel Tour guide said. Many travellers have agreed that this is a very interesting idea. They wish to know what is going on in Hanoi and what belongs to the beauty of tradition. Here, where peach flowers represent the festival just like Christmas trees in many Western countries.

For Vietnamese people, the bright colour of peach blossoms brings a message of confidence in humanity; it brings redemption, hope and optimism in the New Year 2012.

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32-year-old Nguyen Duy Hai from Da Lat, the man with tumor and now without it is recovering well three days after the 12-hour surgery on Thursday, France – Vietnam Hospital’s spokesperson announced Saturday.

Asked how he felt after the operation, Hai smiled and said “I feel so much lighter now but it still hurts a little bit,” adding that his mother and brother had come to see him twice.

At 14pm on Friday, Hai regained his consciousness although his wound was still bleeding. The doctors in charge then decided to transfused more blood into the patient, stopped the bleeding and brought down his fever.

The anesthesiologist Dao Thi My Van said Hai was able to talk, and breathe by himself at 8pm the same day and even asked “to see his mom”.

“She burst into tears when she saw me wake up and talk normally,” Hai shared.

On Saturday morning, he could eat soup and all of his respiratory, circulatory and kidney function was normal.

As his fever and bleeding was getting better, Doctor Van said he can be discharged from the Intensive Care Unit on Monday, if he continues to recover well.

She added that the team in charge of Hai was really worried on Friday, as Hai got a number of fevers during the day, the highest of which reached 39 degree Celsius.

The patient said movingly that to him, American doctor McKay McKinnon who performed the surgery was like a second father. “I will never forget what he did for me.”

“I also wanted to thank Tuoi Tre Newspaper, FV Hospital, Tuoi Tre’s readers and others who have joined hands to make my wish come true,” he said.
Related to Hai’s surgery, at least 215 articles of more than 50 media agencies from Europe, America, and Australia including popular newswire like Thu Sun, CNN, CBS or BBC have covered the story.

Many of their readers have shared their happiness over “the miracle” and commented that they wished Hai all the best in his new journey.

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Lao Prime Minister Thongsin Thammavong received Vietnamese Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Vientiane on Jan. 8.

The Vietnamese Deputy PM was on a visit to Laos to attend the 34th session of the Vietnam-Laos Inter-governmental Committee on economic, cultural, education, scientific and technological cooperation.

Deputy PM Phuc, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam-Laos cooperation sub-committee, informed his host of the results of the 34th meeting of the joint committee, and affirmed that the implementation of the bilateral agreement on economic, cultural, education, scientific and technological cooperation in 2011 achieved good results.

To date, Vietnam has implemented 424 investment projects in Laos capitalised at US$3.57 billion.

This year, the two sides will work closely together to exchange information and popularise the special Vietnam-Laos relationship on the occasion of the Vietnam-Laos friendship year 2012.

PM Thongsin Thammavong expressed his wish that Vietnam and Laos will intensify cooperation in order to foster the two countries’ relations.

Also within the framework of his visit, Deputy PM Phuc attended a signing ceremony on Jan. 7 of an agreement to turn the Vientiane golf course and real estate project invested by Vietnam into an exclusive economic zone.

The agreement was signed by Lao Minister of Planning and Investment Somdy Douangdy and Chief Executive Officer Le Van Kiem of the Long Thanh Golf Investment and Trade Joint Stock Company, which is the project developer.

This special economic zone is expected to become a symbol of investment cooperation between Laos and Vietnam, said Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thoonglun Sisoulith at a later reception for the Long Thanh CEO.

Deputy PM Thoonglun Sisoulith thanked Kiem for the effective investment as well as his donation for charitable activities in Laos, such as building schools, houses for disadvantaged people and cemetery for fallen soldiers and providing eye surgeries for 3,000 poor blind people, worth over $4.5 million.

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The Supreme People’s Procuracy held a conference in Hanoi on Jan. 8 to launch their tasks for 2012 in the presence of President Truong Tan Sang.

Speaking at the conference, President Sang praised the procuracy sector’s efforts in the past year, saying that the sector worked closely with other judicial agencies to better investigation and prosecution works as well as the enforcement of courts’ verdicts.

It played an active part in dealing with big corruption cases of a high degree of complexity, winning the public’s praise.

The sector should accelerate the settlement of key cases and cases attracting public attention, and devise a project on renewing the organisational system of People’s Procuracies at all levels as well as enhance personnel training, he said.

The President asked the sector to review 20 years of the implementation of the 1992 Constitution, focusing on areas relating to the procuracy sector in order to propose amendments and supplements to the Party and State.

