Dan Magness, Nam the Man and Ho Chi Minh city’s freestylers met up together on a street near Ben Thanh market. Dan was a sick freestyler with an amazing sense of humor. Totally inspiring!

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Forbidden romance in Saigon
United by wars against the United States, yet divided by the economic results and effects of those wars, Vietnam and Japan are the real subjects of Aska Mochizuki’s Knopf Kodansha Prize-winning novel “Spinning Tropics.” Set in Ho Chih Minh City, the narrative concerns the complications of a woman-woman-man love affair underscored by detailed observations of Vietnamese life, politics and culture.

Read more on The Japan Times

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Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam, 2010-05-03; 戦争証跡博物館, ベトナム・ホーチミン市

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Code: PV – SH 27 – 09
routes:   Ho Chi Minh city – Mekong Delta – Nhatrang – Hoian – Hue - Halong bay - Hanoi 
Duration: 09 days
 Feature: Our program is ideal for the traveler with limited time who wants to have a panorama of the diversity and the majestic beauty of Vietnam. Vietnam Insight is a colorful mix of cultural impressions and nature. We will visit the capitol Hanoi with its colonial charm, the royal city Hue on the banks of the Perfume river with its palaces and Emperor’s tombs; the ancient Hoi An and the lively Metropole of the South HoChiMinh City or better known as Saigon. We come to see natural wonders like the Bay of Halong with its more than 3000 islands and the tropical Mekong Delta with its lush fruit gardens. 
 

Tour Itinerary:

Day 1: Upon arrival in Saigon, the bustling heart of Vietnam, you will be transferred to your hotel for a two-night stay. Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam\’s commercial capital and a city of extraordinary energy. This afternoon enjoy some brief touring, including the Ben Thanh Market, Cholon (Chinatown) and the ornate Thien Hau Pagoda, and the unique shops along Donh Khoi Street (formerly Rue Catinat). Tonight is free at your leisure, Stay overnight in Saigon.

Day 2: Depart this morning by road for the province of Tay Ninh and visit the ornate Cao Dai Temple (The Holy See). The Cao Dai religion attempts to fuse together many of the existing faiths in Vietnam. Observe the mid-day religious ceremony and then, after lunch at a local restaurant, travel to the hills around Cu Chi in an area known as the \”Iron Triangle.\” Explore the network of secret tunnels that were used during the Vietnam War — the tunnels and their cramped quarters lend insight into the determination and tenacity of the Vietnamese fighters. Return to Saigon later this afternoon.

Day 3: Today you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Danang; upon arrival you will be transferred to your hotel. After settling in, you will visit the Museum of Cham Sculpture and the Marble Mountains. The Cham people occupied this area of Vietnam from the 4th to the 16th centuries and in the museum you will find the best examples of Cham sculpture anywhere in the world. The Marble Mountains are a series of large marble outcrops that have acquired mythical significance over the centuries. The caves of the Marble Mountains have a number of sacred Buddhist shrines as well as a former Communist guerrilla hospital from the Vietnam War. The balance of the day is at leisure to enjoy your resort.

Day 4: This morning tour Hoi An with your guide and driver. Hoi An was Vietnam\’s most active trading center over many centuries and has been largely preserved. The architecture of the city reflects the influence of Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, French and British traders. Enjoy a walking tour of this enchanting town visiting an old merchant house, the Hoi An Museum, a Chinese Assembly Hall and the Japanese Covered Bridge. Also explore its many craft and silk shops and the colorful fish and produce markets. Return to the resort later this afternoon for some time at leisure.

Day 5: Depart this morning for the 2.5 hour drive to Hue, a beautiful and welcoming city. This spectacular journey takes you over the scenic Hai Van Pass (Pass of the Ocean Clouds), where you will enjoy breathtaking views of the coastline. As Vietnam\’s capital throughout the Nguyen Dynasty, as a center of Vietnamese Buddhism and scholarship, and finally as the setting for some of the Vietnam War\’s most bloody fighting, Hue provides a unique window into Vietnam and its complex past. After settling into your hotel, tour the Citadel and visit Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue\’s oldest pagoda. Also visit the tomb of Tu Duc, set among lotus ponds, fragrant pine and frangipani trees. Tu Duc was one of the more eccentric Nguyen emperors, with a penchant for poetry and banquets. Take a short cruise along the Perfume River late afternoon and enjoy the setting sun. Tonight is at leisure. You may wish to sample some of Hue\’s famous vegetarian cuisine.

