Hanoi’s relics encroached | Hanoi’s relics encroached

VietNamNet Bridge – Many old temples and pagodas in Hanoi’s old quarter are being encroached by restaurants and tea shops. Some have become houses.

Vinh Tru pagoda

The Vinh Tru pagoda at 59 Hang Luoc Street has been recognized as a historical and cultural relic and a tourist destination. There is a signboard “Recognized relic, encroachment is banned” at the pagoda gate but the pagoda yard has become the grounds of restaurants and tea shops.

Phuong, a local resident, said this situation has existed for years but it no agency has solved it. “The pagoda is always untidy whenever we come here for praying,” she said.

The Thanh Ha temple in Ngo Gach street has become the house of a family. This family’s furniture cover up to one third of the temple’s area and they are several steps from the altar. At night, the temple’s yard and gates become restaurants. The space for worshipping is seriously violated.

Thanh Ha Temple

The Dong Thuan Temple in Hang Ca Street is also used by a family. At the gate of the temple, restaurants and tea shops are always crowded.

Located in Hang Khoai Street, Huyen Thien pagoda is one of the four most famous pagodas in Hanoi. The pagoda is special for its architecture and also because it worships both the Buddha and the Holy Mother.

However, its gate has been covered by advertising boards and a ceramic shop making it very difficult for visitors to identify it as the gate of a pagoda.

Mrs. Lan, who works as a cleaner at the pagoda, said that this situation has existed for several decades but it has not been solved. The pagoda gate is only cleared during festivals.

Huyen Thien pagoda

The gate of Vong Tien Temple in Hang Bong street which worships the Buddha and the Holy Mother is now fully covered by restaurants. The road for visitors to get into the pagoda is big enough for one person to pass.

Many other relics like Thai Cam pagoda in Hang Vai Street, Trang Lau Temple in Nguyen Huu Huan street, Phap Bao Tang in Hang Cot Street, etc. are also encroached.

The management board of Hanoi’s relics said that it is very difficult to solve the situation because the people who live in relics don’t have any place to go. They have been living in relics since the wartime resistances against the French and US. The local governments have to allocate land and houses for them to move.

Vinh Tru pagoda at 54 Hang Luoc street has become space for restaurants.

The pagoda gate is a tea shop.

The gate of Thanh Ha Temple, 10 Ngo Gach street, has become a motorbike cleaning site.

There is a restaurant in the temple yard.

The gate of Trang Lau temple, 77 Nguyen Huu Huan street, is surrounded by many restaurants.

The gate of Huyen Thien pagoda is surrounded by restaurants.

Visitors have to get into the Vong Tien temple, 120 Hang Bong street, through the small gate.

Dong Thuan temple, 11 Hang Ga Street, is surrounded by restaurants and motorbike taxi drivers. A family is living in the temple.

PV

- Dried Mekong River and countries’ responsibility | Dried Mekong River and countries’ responsibility

The water level in the Mekong River, the longest river in Southeast Asia, has dropped to the lowest level in the last five decades, causing worries among the affected countries.

Scarcity of fish in Mekong Delta’s flood season

Late flood sways farmers in Vietnam’s southwestern region

Chinese dams prevent flood in Vietnam’s southwestern region?

Dried Mekong River and countries’ responsibility


Plutocracy controls the Mekong River?

Mekong and the war of water


VietNamNet

Largest Buddhist lantern festival in Vietnam | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - A lantern festival was organized on
December 22 at Hoang Phap pagoda in Hoc Mon district, HCM City. The event is
recognized as the largest lantern festival in Vietnam so far.

The festival, an annual event, attracted more than 30,000
Buddhists throughout the country.

PV

HCM City welcomes the 3 millionth visitor | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - HCM City’s 3 millionth foreign
visitor arrived in Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 8.30 am, December 21,
on a flight from Moscow.

More than 200 visitors on the flight were warmly welcomed.
Three lucky visitors were presented a return ticket for the trip as the city’s
gift to the 3 millionth visitor.

At the welcome gate, visitors were presented with flowers
and enjoyed Vietnamese traditional dances.

“I’ve been to many countries. This welcome ceremony is very
impressive. Vietnam has beautiful landscapes, long coast and warm weather so I
decided Vietnam as the destination for my holiday. I’ll surely return here many
times,” said Mrs. Nina Fedorova, the 3 first millionth visitor.

This is the first time HCM City holding a welcome ceremony
to international tourists.

