Hue Imperial Citadel

 

The former imperial capital of Hue, which one witnesses the glories and collapse of Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1945), the last royal to rule the country, is famous as a food paradise.  

Hue's vibrant cuisine showcases the city's imperial legacy, while south in Hoi An's storied laneways, local dishes include fragrant cao lau noodle. Seafood stars nearby Danang, and the city alongside the Han River is becoming one of Vietnam's most exciting urban destinations.

Rice Field in Tam Coc

 

Ninh Binh became the center of attraction for the tourism this summer when Tourist Week 'Golden Color of Tam Coc' took place from 18 to 25 May.

This event created a festival for hundreds of photographic professionals coming across the country to capture the beautiful moments of Tam Coc's endless golden rice fields. The photographers stood on karst blocks to take photos from above. 

Tam Coc golden rice season starts from May to mid June offers many majestic scenery around Tam Coc. From Van Lam boat station, you admire small houses dotted along the river and caves such as Ca Cave, Hai Cave, and Ba Cave. 

If you want to take satisfactory photos, you have to climb on limestone mountains at 3 a.m. and take three hours to reach to the top. 

 

 

Lotus Blooms in Ninh Binh Province

Arriving in Ninh Binh Province, you should not miss pink lotus ponds blooming at the foot of Ngoa Long Mountain. June is the most beautiful time to visit this place when Ninh Binh is in lotus bloom season and lotus fade after a week.

If you get up early and don't want to waste your time going to the lotus lake and spend money for entrance fee, stay at homestay in Mua Cave.

Addition to taking photos of lotus ponds, you climb Ngoa Long Mountain to admire panoramic rice fields, rocky mountains and lotus lake from above as well.

The path to Ngoa Long Mountain is winding and there is no food and drink selling along the way. Thus, you  should have with you mineral water, umbrella, hat, sports shoes to easily move through hundreds of stone steps.

Flamboyant shows off its redness on River Huong

If coming to Hue in this season, you see girls in white dress taking photos of souvenir at close of school year under the shade of flamboyant trees. In Hue, people grow around 1,000 flamboyant trees, but the most impressive one is in Truong Tien Bridge. This ancient flamboyant tree is considered part of the ancient capital. In the blooming season, every day, here is bustled with tourists who take photos or selfies.

The photo above describes two girls posing for female students on Huong River (Perfume River).

Ba Ba Lake

When you arrive at Ba Ba Lake, you have three options to explore Ba Ba Lake. Ba Ba Lake nestles in vast limestone mountain range with numerous crags and crevasses that bring to you an ideal environment for the variety of marine life. You will learn a hundred species of freshwater fish living in the lakes.

The option depends on your mood or convenience, the lake and its environment can be discovered with a boat ride, casual walk or a long trek in off-beaten path in beautiful nature.

A boat ride starting early in the morning opens up the possibilities of experiencing the mystical beauty of the lake, with the early rays of the sun piercing through the fog that still lingers over a calm, still lake.

Great stops on the boat ride through picturesque scenery include the Dau Dang Waterfall, Tien Pond (Fairy Pond), An Ma Shrine and Ba Goa Island (Widow Island).

Tra Vinh Province

Tra Vinh Province has not had its name on Vietnam's tourism map, but if you wanted to enjoy the peaceful and hospitality land with romantic city of Tra Vinh, hiding itself among the cool, ancient forest, making a difference that walking at noon in a rare urban, you don't fear the scotching sunshine.

Ba Om Pond is a famous scenic spot of Tra Vinh, which is considered as 'a green lung' that nature has bestowed this province, bringing the people the pride.

An article describes the strict observation of the traffic rule of the people. You hardly see riders pass the red light. Riders stop at the red light under hard rain.

Tra Vinh cuisine is a combination of three culinary cultures of Kinh, Kmer and Chinese.

Plateau Lam Vien, Dalat

At the end of the year, usually in November, rose grass grows in Dalat and throughout plateau Lam Vien. It is a compelling attraction for tourists to come here to admire the beauty of nature and take many photos as possible. 

Rose grass is a common herbage that grows throughout the hills of plateau Lam Vien. After the raining season, old grass withers away, and young ones begin to sprout from the ground. 

Pink grass does not grow densely but creates a feeling of the coverage of grass in a pasture. Grass grows less high than the height of an ankle. Many people walk barefoot on the grass, have a feeling of softness of grass as the velvet.  

Rose grass is not beautiful thanks to the rose but the white. At dawn, thick dew falling on grass makes a snow-white-color. Because of this, professional photographers have hunted for grass at this time. 

