Cha Ca La Vong is a restaurant in Hanoi famous for its grilled fish (Cha Ca) dish which was created some 130 years ago. The restaurant/dish is so famous that the street is named after it, and it’s featured in almost every single Hanoi’s travel guide.
There’s one problem though, as some other restaurants are riding on its fame with similar name and menu to take advantage of naive foreign travellers, and I was one of the fallen prey of the conspiracy during my Hanoi trip in July 2008…
Vietnam is planning to set up an official matchmaking agency to arrange marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men [via BBC]
Cross country arranged marriages are not uncommon in Asia, and its popularity is ever increasing for the past two decades. Women often see it as a route out of chaos and poverty, while men seeking foreign companions for various reasons.
Chinese women used to be the wife-in-demand, but Thai and Vietnamese are catching up in recent years. Their husband-to-be are usually from relatively well being places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan etc.
The boom however opens loopholes for illegal syndicates to cheat ladies into prostitutions or other illegal activities; and it’s also quite common that the men they finally met are not fitting to the descriptions provided by the agencies.
The Vietnamese government says it hopes the plan will help prevent the abuse of Vietnamese women by criminal organisations or by their new husbands.
Photos of some outdoor exhibits of various Vietnam’s ethnic tribes at the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, taken during my Hanoi visit in July 2008…
Some interesting tomb design of the Giarai (or Jarai) tribe, an ethnic group based primarily in Vietnam’s Central Highlands…
The floating village is a cultural heritage and tourist attraction in Halong Bay, Vietnam. People have been living in these houses for hundred of years with fishing as the main income activity. Some photos below, taken during my trip in July 2008…
One of the most bizarre things in I learned of Hanoi during my July 2008 visit was the complexity of the wires and cables which hang around every corner of the streets; which actually looks kinda cool…
Interesting culture and places in Hue, Vietnam; as featured in the 3rd episode of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) season 3.
Hue City
Huế is a historic city in central Vietnam and was the imperial capital of Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). Hue is located about 1100km from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s capital city. It took about 25 hours of bus ride to travel from HCMC to Hue.
Complex of Hue Monuments
The Complex of Hue Monuments is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Sites; the complex comprises of 16 historic monuments from the Nguyen Dynasty. Among the monuments that featured in The Amazing Race Asia were the Khai Dinh Tomb, Minh Mang Tomb and Hue Citadel (the pitstop).
Bahnar Rong (Ba Na Rông) are communal houses of the Bahnar tribe from Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) region in Vietnam.
The distinctive features of traditional Bahnar Rong are its tall and steep roof, and also its lifted platform which are built to adapt to the (often rainy) tropical weather. The houses are traditionally used for cultural, religion and gathering purposes for men.
These traditional Bahnar Rong are almost obsolete nowadays, as the people are replacing their communal houses with iron and cement instead.
Photos below were taken at Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi where the Bahnar Rong, along with other traditional houses of various ethnic minorities, were built as an effort to preserve the fading Vietnamese traditions and heritage.