The city’s Tourism Department deputy director La Quoc Khanh
said the ceremony marked the important development of the city’s tourism sector,
with a 20 percent growth rate over 2009.

According to Khanh, the number of Russian visitors to
Vietnam is rising. Their spending in Vietnam is also very high, which increases
from 50-80 percent annually.

The city has also launched a promotional month for tourists
from December 15 2010 to January 15 2011.

The 3 millionth visitor – Mrs. Nina Fedorova.

PV

Sitting on mounts of gold, why is Vietnam still poor? | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam -
That is the question that Dr. Vu Minh Khuong, a lecturer at the National
Singapore University, has received from many Singaporeans.

 

They said Singapore
has only one seaport and one Sentosa Island while Vietnam has many seaports and many
beautiful islands like Phu Quoc, Ha Long, Van Phong, etc. but it is listed
among countries with low average per capita income and low competitiveness.

This question is difficult for Singaporeans but it is not
difficult for those who understand Vietnam.

Dr. Khuong said that Vietnam
has a large potential for development but Vietnam doesn’t know where it
should focus.

According to Khuong,
Vietnam’s case
is like that of a man who is very versatile, who can play music very well and
can also draw nice paintings. With so many talents, he sometimes does
scientific research, other times plays music and then draws paintings and in
the end he doesn’t become a scientist nor a musician nor a painter.

For example, Quang Ninh province in northern Vietnam
has Ha Long Bay and abundant reserves of coal. The province both explores coal
and develops tourism but coal exploration harms the Ha Long Bay’s
natural environment.

Tourism development in Quang Ninh, sadly, focuses on
attracting large numbers of visitors, who however don’t spend much money there.

Quang Ninh is not the only one example in Vietnam. Provinces in the Red River
Delta are wondering how to explore the giant coal reserves under their rice
granary, which is the dream of many countries in the current context, when food
security is the top priority.

Local governments in Vietnam are striving for high
growth rates and industrlisation, not thinking about the advantages they
already have. Their development plans are all similar. And this means that they
lose their competitiveness.

Let’s look at the seaport development in Vietnam. All coastal provinces in Vietnam
want to have their own seaports. In the next ten years, Vietnam will build up to 39
seaports, with 108 wharves. Is it good? The more seaports there are, the less
goods each seaports will service, which in turn, means higher costs.

In the US,
there are only three major seaports along the 1900km-long western coast.

Vietnam
seems to forget Malaysia’s
lesson of seaports development. Prior to the 1970s, it had only two big ports.
The government decided to build four more national and three domestic ports,
resulting in the redundancy of seaports and severe competition among them.

With a strategic position and a long coast, Vietnam has the advantages to become an
international transit center but will Vietnam take the chance?

There was a time when all provinces and cities tried to have
their own sugar and cement plants and now they are racing to have their own
steel plants and seaports, which are all small.

Vietnam
currently doesn’t have an international transit container seaport. It has some
international ports like Saigon, Da Nang and Hai Phong, which can host big
vessels but their services don’t meet the demand, service charges are high and
the customs clearance duration is long (3-7 days on average compared to 10
minutes in Singapore). There is no adequate investment in the railway and road
networks connected with these ports. Infrastructural facilities are poor.

Experts mention a story which is shows how regional
interests hindering the overall development:

The Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau welcomed big foreign
cargo ships. In every aspect, this port was suitable to become an international
transit port. However, HCM
City and Long An also
wanted to turn their ports into international transit ports while there was a
shortage of capital.

Attracting foreign investment is another area, which can
partly answer the question why Vietnam
doesn’t become rich though it “sits” on mounts of gold.

Though the country has a common policy on foreign investment
but to lure investors, many provinces and cities have broken the rules, by
offering many more incentives.

A survey by the Ministry of Finance at 48 provinces and
cities in 2006 revealed that up to 32 provinces issued illegal documents, which
offered special incentives for investors and 11 provinces violated the
regulations on corporate income tax.

The race to attract foreign investment among provinces
harmsthe national economy. This is the race to the “bottom”.

“Instead of competition, cooperation and combination among
provinces and sectors must be encouraged,” advised Professor Michael Porter.

Vietnam
should seriously consider its position in the global economy at present and
define its advantages that can make its name in the world.

Phuong Loan

Average life expectancy of Vietnamese people 72.8 years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Average life expectancy of Vietnamese people 72.8 years | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "LookAtVietnam -
The average life expectancy of a Vietnamese person is now 72.8 years, Dr. Duong
Quoc Trong, Director of the General Department of Population and Family
Planning announced at a meeting in Hanoi on December 20.