Homestay in A Luoi Village

It is wonderful that in the scorching summer sun, you soak in the stream, sleep in the middle of mountains and forests. Let's take a discovery tour with your family, with the package price of around USD18 per person on weekend.

From Hue City, a bus takes you and your family along Highway 49 to the west, seeing all greenery of nature. Just over an hour, you arrive at A No Village, which sits inside forests and mountains.

A No Village has become a community-based environment destination since December 2019. The Vietnam Community Tourism Association trains villager to run home-stay, improve cooking skills, and learn how to retain the simplicity of local people.

A little far away home-stays, A Nor Waterfall with tree white streams sits in the middle of cliffs, green forests. Here you learn about how to fish in a stream,  

Geopark Dac Nong

After five-year establishing and development, Dak Nong Geopark has just recorded a memorable milestone when it becomes Vietnam's third park to join the Unesco Global Geopark Network.

At 22h on 16 July, Dak Nong Province held an online ceremony to honor the name of Global Geopark in 2020 organized by Global Geopark Network through Gotomeeting software.

This event does not only build the advantage to promote Vietnam's image in general and Unesco Dak Nong Geopark in particular internationally, preserving the geological values, biodiversity and cultural diversity of 40 ethnic minority groups in the province.

Looking back at the preparation process to achieve the title of Dak Nong Global Geopark, it can be seen that this is a clear and deliberate direction from scratch.

Hanh Thong Tay Church

The photo features Hanh Thong Tay Church, built by My Le Phat An, the uncle of Queen Phuong Nam and inside the church exists tombs of Le and his wife.

Mr. Le donated the land and cost of construction to build this church in 1921. He was one of the four richest people in Cochinechina in that period.

In earlier time, the parish of Hanh Thong Tay was suburbs, parishioners sparsely lived and were very poor. Knowing that, Mr. Le decided to spend a large amount of money to build the new, more spacious church.

The church was built in three years by a French contractor. He chose the design of the Byzantine style, modeling after the Basilica of Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Byzantine style is an architectural style with a dome-shaped design and using many glass window to get light.

Y Ty

Y Ty Highland, Lao Cao Province, appears as a poetic picture with cloudy fogs at peaks and green terrace fields. Located at an attitude of 2,000 meters above sea level is a tourist destination that attracts many tourists and photographers.

Away from hundred-kilometer roads from Hanoi, roads in Y Ty is quite zigzag. Like many places in the Northwest, Y Ty brings to you majestic, rustic beauty.

About 80km away from Lao Cai City, today, transportation infrastructure to Y Ty has been upgraded, facilitating the growth of tourism. However, that land seems to separate from the hustle and bustle of a city. During a day, ethnic minority people go to a field in the morning, gather their family for meals at coze evening. 

Hoc Mon District

People in Hoc Mon District do not know that there is a beautiful place around them. Nearly mid June, Manh posted a set of the photos of the scenery of Hoc Mon District (Ho Chi Minh City) under the golden sunrise on a group of tourists Facebook that he joined with the caption: "My hometown in Hoc Mon has a beautiful sunrise."

Manh's posts received positive feedback, so far it attracted more than 4900 likes, and many expressed interest to admire the beauty of the place 20km from Ho Chi Minh City.

Pursuing his hobby of photography for about 2 years, the 29-year-old office worker has  a special interest in the type of landscape, life, especially scenes under sunrise and sunset.

Manh said: "Dawn and sunset are two golden moments in photography. The moment and light at these two times are really beautiful, and hard to create from photo editing software."

"The beauty of heaven and earth under the sunrise and sunset gives me peace and relaxation in the hustle and bustle city. Try to get up early, watch the sunrise with a little morning dew, breath fresh air, you feel the peace, full of energy for a new day, and sometimes get unbelievably beautiful photos. 

Mu Cang Chai Mountain

On the trip to Yen Bai, author Thien, Nguyen Ngoc (from Ho Chi Minh City) was impressed by rays of sunrise shining on the terrace fields and ethnic villages around the slopes of Mu Cang Chai Mountain. He recorded this moment and the National Shot of Your Shot posted the photo which ranks the top 12 photos of the day on Daily Dozen.

Once visiting this place, you love the moment when sun rays gently touch rice fields along with floating clouds making the landscape picture more beautiful. This will make you start an exciting day. This is the reason that Ms Kristen McNicholas, working in the Your Shot admin team, decided to post this photo. 

Select Hue As an Upcoming Trip

What do you know about my hometown Hue?

Hue represents a dreamy, romantic scenery with every single path captivating human souls. Creators endows Hue with turquoise Huong River, the calm water at dawn, the brilliant summer lunch, the sparkling evening and the magical night. A boat that takes guests across the river late afternoon, seems to be worn out, creates a breath-taking painting.

