Sand, stones and surf

Sand, stones and surf

Though there’s a lovely beach, people really come to Co Thach for the famous coloured stones and pagoda.

Long stretches of brilliant white sand, old pagodas and colourful stones are only some of the attractions at the Co Thach tourism area in the central coastal province of Binh Thuan.

Co Thach is a rocky mountain created from thousands of large and small rocks piled on each other as though they were arranged by people, not nature. The rocks form many mysterious caves and grottos.

The tourism area, which lies between the rocky area and the turquoise water, has clean beaches and is distinctive because of the stones of different sizes and colours scattered on the beach.

Said to have existed for hundreds of years, the rocky area spreads over an area 1.5km wide and 20km long, also recognised as a Vietnam Guinness Record for being the largest of its kind area in the country.

Tourists enjoy swimming and looking for beautiful stones in Co Thach. The stones, which have different shapes and sizes, appear in seven colours, including immaculate white, black, light yellow, grey brown, dark violet and cobalt blue.

Another attraction is the Hang Pagoda which is located inside the Co Thach Rock. The pagoda, about 64m above sea level, was built in the mid-19th century by Monk Bao Tang.

It was restored many times from 1956 to 1964 and was officially recognised as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1993. Its varied architectural style is derived from its many restorations over the years.

A three-door temple gate leads to a long path to the main hall, which is surrounded by tall blocks of marble. On the right of the gate is a statue of a sitting tiger and on the left a lying elephant. Ancestral temples, a preaching hall, and a refectory can be seen as well as a bell and drum towers.

The pagoda is adorned with solid altars made of valuable wood, on which stand dozens of Buddha statues of different sizes and ages.

Many rare relics are also kept in the pagoda’s buildings, including parallel sentences inscribed in gilded Chinese and Nom (traditional Vietnamese script) calligraphy and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, netlike panels, scrolls and other old documents.

In addition to beautiful landscapes, Co Thach’s cuisine also lures travellers. Muc mot nang (cuttlefish dried in the sun) and dom nuong (grilled clams of different colours) are among the most popular dishes with visitors.

A must-see beyond landscapes in hilly city

A must-see beyond landscapes in hilly city

Thank to cool weather all year round, the hilly resort city of Dalat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong is often a chosen destination for many travelers, especially in the hot season of summer.

For many, Dalat seems too familiar with natural landscapes like lakes, waterfalls, houses and old villas nestled in pine tree forests. However, there are still attractions travelers should not miss once visiting the mountainous city in the summer, for their typical features.

Old Railway Station
French architects designed and built the typical railway station in 1930, which was seen as one of the most beautiful works in Indochina. The station is located some 2km from the heart of Dalat, and it is now classified as a relic of national-level architecture.

Once there, travelers can take a distinctive railway tour on an old train powered by steam. The trip will take visitors traveling from Dalat City to Trai Mat, which is located some 7km from the station. On the road, passengers will have a chance to see pine tree forests and fields of flowers and vegetables stretching along the railway.

The train travels two trips per day, depending on the number of guests. Tickets are priced from VND30,000 to VND80,000 per person.

Roller coaster in the forest
This is a thrilled game testing strong heart of gamers. It has just been installed at Datanla Waterfall which is located some 4km from Dalat City as additional entertainment services for guests' options once visiting the city.

Visitors will feel either fluttering or cheering when sliding downward to the foot of the fall, winding through old pine trees. Visitors can leisurely walk on foot, following staircase steps to the foot of the fall for sightseeing. Tickets for the game are priced from VND30,000 per person.

Lac Commune
Lac Commune is located at the foot of Langbian Mountain in Lac Duong District, some 12km from the undulating city of Dalat. It is home for some 1,000 families of ethnic minority people, and place where the French doctor Alexandre Yersin came and was welcomed by the locals with can wine and grilled meat.

Visitors can touch on the daily life of the locals by wandering to ethnic villages for seeing women weaving traditional brocades in their houses on stilts.

For sportive visitors, they can conquer the legendary mountain Langbian, which is imposingly standing some 1,500m above the sea level, from where conquerors will possibly see down there Dalat City looming in clouds in the distance.

Visitors can stay over night there for enjoying can wine and dancing with ethnic girls besides flickering flames accompanied with typical sounds of gongs.