The average life
expectancy of a Vietnamese person is now 72.8 years, but the age that most
people experience a healthy life is only up to 66

He said this at the
meeting held to mark Vietnam’s Population Day, which is December 26.

Although the life
span rose to 72.8 years old, the age that most people experience a healthy life
is only up to 66. Vietnam is rank 116 over 182 nations in the world in the
field.

However, most of the
population is still faced with many challenges, such as low quality living and
the imbalance of gender issues. During the year, 1.24 million babies were born,
4 percent less than in the same period last year.

In addition, the
gender ratio in Vietnam was 106 boys per 103 girls. But now this has changed to
111 boys per 103 girls.

The number of the
third child was 122,600, which is a 6 per cent decrease over the same period
last year. Nevertheless, only nine provinces reported a third child, meanwhile
40 over 63 provinces, state that the newly born babies have decreased
dramatically.

The factors that determine
whether a population grows or falls includes rates of reproduction and survival
of people and the longevity of the citizens.

Source: SGGP

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Seminar discusses treatment of dioxin contamination in hot spots in Vietnam | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

December 17, 2010 about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam -
A seminar to warm
up a project for cleaning up hotspots of dioxin contamination in Vietnam was
held in Hanoi on December 15.

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment in collaboration with the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The project, which will be implemented from 2010
to 2014, aims to overcome wartime dioxin aftermaths, reduce the devastation of
dioxin on the environment and health risks for people living and working in
three main hot spots including Da Nang and Phu Cat airports in central Vietnam
and Bien Hoa airport in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Delegates focused on discussions on devising
plans to treat dioxin contamination and the funding for the project.

Especially,
they debated issues related to concentration of dioxin at the three hotspots.

Richard J.Cooke, an international consultant for
the Office of The National Steering Committee on overcoming toxic
chemicals used by US during the war in Vietnam (Office 33) said the project
should pay attention to the basic requirements of technologies for treating
dioxin to meet both international and Vietnam’s technical and environmental
safety standards.

“Priorities should also be given to technologies
which are likely to be implemented in Vietnam immediately through commercial
provisions as well as the practical application of these technologies for dioxin
contamination in Vietnam”, he said.

Delegates said there should be strict
co-ordination between Office 33 and relevant ministries and agencies, especially
the Ministry of Defence. They stated the steering committee should also pay more
attention to necessary funding sources for the full remediation of all dioxin
hot spots.

According to Office 33, US troops sprayed about
80 million litres of herbicides in southern Vietnam during the wartime from 1961
to 1971.

VietNamNet/VOV

HCM City is “poorer” than Hanoi | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

HCM City is “poorer” than Hanoi

December 17, 2010 about Business, Lifestyle, News

LookAtVietnam - Per capita income in HCM City, Vietnam’s largest city, is
higher than the capital city of Hanoi but its poor rate is higher.
The survey of poverty in Hanoi and HCM City in 2009, sponsored by the UNDP,
reveals a surprise results: HCM City is “poorer” than Hanoi.
The survey rates the poverty in the two cities not only based on income and
spending, but also the people’s approach to social welfares, education and
health services, housing, social activities and security.
Based on the national poverty standards, which is mainly measured by income, HCM
City’s poverty rate is lower than Hanoi’s, with 0.31 percent and 1.27 percent
respectively. According to the survey, Hanoi’s per capita income is VND2.321
million/year and it is VND2.445 million in HCM City.
However, the poverty rates based on other standards of HCM City are higher than
those of Hanoi. For instance, HCM City’s ratio of illiteracy, ratio of people
without health insurance, the number of people who live in housing space of less
than 7 square meters are higher than Hanoi’s.
The new methodology of poverty measurement shows that in both cities, rural
mirgrants and immigrants have a more difficult approach to social welfares than
urban dwellers and those who are not immigrants.
This methodology also proves that income is not the most important element to
measure poverty, but social welfares and people’s participation in social
activities.
The survey reveals that the rate of poor people and immigrants who don’t
participate in social activities is higher than well-off people and those who
are not immigrants. The most popular reasons for this situation are: these
people are not allowed to participate, they don’t have family record books, and
they think that these activities do not pertain to them.
The survey shows that inequality in having access to social services exists in
the two biggest cities in Vietnam, especially between immigrants and those who
have family record books.
The survey also points out that poverty eradication policies based on economic
standards (income and spending) are insufficient. Vietnam should pay more
attention to improve the social welfare system, housing, education and health
services, etc. for the people, to facilitate the people, especially immigrants
and the poor, to take part in social activities and social organizations.
The survey, carried out by the two cities, is the first of its kind, which
approached to poverty in a multi-faceted way and the first source of information
about poverty and the life of immigrants in Hanoi and HCM City.
It was implemented in October and November 2009.
After the survey results are made public, the survey organizing board will
invite prestigious experts to analyze the relations between poverty situation
and hunger eradication and poverty eradication policies to make suggestions to
the two cities in amending their policies.
Thuy Chung