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Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Lao counterpart Somsavath Lengsavad have co-chaired the 34th session of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee on socio-economic, scientific and technological cooperation in Vientiane, Laos.

At the five-day session that wrapped up on Jan. 7, both sides reviewed the implementation of agreements on socio-economic, scientific and technological cooperation signed in 2011.

In 2011, Vietnam and Laos boosted cooperation in education and training, closely coordinated at multilateral forums and reached high consensus on international and regional issues. Both countries have collaborated in implementing the Vietnamese-funded projects in Laos.

In addition, the two countries’ ministries, branches and localities also increased the exchange of experiences in culture, sports, museums and other fields.

Both sides agreed to effectively implement the statements and agreements reached between the two countries and hosting the Year of Vietnam-Laos Friendship and Solidarity in 2012.

They were unanimous in popularising the project on the history of Vietnam-Laos special ties, increasing the exchange of information and jointly implementing commitments in cooperation programmes within the multilateral cooperation framework, including ASEAN, the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) and the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC).

The two sides also agreed to soon sign a new investment protection and encouragement agreement this year to replace the one issued in 1996.

Both sides decided to focus on implementing the two countries’ trade development scheme for 2008-2015 period, complete the building of the Vietnam-Laos border trade development master plan and coordinate with Cambodia to soon sign the tripartite road transport agreement.

Later the same day, Deputy PM Phuc and his Lao counterpart Somsavath Lengsavad signed the minutes of the session and a cooperation agreement in 2012.

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Yesterday 15 fishermen whose boat sank after being hit by a strange boat off Binh Thuan Province were rescued by a Liberian-flagged ship, while 10 others remained missing in another sinking in Ca Mau Province.

On early Sunday morning, a boat with a 15-member crew on board was drifting 93 nautical miles west off Binh Thuan Province’s Tuy Phong District after an engine break-down, when it was hit by a strange boat from behind.

The hard collision broke the rear of the boat, causing three fishermen to fall int the sea before the boat sunk rapidly soon after, said Nguyen Thanh Luong, the boat’s captain.

“All 12 remaining crewmembers had just enough time to put on their life jackets before they were swept away by waves, along with the three others who had fallen in,” Luong said.

Luckily, a short time later, a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, Main Trader, which was en route from Singapore to China, sailed by and rescued all 15 fishermen and reported the incident to the Vietnam Maritime Rescue Cooperation Center, he said.

The rescue ship then carried the victims to a sea area 22 nautical miles off Khanh Hoa Province and handed them over to Vietnam’s SAR 27-01 boat.

They were later taken to the Nha Trang Port in Khanh Hoa Province safely.

The crewmembers of the sunk ship in Binh Thuan were transferred from Main Trader to Vietnam’s rescue boat SAR 27-01 (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

That same day, Nguyen Duy Ti, deputy commander of Naval Zone 5, said 10 fishermen of the CM-99219 cuttlefish boat remained missing after their vessel was hit by a foreign boat and then sank off Ca Mau Province.

“Search and rescue ships of Zone 5 have yet to begin searching for the victims, since they have yet to receive a report about the location of the incident. In addition, we have not been ordered by the High Command of Navy to conduct a search and we have not received a request from the provincial authorities, either,” he said.

There has yet been no exact information about the victims, said Lieutenant Colonel To Thanh Ngoan, the commissar of Doc River border gate post under the Ca Mau province Border Guard Command.

The boat’s captain, Nguyen Van Hieu, had earlier reported that he was rescued by a fishing boat from Kien Giang Province after his 11-member boat sank due to a collision with a foreign boat numbered 542.

After the collision, the foreign boat used lifebuoys to save the victims but Hieu did not know how many people had been rescued, he said.

Nguyen Van Hieu, the captain of the CM 99219 boat, who was saved and returned to Ca Mau on January 4 (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The boat then went towards an area between the seas of Thailand and Cambodia, Hieu, who returned to Ca Mau on January 4, said.

Yesterday, Ho Van Tuan, 43, of Ca Mau, the owner of the boat, told Tuoi Tre that a woman calling herself Mai had phoned him from Thailand and told him that the 10 missing fishermen were alive, and were asking their relatives to prepare money as ransom.”

“I intended to ask for more information but the woman hung up and she did not answer when I called her back,” Tuan said.

The missing fishermen include Le Chi Nguyen, Lam Van Thuan, Nguyen Van Do, Nguyen Van Thai, Luong Thuc Hien, Lu Hoang Lam, Lu Hoang Em, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Nguyen Van Hue and Vo Van Dat, he said.

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