Exploring life along Hau River

Exploring life along Hau River

Chau Doc Town is located in the southern province of An Giang on the border with Cambodia. Visitors to the town can learn about the daily activities of people who live on the river in the Mekong Delta in the Hau River, also called Bassac River, the popular entry and exit road between Cambodia and Vietnam.

For a tour of life on the river, tourists should start at the T-junction section of Hau River and Chau Doc River, where the bustle and hustle begins in the wee hours of the morning.

First stop would be the floating fruit market in a traditional sampan where hundreds of boats of all sizes gather to unload and pick up many kinds of fruits of the region in line with the season.

The best time to visit is between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and, like other floating markets, to advertise their goods the vendors tie samples of what they sell onto tall poles so that everyone can see their goods.

The route from the market passes by a floating fishery village along the river which is made up of many fishery houses where the locals raise fish, mainly catfish. Each floating house is about 4m wide and 7m long and has an 8m deep cage under the water where from 20,000 to 150,000 fish are raised. The fish farmers and their families also live in these floating houses and have small rafts next to their houses to grow vegetables.

At the fishery houses tourists will observe a scene of hundreds of fish eating the food released by the fish farmers; the fish-food, which is a combination of fish stomach and mash, is also produced at the fishery house.

The next stop is the Cham weaving craft village on the bank of Hau River, where the young Cham ladies weave textile, embroidery and sewing products on their looms. Each day the girls in his family weave about seven pieces of cloth 1.6x2.3m in size.

The Cham people here still preserve their traditions, for example they do not eat pork, snake or tortoise and they visit their Islamic temple five times a day. The children in the village go to regular schools with other Kinh people and learn the Cham language at night at the temple

Further downstream at T-junction section is Chau Giang Ferry from Chau Doc Town to Phu Hiep, a Cham community with several mosques, especially the Mubarak Mosque which was designed by an Indian architect.

Early morning in Truc Lam Zen Monastery

Early morning in Truc Lam Zen Monastery

Millions of tourists have dropped in Truc Lam Zen Monastery when they come to Dalat. Some just want to enjoy the beauty of this pagoda, which is located on Phung Hoang Hill side above Tuyen Lam Lake and surrounded by pine wood.

Others come here to have some peace and get away from their hectic lives. Only a few people have been fortunate enough to contemplate the sunbeam streaming in the Truc Lam Zen Monastery.

Truc Lam Zen Monastery is about 7km from Dalat. Designed by Ngo Viet Thu, it was built in 1993, and inaugurated in 1995. There are three separate areas: an external monastery and two internal areas for Buddhist monks and Buddhist nuns.

This is the biggest research monastery of the sect of Vietnam's Truc Lam School of Zen, which was founded 8 centuries ago. In the pagoda grounds there is a huge bell tower with a large bell called Dai Hong Chung (great bell), 1.98m high and over 1 ton in weight, which was made by Hue artisans. A poem is carved on the bell expressing the philosophy of human life by King Tran Nhan Tong.

Inside the pagoda is a sanctum, flower garden, ornamental plants and stairs down to the orchard next to Tuyen Lam Lake.

About 50 Zen students take rums every day from 5a.m. cutting the grass, picking up garbage, cleaning the paths and such. On arriving there guests are allowed to view the sights and take photos or videos freely around the external monastery.

However, the internal monastery is different; it is just for meditation. The monks do not recite the Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit or Han language, rather in Vietnamese, so that everybody can understand. This pagoda does not organize sumptuous sacrifices or resort to sortilege, or tell fortunes by the traditional Chinese diagrams.

Near the sanctum is a guesthouse. There are three shifts for sitting in religious ecstasy at 3:30a.m., 2:30p.m. and 7:30p.m., each lasting two hours. After the first sitting everybody gathers to clean before tourists visit the monastery. That is when the early sunbeams pour into the monastery, signaling a new day

Where swimmers can touch corals

Where swimmers can touch corals

On calm days, vacationers may opt to travel by boat to Hon Do Island in Van Phong Bay just before or after their lunch to touch and see a world of coral reefs exposing their colors and shapes under the sunlight.

The corals may not be as colorful as those at the seabed near the shore of Hon Mun Island in Nha Trang Bay in the same central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, but they grow so near the water surface that people can touch them when swimming.