TRAVEL IN BRIEF 17/12 | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

The HCM City-based
Saigontourist Holding Co is looking for Japanese partners for 12 new hotels and
tourism complexes it plans to build. The company’s general director, Nguyen Huu
Tho, said Saigontourist is looking for both investment and management
co-operation. Saigontourist also plans to buy hotels in Japan to expand its
operations.

The company operates
around 100 hotels, resorts, and restaurants around the country, and reported
revenues of VND8.2 trillion (US$420.6 million) last year. It hopes to boost the
figure to $1 billion by 2015 by which year it also plans to add 4,000 new rooms.

Tour operators
offer discounts

To encourage people to
travel during the Christmas season, travel agencies are offering tours at low
prices, meaning they are unchanged from last year or are just 5-7 per cent up.

Ha Noi Redtours
expects to serve around 1,000 outbound travellers and 500 clients who will
undertake domestic and inbound tours. This represents an increase of 20 per cent
compared to last year.

Vietravel said its
business is likely to be 25 per cent higher than last year.

Sa Pa’s terraced fields. (Photo: Internet)

The most popular
destinations for domestic travellers are Ha Noi, Sa Pa, and Ha Long Bay in the
north and Ba Na, Da Lat, Phu Quoc Island, and Nha Trang in the central and
southern regions. The most popular overseas destinations for Vietnamese
travellers are in Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Russian carrier
flies to Cam Ranh

A Vladivostok Air
aeroplane carrying 80 passengers landed at Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa
Province on Wednesday to mark the beginning of the Russian carrier’s service
from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

The carrier said it
will operate seven flights each from the two far eastern Russian cities to the
central Vietnamese destination between mid-December and March next year.

To create favourable
conditions for the direct flights from Russia, the Central Airport Company said
it has offered a 50 per cent discount on all ground services at Cam Ranh
Airport.

Five-star resort opens on island

Con Dao Island will
get its first five-star hotel when the Six Senses Resorts & Spas throw open
their doors on Monday. The project was developed with investment from the
Indochina Capital fund.

The hotel’s 50 villas
sit along a stretch of sandy beach, with stunning vistas of the sea and the
curve of the bay, sheltered by green forested hills behind. All building
materials were taken from natural, sustainable sources, using local materials
where possible. Teak wood was reclaimed and includes over a thousand beautifully
carved panels.

The resort’s curved
swimming pool, shaded by mature, wild mahogany trees, sits at the edge of the
beach, which offers various water sports, including coracles, kayaking,
snorkeling and diving in what is recognised as the best coral reef in Viet Nam,
as well as boat trips to neighbouring islands.

Central
provinces unveil island tours

The tourism
authorities of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai unveiled plans to launch a tour
combining islands and inland destinations.

Do Tuan Cuong, deputy
director of the Quang Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the
tour, to be launched next year, will begin in Hoi An to explore Cham Islet
before speed boats for two hours to Quang Ngai’s Re Island.

HCM City luxury
hotel rates fall

Room rates in
three-star to five-star hotels in HCM City fell by 10 per cent this year on
average to US$98 per night due to a sharp increase in supply, according to the
city Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The city has 68
international standard hotels with nearly 9,230 rooms. Newcomers include three
four-star hotels, namely Oscar Sai Gon, Liberty Central, and Norfolk which have
a total of 312 rooms, and nine three-star hotels with more than 580 rooms.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Hanoi real estate investors marching towards the central region | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

VietNamNet Bridge – As real estate prices in Hanoi become “toweringly high”, many
investors in Hanoi think that they should no longer limit themselves to local
investments, and Da Nang in the central region has become their new destination.

Though the
price of land in Da Nang has been escalating, the city remains an attractive
location for real estate investors. The coastal villas and coastal land plots
along the “golden” land strip of Son Tra-Dien Ngoc that links Da Nang and Cua
Dai sea in Quang Nam province are being hunted by the wealthiest millionaires.