Day 6: After a morning at leisure in Hue, you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Hanoi. Start your explorations of this city with some afternoon touring, which will include a visit to the Old Quarter, 36 ancient streets where peddlers continue to trade as they have done for centuries. End the day with an evening performance of Water Puppet Theater. Water puppets are a folk art tradition unique to northern Vietnam. The often-comic story is told by puppeteers who manipulate the brightly painted wooden puppets through the water while remaining unseen. The plays are based on historical and religious themes; often, famous battles of Vietnamese history are re-told, with fireworks and opera singing creating a truly wondrous spectacle.

Day 7: Today\’s full day of private touring takes in the highlights of Hanoi. Begin with a tour of the mausoleum that holds the interred body of the late President Ho Chi Minh. Also visit his traditional teakwood house, the simple dwelling he preferred to the material grandeur of a palace. Visit the One-Pillar Pagoda, originally built in the 11th century. It is shaped like a lotus to commemorate the birth of the Emperor\’s heir as predicted by a goddess sitting on a lotus. Continue to the Temple of Literature, the most significant temple complex in the city and a testament to the Confucian history of the city. After lunch visit the superb Fine Arts Museum, then walk around the Hoan Kiem Lake area — -Hanoi\’s heart, and a great place to admire the boulevards of French colonial architecture that contributes greatly to the city\’s atmosphere. This afternoon return to the Old Quarter for shopping.

Day 8: This morning, journey east a little over 03 hours to Bai Chay, the gateway to Halong Bay. En route, pass fields of busy workers farming rice using traditional methods of cultivation. Halong Bay achieved international fame as a key location in the French film Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve. The bay has assumed an important position in Vietnamese legend for many centuries and continues to capture the imagination of visitors. On arrival, transfer to the port for a magical four hours aboard your boat cruising around the bay. Considered Vietnam\’s greatest natural wonder, Halong Bay boasts over 3,000 islands that jut out of the sea to provide a spectacular natural environment. Enjoy a fresh seafood lunch on board the boat and, in the afternoon, travel back to Hanoi.

Day 9: Today you will be transferred to the airport for your onward flight. End of our service.

Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.

Price Includes:
- Airport transfers
- All domestic flights
- All accommodations
- Hotel tax and service charges
- Admission fees at indicated sights
- Meals as specified in day-by-day itinerary
- Surface transportation in air conditioned vehicles
- Visa provision services and travel permits where required
- Detailed contact information for each hotel and our associate offices in each region
- Customized itinerary planning and in-depth destination research by our travel specialists
- The full services of Luxury Private Tour & our associate offices before, during, and after your trip
- Personalized sightseeing as indicated in day-by-day itinerary. (Touring is typically private, with your own driver and guide, unless otherwise indicated)

Price Excludes:
- Tips and gratuities
- Laundry Services
- Excess baggage charges
- Alcohol and drinks not indicated
- International airport departure taxes

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Vietnamese foods have a distinct taste and are really unforgettable. Indigenous spices and local ingredients are used to make the dishes so tasty and lively. You can easily find five tastes in all the varieties and these are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot. Vietnamese soups are really mouthwatering. The dishes are usually cooked in stir-fries. In Vietnam, you can see dishes are perfectly laced with lemongrass and limes where pungent tasted fish sauce will be present. Lettuce leaves with fresh herbs are used for wraps. Neighboring Southeast Asian countries share the same indigenous with Vietnamese food. But it should be mentioned that Vietnamese cuisine has some specialty or uniqueness that no one can compete with that.

You can also have French flavor in Vietnamese food. European-style sauces are used along with pates and meats. Sometimes French rolls made softer by a slight fusion of wheat flours and rice. If you have a plan to take Vietnamese cold roast pork sandwiches for your lunch let me tell you these are a Hanoi lunch staple that too stuffed with raw vegetables and fresh herbs into Vietnamese-style baguettes. French introduced some ingredient such as potatoes and asparagus in Vietnam and this is the way Vietnamese dishes combine indigenous flavorings with these ingredients to give birth to new fusion food.