Even those who cannot swim can easily explore the world of coral reefs in Van Phong Bay. All that is needed is a life jacket, a pair of swimming goggles and a snorkeling tube. When the boat arrives at the coral habitat one can jump from the boat and float freely on the water to see the world of coral reefs. As one nears the shore the corals are close enough to touch; they feel like a piece of velvet cloth.

For stronger swimmers and divers, there are more chances to discover the underwater world, where schools of fish in different colors and types shelter or wander and dart around the corals. Other creatures of the sea will accompany the divers on a wonderful tour that is more or less the same to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

When swimming and diving at the waters of Hon Do, remember not to stand on the coral reefs as it will hurt the corals.

The best time to dive and see coral reefs at Hon Do Island is when the sun is high in the sky because the scorching sunlights will shine through the bobbing turquoise water and reflect the color and beauty of the corals.

Hon Do is less than an hour by boat from Dam Mon, a beautiful lagoon nestled at Van Thanh Commune in Van Ninh District. The area located at the end of a newly built road leading to Hon Gom Peninsula is a retreat, where vacationers can rest in hammocks tied to coconut trees along the beach to enjoy the sweet sound of gentle waves lapping against the shore after swimming in the sea.

From Dam Mon, visitors can hire a boat for a cruise around Van Phong Bay, which is 50km from Nha Trang City. Considered a tropical paradise, Van Phong Bay in Van Ninh and Ninh Hoa districts is home to beautiful white-sand beaches, sand dunes, islets and peninsulas featuring a diverse eco-system with almost untouched forests and various species of plants and animals.

Experts rank the 15,000ha bay Van Phong as one of Asia's most ideal sites for eco-tourism and scuba diving. It also boasts magnificent mountains with many rocks carved naturally into art works.

Visitors to the bay can shrug off the worry of their daily chores and enjoy the many activities available, including windsurfing, snorkeling, mountain climbing, rowing and fishing for squid and cuttle-fish at night.

Around Xuan Huong Lake on a cool evening

Around Xuan Huong Lake on a cool evening

Visitors to Dalat should not miss the beauty of Xuan Huong Lake. Located in the city center, surrounded with a pine-tree forest and flower gardens, the lake is the perfect destination for a stroll in the “city of flowers”.

As night falls couples gather at the lake to enjoy the cool and romantic evenings, a unique feature of Dalat. While it is popular by day to tour the lake in a horse-draw carriage, on the tramway or on a tandem, at night the tandem is definitely the favored choice. Riding around the lake, going up and down the hills of Dalat, warms up the riders on a cool evening and gives them an appetite for the local snacks available from the street vendors on the banks of the lake.

The booths of these vendors are small, consisting of rattan loads on a carrying pole and some small low chairs for guests and lighted with oil lamps, yet, it is exotic to be at the booths, waiting for a grilled corn, grilled squid and cuttlefish, boiled eggs or shellfish and drinking a glass of hot soya in the cool evening. For those seeking something more cozy and private there are a number of coffee shops around Xuan Huong Lake.

Saturday and Sunday are the best days for a stroll up the Hoa Binh pedestrian area from Xuan Huong Lake as no vehicles are allowed to enter on the weekends.

This is the site of the Dalat night market, known as the Market of Underworld by locals, which is open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Here one can shop for souvenirs and clothes, especially second-hand sweaters and pullovers which are very inexpensive, and enjoy some local snacks.

Vinh Hy - beautiful virginal bay of Ninh Thuan

Vinh Hy - beautiful virginal bay of Ninh Thuan

Around 40km northeastern away from Phan Rang – Thap Cham City is Vinh Hy Bay, one of the most beautiful natural landscapes of Ninh Thuan Province.

Nestled between two popular tourist destinations of Nha Trang City (Khanh Hoa Province) in the north and Phan Thiet - Mui Ne in the south, the bay still reserves its rural beauty with white sand beach, steep rocky mountain ranges, caves and spectacular waterfalls.

To reach the bay, tourists from HCMC have to pass over 350km by land. There are two routes for tourists to choose: the first and easiest one is from National Highway 1A to the north and then turn right.

The second, longer yet more interesting one is the newly open coastal road from Binh Chau - Phuoc Buu (Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province) to Lagi Town (Binh Thuan Province) then tourists follow National Highway 1A to Phan Rang City and turn again to the coastal road, passing Nui Chua National Park to the bay.