Coastal
land areas attract investors

An officer
at Cuong Hung Thinh real estate trading floor, one of the biggest trading floors
in Da Nang, said that the small land plots in the coastal areas and along Han
River have been attracting many investors, especially from Hanoi. The investors
are drawn to the high profitability from the land, about 30 percent after three
quarters of investment.

Nguyen Thi
A, who lives on Le Trong Tan street in Hanoi, related that in late April 2010,
she purchased a plot of land for a big project on the east bank of Han River at
5.5 million dong per square meters. In early December, A decided to sell the
plot of land at 8 million dong per square meter for other investments .

Especially, the prices of real estate in coastal areas have been rapidly
escalating. In June 2010, the land on Nguyen Tat Thanh road, near My Khe sea was
priced at 10 million dong per square meter. However, the price has jumped to 15
million dong per square meter. Now it is nearly impossible to buy land in the
area because landlords do not want to sell at a time when prices are expected to
rise further.

Meanwhile,
the prices of land plots near the central areas of the city, the square and the
public beach, have also increased from 30 million dong per square meter four
months ago to over 40 million dong now.

The prices
of land plots on Son Tra - Dien Ngoc route are escalating everyday. According to
Nguyen Thanh Son, an investor from Hanoi, since the prices of land in the
central areas have become higher, investors tend to seek less expensive areas.
Therefore, the contiguous areas between Da Nang City and Quang Nam province,
where land prices are lower, at 5-10 million dong per square meter, have caught
the eyes of investors.

Now
investors are hunting for land plots in resettlement areas located on
advantageous positions near Son Tra-Dien Ngoc road. The land plots here are
located near public beaches and high-end resorts. “The biggest advantage of the
land plots is that the they all have a “red book “ (the land use right
certificates), on which people are allowed to build high-rise buildings.
Meanwhile the prices remain reasonable at 5-7 million dong per square meter.

Multi-million dollar villas also targeted

While the
investors who do not have much money, are eyeing the land plots with reasonable
prices, wealthier investors are targeting high-end villas.

Deputy
Director of Cuong Hung Thinh real estate trading floor said that 5-star resorts,
such as Ocean Villa invested by VinaCapital, Hyatt by Indochine land, or The Sun
Villa and Vinpearl Da Nang have been specifically attracting investors. A large
volume of coastal villas has been launched onto the market with a sale price
relatively high at over one million dollar, but despite the price there have
been many successful transactions reported.

According
to CBRE Vietnam, a real estate service provider, by the third quarter of 2010,
Da Nang had had 29 high end apartment-villa projects under construction along
the Truong Sa coastal route. The launching of the 15 villas by Dune Residence
and 39 villas by Vinpearl Da Nang has heated up the market.

CBRE
believes that the strong development of infrastructure and the market
diversification of the city both have brought a specific attractiveness to Da
Nang. It is estimated that 80 percent of investors come from Hanoi and HCM City.

Song Minh

Three Vietnamese sailors may be dead in Antarctica sunken ship | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - It is reported that one Vietnamese sailor is dead and three others missing while seven have been rescued from the Korean fishing boat, No. 1 Insung, which was sunken off Antarctica on December 13.

Â

The dead sailor, said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga, is Nguyen Tuong from the central province of Ha Tinh.

Â

The 11 Vietnamese fishermen in the Korean ships mainly come from central Vietnam, mostly Ha Tinh province.

The three missing sailors include Nguyen Van Son, Nguyen Van Thanh and Nguyen Son Hao. They are presumed dead because they were not wearing any protective gear and the temperature is only two degrees Celsius.

Nga also said that the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry asked South Korea and New Zealand to promptly provide reasons for the catastrophe, identify dead persons and continue to closely coordinate with the Vietnamese side in protecting citizens and supporting people in distress.

The Overseas Labor Management Department and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs told the manpower exporting companies that sent the sailors to South Korea to direct executives to study the case and coordinate with the Foreign Ministry and partners to ensure the rights and interests of the Vietnamese sailors.

The Overseas Labor Management Department said that the dead and missing sailors all came from Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province.

According to Tuoi Tre Daily, the sailors were sent by five Vietnamese manpower exporting agencies - LOD Human Resource Development Corporation, Inmasco International Labor and Services Company, TTLC Labor Export and Services Company, Traenco Labor Export Company and one other.