In South Vietnam you can experience some different food taste. The fragrant and hot curry dishes influenced by Indian style are very famous. In North Vietnam you can see the optimum use of sesame and black pepper. Vietnamese use oil-rich frying techniques with the southern region specialized in a lighter mix. Water based cooking and grilling is more used than oil frying. Vegetables and herbs are usually served raw. You can also enjoy the taste of limes, vinegars, chilies, coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar cane and also nuoc mam.

I am always attracted to Vietnamese food because of its delicate, sophisticated, fresh, exotic, complex and light nature. You can always feel light after having Vietnamese food as these are less oily and contains less carbo-hydrate. Vietnamese foods are easy to cook. You can easily prepare it for evening snacks and also for dinner. It is good if you have a well-equipped kitchen and also some handy appliances. The indigenous ingredients to prepare Vietnamese food are easily available in all the supermarkets. Chilies and lemongrass are most important. Now a day coconut milk is also available in supermarkets.
A typical Vietnamese meal includes a soup, steamed rice, a fish or meat dish and a vegetarian dish. Food is placed in the middle and each of the members carries a small bowl and chopsticks.  They take food from the table as and when required. Vietnamese cakes and noodles are very famous. Most of these are made from rice. Some of the names can be mentioned as crab noodle or bun rieu, beef soup noodles or pho, sticky rice cake or chung cake and spring rolls or nem. Cakes are usually served as wrapped in coconut or banana leaf. Elders are generally asked to eat first while eating with younger Vietnamese.

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Vietnamese cuisine is not so much one cuisine but three. It can be conveniently categorized in distinct areas: northern, southern and central.

But no matter where in Vietnam , it is nearly impossible to imagine Vietnamese cuisine without its key ingredient – nuoc mam, fish sauce. This essential condiment is fermented from anchovies but does not really have a fishy taste. It is used in a similar way to soy sauce in Chinese cooking. Along with herbs such as lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, coriander and Thai basil, fish sauce gives Vietnamese cooking its distinctive taste.

Similarly, it is impossible to think of Vietnam without thinking of noodles. The Vietnamese love noodles and will eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner and may have a bowl of noodles in-between as a snack to keep them going! Each area has its own special type of noodles and each is absolutely sure that theirs is the best.

North Vietnam is considered to be the cradle of the Vietnamese culture and the preserver of the tradition and it is from here that many of the classic Vietnamese dishes derive. Perhaps the most famous Vietnamese dish, Pho originated here. Basically rice noodles in soup with meat (beef is the most common, but chicken is also popular), Pho is available all over Vietnam but should be enjoyed at its best in one of the many snack shops of Saigon. Don’t forget the extra ingredients such as basil, lime, bean sprouts and peppers which you are expected to add yourself. Northern food tends to be less spicy than elsewhere and where heat is desired, black pepper rather than chilli is used.

Another northern specialty is banh cuon which literally means ‘rolled cake’. This is like a savoury pancake made from rice flour and filed with minced pork and wood ear fungus. This is served with a dipping sauce made from the ubiquitous fish sauce mixed with lemon or lime juice and sugar.

Southern Vietnam’s cuisine has been more influenced by the outside. The Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s food basket and supplier of much of the country’s fruit. Some of this finds its way into its cuisine and so, food here tends to be a little sweeter in taste. However, spiciness is also valued and here chillies are used for heat. South Vietnam has been more influenced by outsiders than other area and one can find traces of India in the Southern Vietnamese curries, traces of the French colonists in their baked goods and pâtés and there are many similarities with Cambodian food.

Central Vietnam has a distinct cuisine. In the past this was the home of the Vietnamese Emperors and the area still favours Imperial style cooking even in humble homes and restaurants. This means that instead of one or two dishes being served for a meal, a number of small dishes will be offered. These will consists of lavish spreads in the meals of the wealthy, but even the poorer peasant families will have a range of small vegetable dishes for a meal. But again, don’t forget to sample the local noodles such as quang noodles from Da Nang area.