But Hue does not own Huong River only.

Hue is a poetical land. The land takes you back to the past or history, you are spellbound with the ancient Imperial Citadel, mossy temples, solemn mausoleum, and many history sites. architectural structure that keep traces of time. Dreaming about the past, appreciating the present, and striving to build the future is a meaningful way of living.

The pride of our homeland has recently multiplied in our hearts because Hue's scenes have been shot in so glittering and beautifully way. Lonely tree shadow towering in the air along with poetic purple roads are seen in the film Dreamy Eyes (Mat Biec). A corner of Thien Mu Pagoda looks down on the glistening Huong River or a boat downstream in the middle of water in film Tricky Old Girl (Gai Gia Lam Chieu).

Son Tra Peninsula

Son Tra Peninsula sits fanciful in the mist at dawn. Riding a motorbike along the Hoang Son coastal road, you discover the beauty of Son Tra Peninsula.

The peninsula covers an area of more than 4,400 hectares, 13km long with a circumference of about 60km, an average height of 350m, the highest place in Son Tra Mountain is peak Oc whose height is 700m. Along with Hai Van Pass and Da Nang Bay, Son Tra Peninsula looks like a curtain to protect and shield Da Nang City. Son Tra is about 10km northeast of Danang Center.

Reader's Digest Magazine Ranks Ha Long Bay as One of the Top Ten Destinations

Reader's Digest Canadian version ranks Ha Long Bay as one of the top ten destinations in Southeast Asia that a visitor should arrive before dying.

Ha Long Bay has more than 2000 large and small limestone islands protrude above the green water  and are covered with lush vegetation. Visitors should experience yachting, explore the bay for one or many days. The cruise package includes a visit to islands, caves, climbing, and kayaking.

Visitors should not come here during monsoon season, from June to September and from January to March. Another experience you choose is to take a boat to remote islands, less tourists to explore nature.  

Flower Season in Quang Nam

When you visit Quang Nam Province, you can forget the yellow flower season that captivates the heart of the local. At the end of March, flowers are in blossom along winding village roads. It is time that the local organize the Hung King's death anniversary, creating an opportunity for you to visit this place in this season.

You will enjoy the rustic scenery including flower bloom on the porch, on the sidewalk to the fields, on the bank to fields, orchards, in the old houses, or the hundred-year-old rocky roads meandering along small roads to a village.  

Relics in Hanoi reopens

Temple of literature Quoc Tu Giam, Ngoc Son Temple, Hoa Lu Prison and many other relics in Hanoi reopened on 14 May after a long social distancing due to the Covi-19 pandemic.

A notice sign in front of the temple of literature Quoc Tu Giam requests visitors to wear a mask and wash hands. At the ticket selling area, lines are drawn for visitors to line up one meter apart. Visitors must wear a mask, are measured the temperature of the body, and wash their hands with antiseptic solution before going into the monument. There is a limit of number of visitors for one tour which includes around 30 people to ensure the epidemic prevention.

Check in the unique date palm garden in the western Vietnam

These days, many young people check in the colorful data palm garden in Sa Dec City, Dong Thap Province. The garden is located next to Sa Nhien - Cao Dai Street, Tan Quy Dong Ward, and bustling on these days.

Garden farmers have planted date palm gardens for a dozen years, however, this is the first time to open for the public visit. From the open day, the garden welcomes from 300 to 400 visitors per day, particularly, on weekend a thousand people from cities pour into this place to take fresh air and stay away a hustling and bustling city. Unripe dates give orange color, when ripe, they produce purple color and sweet taste.

RIce Field in Lang Co

From a fallow, rice fields in Lang Co has reached an output of 30 tons per year. These fields have existed for a decade, they were deserted because of difficult transportation, field farmers went to fields by boat.

It was not until the late 2000s that things changed. Banyan Tree Group came up with a $ billion resort-golf course license, and they made a mountain road, now the main entrance.

Three years ago, the rice task force had increased buffalo pairs. From Tu Phat's father and Chi Chi's mother buffalo, they now have the first love of Bao, second Luna and youngest Lulu. The main task of the buffalo family is to graze the weeds after the harvest.

In previous years, there was only one rice harvest, because there was not enough water. At that time, production was not much due to diseases and insects. Pesticides can help protect crops, but co-owners do not advocate using them. But from 2020, with 10 hectares of land and a new irrigation system, rice harvest will become two crops. In the latest harvest more than a week ago, the total output reached 28 tons.

Samples of rice from the golf course land will be transferred for food quality and safety testing. If not, they will be discarded.