According to LOD and Inmasco, they had been supplying fishermen to the Korean firm named In Sung Corporation, which owns the sunken ship, for the past 10 years. They each can earn from US$200 up to $1,000 and are insured by Vietnamese companies.

The Vietnamese Embassy in South Korea on December 13 issued a diplomatic note requesting Korean agencies to assist in the search for the three missing Vietnamese sailors.

The diplomatic note also asked the agencies to ensure the safety of rescued Vietnamese residents and hold funeral observances for one sailor who was confirmed dead.

The Insung Corporation spokesperson said the vessel may have been hit by an iceberg or a strong wave. The exact cause is not yet known but it went down in apparently calm waters 250 km south of New Zealand.

On board are eight Koreans, eight Chinese, 11 Vietnamese, 11 Indonesians, three Filipinos and one Russian.

Five have been confirmed dead and 17 others missing and presumed dead. The remaining 20 people were rescued by a Korean fishing vessel operating nearby.

Two New Zealand boats have stopped their rescues but three Korean trawlers still continue searching.

Source: Tuoi Tre/VNA/VNE

India tempts more travellers from Viet Nam | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - The
Indian Consul General Abhay Thakur last week said there was good potential to
make more direct flights between Viet Nam and India, and visa facilitation for
Vietnamese travellers to the South Asian nation.

Speaking at the
presentation Incredible India: Buddhist Destination on, Abhay Thakur, stressed
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement during his visit to Viet Nam
in October that the country would grant visas on arrival to nationals of Viet
Nam, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines from beginning of next year.

“There are at least
28,000 people travelling between India and Viet Nam every year, or about 540
travellers every week,” Thakur said at the opening of the presentation, which
was attended by leading tour operators, tourism and hospitality companies.

Thakur said there was
a good chance direct flights would be increased to two or three times weekly
between the two countries.

“It will make it
easier for Vietnamese to travel to India,” he said.

Currently, AirAsia,
Thai Airways International and Malaysia Airlines fly between Viet Nam and India
via their hubs in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Buddhist train
tour

At the presentation,
Nalin Shinghal, director of tourism and marketing at the Indian Railways
Catering and Tourism Corporation, introduced the Mahaparinirvana Buddhist
circuit train package in India to attract more Vietnamese to visit India’s
Buddhist sites, as the country is a major Buddhist pilgrimage destination.

Shinghal said the tour
starts in Delhi and takes in major Buddhist sites including Bodh Gaya where
Buddha attained enlightenment and Sarnath where Buddha preached his first
sermon.

The eight-day tour by
train also visits Lumbini in Nepal where Buddha was born and Rajgir where the
first Buddhist Council was held after Buddha attained Nirvana.

There will be two
train package tours every month until March next year, Shinghal said.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News

Jetstar launches cheap tickets for domestic flights | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - The budget carrier Jetstar Pacific offers cheap tickets at price of VND230,000 (US$11) each for domestic flights from December 3-7.

The cheap tickets are applied for flights from Hanoi, Vinh, Hue, Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, which depart from January 14 to February 1.

The cheap tickets also applied for flights between Hanoi and Da Nang return way, which depart from January 5 -25; from Ho Chi Minh City to Hai Phong, which depart from January 5-13 and from Hai Phong to Ho Chi Minh City, depart from January 5 to February 1.

Price ticket applied for flights from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and from Hai Phong to Ho Chi Minh City is VND575,000 ($29).

The ticket prices do not include tax and other additional fee.

Cheap tickets will be available on the Jetstar Pacific’s website and can be paid for online by credit cards, such as Visa, Master Card and by domestic debit cards, such as Connect 24 (Vietcombank), E-Partner (Viettinbank) and VIB.

The air carrier often launches promotional programs for passengers at special events every year.
Source: SGGP

India contestant crowned Miss Earth 2010 | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - Nicole Faria from India beat 84 contestants across the world to win Miss Earth 2010 title in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam on Saturday night, December 4.

The panorama of Miss Earth 2010 final night
At the pageant’s final night hosted at Vinpearl Land Resort, the first runner up went to Miss Ecuador Jennifer Stephanie Pazmino.

Miss Thailand Watsoporn Wattanakoon has won the second place and Miss Puerto Rico Yeidy has ranked the third.

The top seven contestants are from Indian, Venezuela, Ecuador, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Thailand and Japan. Miss Vietnam World 2010 Luu Thi Diem Huong has been listed in the top 14.

The winners of Miss Earth 2010 pageant:

Miss Earth 2010 Nicole Faria

The top four contestants