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

Divorce, dividing their house in half, Literally

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian couple decided to circumvent the country's notoriously corrupt and expensive court system in their divorce case by dividing their house in half, literally, local media reported Thursday. The Khmer-language Koh Santepheap newspaper featured a front-page photo of a precariously perched half of the stilted former home of Meuon Rima and his ex-wife Nhang, both 40, which Rima sawed with surgical precision down the middle.
Rima, who sought a divorce on the grounds that his wife refused to nurse him during a recent illness, was last seen driving away from the village in south-eastern Prey Veng province with his half of the home, the daily reported.
It was not known where he had gone with his very detached portion, it said, adding that Rima had not felt the same need to divvy up the couple's two teenaged children, both of whom he left with Nhang.
Under Cambodian law, assets are divided equally between husband and wife in the event of a divorce.

Cambodian opposition newspaper journalist and son killed in drive-by shooting

A journalist working for a pro-opposition Cambodian newspaper was killed along with his son in a drive-by shooting in the capital, police said Saturday.
Khem Sambo, 47, reported on corruption and other social ills under the rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen for the opposition newspaper Moneaseka Khmer.
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He was riding a motorcycle with his 21-year-old son on Friday when they were each shot twice by a man who was also riding a motorcycle, Phnom Penh police Chief Yim Simony said. They died later in a hospital.
“At this stage we do not have any leads yet about the motive. We are collecting evidence and witnesses who could help us in searching for the attackers,” Yim Simony said.
Moneaseka Khmer editor Dam Sith called the attack “the gravest threat” to his newspaper, which is affiliated with Cambodia's main opposition Sam Rainsy Party.
Oum Sarin, president of the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists, said the killing is “creating a climate of fear” among journalists.
The case is the first killing of a Cambodian journalist in five years, according to Pen Samithy, president of Club of Cambodian Journalists.
The killing threatens the climate for campaigning ahead of July 27 national elections, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 21 private groups, said in a statement.
It said it suspected the killings were linked to the many articles Khem Sambo wrote about issues such as illegal logging, illegal fishing deals and land grabbing that involved powerful government officials.
Khieu Kanharith, Cambodia's information minister, said the “culprits cannot be forgiven and must be found.”