Whenever and wherever you are in Vietnam you are assured of a gastronomic adventure with a difference. You can visit Indochina Odyssey Tours to get more information about Vietnam.

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is the largest city in Vietnam. It was once known as Prey Nokor, an important Khmer seaport prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under the name Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn; About this sound pronunciation (help·info)), it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. In 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding province of Gia Định and was officially renamed Hồ Chí Minh City (although the name Sài Gòn—formally known as District 1—is still commonly used.)[2] The city center is situated on the banks of the Saigon River, 60 kilometers (37 mi) from the South China Sea[3] and 1760 kilometers (1094 mi) south of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The metropolitan area, which consists of the Hồ Chí Minh City metropolitan area, Thủ Dầu Một, Dĩ An, Biên Hòa and surrounding towns, is populated by more than 9 million people,[nb 1] making it the most populous metropolitan area[4] in Vietnam and the countries of the former French Indochina. The Greater Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area, a metropolitan area covering most parts of Đông Nam Bộ plus Tiền Giang and Long An provinces under planning will have an area of 30000 square kilometers with a population of 20 million inhabitants by 2020.[5]

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Vietnam’s economy lures some who left in the 1970s
Vietnam’s economy lures some who left in the 1970s

Read more on KSDK St. Louis

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from Pham Ngu Lao street,to southeast, along Cong Quynh street,around De Tham street, District1, Ho Chi Minh, Vetnam, 20(Thursday)03//2008,15:06~ ベトナム、ホーチミン、District1、コンクイン通り沿い、ファングーラオ通りより、南東へ2008年03月20 日（木）15:06~ playlist 1st.geocities.jp ひとどりHitodori

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Tours of Indochina will introduce you to the region where French colonial influences mingle with the ancient customs of Cambodia and Vietnam. With startling landscapes and many sites of cultural interest, take a regional tour for Indochina holidays you won’t forget.

Ho Chi Minh City

An example twelve day tour of Indochina is one that explores the colours, sights and aromas of Cambodia and Vietnam, travelling through the Mekong Delta. Beginning in Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam (formerly called Saigon), you will get a taste of the vibrant national culture around the landmarks of the Old Post Office building and the Reunification Palace in the bustling city centre. The Vietnamese homage to Notre Dame is one of many examples of the French colonial influences you will see. Many Indochina tours also provide an introduction to the native cuisine in the city with a special demonstration by a local chef.

Chu Chi Tunnels

On a typical itinerary, after Ho Chi Minh City, you will head towards Chu Chi. The Chu Chi Tunnels are a remarkable and unusual attraction for holidays in Indochina. Tourists have the chance to explore a portion of the seventy five miles of underground rat runs that the Viet Cong constructed during the war that spread beyond Vietnam’s borders across Indochina. Tours of the tunnels will comprise an education in guerrilla warfare and an insight into life underground, including getting acquainted with booby traps, squirming through narrow tunnels, and planning strategies in the command centre.

Phnom Penh

A visit to the Sam Mountain in southern Vietnam is next, followed by the bright lights and decorative architecture of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. Art deco French buildings share the city with Khmer architecture in a vibrant urban atmosphere that you will enjoy exploring on your Indochina holidays. You will certainly want to visit the Royal Palace, a gem of Indochina. Touring the beautiful gardens as you move between the buildings, you will see the pavilions, throne hall, and the Silver pagoda, each with their graceful pillars, complex roofs and sharp pointed spires.

The Angkor Ruins

In Siem Reap you will get a further sense of the mix of French and Eastern cultures, before journeying into the jungle to witness the wonderful Angkor region. Angkor is a UNESCO listed area of Cambodia that contains some of the most historically valuable sites in Indochina. Tours of the ruins will let you explore the moss-covered stone temples and the statues and icons of Angkor Thom. The temples in the Angkor region resemble the setting for an Indiana Jones film; where the jungle has reclaimed the ruins, the roots of trees have grown through the buildings and become part of their structure. The better preserved temples have conical towers and long stone hallways for you to see on your Indochina holidays, and get a sense of what it could have been like to worship there ten centuries ago. In the Banteay Srei temple, you will see ornate and detailed stone carvings that are more than a thousand years old.

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