>> Five Places to go on 30 April and May 1

Ho Chi Minh City will have two spectacular firework displays in celebration of the National Reunification Day. The fireworks will be set off at Thu Thiem tunnel in District 2 and at Dam Sen Cultural Park in District 11 and last from 9:00 – 9:15 pm on 30 April ...




Fireworks in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City will have two spectacular firework displays in celebration of the National Reunification Day. The fireworks will be set off at Thu Thiem tunnel in District 2 and at Dam Sen Cultural Park in District 11 and last from 9:00 – 9:15 pm on 30 April. Visitors can gather at Bach Dang quay to enjoy the fireworks at Thu Thiem, while entrance fee to Dam Sen Park is charged at VND 180,000 per adult and VND 120,000 per child. Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTC) will also air the firework displays live.

Da Nang International Fireworks Competition

The central city of Da Nang will host the highly-anticipated 2012 International Fireworks Competition on 29 and 30 April along Han river. This year the four former winners, namely team Canada, team China, tem France and team Italy will compete with team Vietnam. 30,000 tickets for the spectacular event are now on sale in Da Nang, Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City. Prices are fixed at VND 200,000, VND 250,000 and VND 300,000 per night. Tickets can be bought at many travel agencies in those cities.
Film and photography installation Jo Ha Kyu

A film and photography installation “Jo Ha Kyu” by Nguyen Trinh Thi and Jamie Maxtone-Graham is opening from 25 April to 24 May, 9:30 am to 6:00 pm at Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange , 27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem, Ha Noi. Jo Ha Kyu is a concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts, which essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly. Visitors to the exhibition will get to see abstract moving images of Tokyo directed by Trinh Thi and LED lighted-up photography of common people framed by Jamie. Even those who have lived in Tokyo for a long time could also experience the new angle of Tokyo recreated beautifully by the two artists. Admission is free.

Exhibition ‘Riverscapes in Flux’

Treat yourself this weekend with an excellent multimedia art exhibition entitled “Riverscapes in Flux”. It’s a marvelous visual venture conceived and organized by Goethe Institute in Ha Noi and involves young and competent artists from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia who all seek to reflect on the ecological, socio-economic and cultural changes that riverscapes in their countries are experiencing. The exhibition is opening from 13 to 29 April at Goethe Institute and Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ha Noi. Admission is free.

Vietnam International Balloon Fiesta

The first balloon festival in Vietnam is set to take place from April 26 to May 1 at the Hoa Thang sand dune, 10km away from the tourist city of Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan province. This spectacular event will be attended by 50 pilots from Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Belgium and France who will operate 20-30 colorful balloons with the height from 20 to 25 meters and diameters from 16 to 18 meters. The balloons will fly from 6:00 to 10:00 am and 4:00 to 7:00 pm. Admission is free.

>> Vietnam’s Cyclos

The cyclo is a three-wheel bicycle taxi that appeared in Vietnam during the French colonial period after a failed attempt to introduce rickshaws. A double seat (for Vietnamese – an average foreigner would find riding with a companion a bit of a squeeze) is supported by the two front wheels, with the driver sitting behind. The design in Ho Chi Minh City differs from the Hanoi variety in that the driver sits much higher (as do the prices!)




The cyclo is a three-wheel bicycle taxi that appeared in Vietnam during the French colonial period after a failed attempt to introduce rickshaws. A double seat (for Vietnamese – an average foreigner would find riding with a companion a bit of a squeeze) is supported by the two front wheels, with the driver sitting behind. The design in Ho Chi Minh City differs from the Hanoi variety in that the driver sits much higher (as do the prices!).

In the big cities, their use as a means of passenger transport has all but vanished over the last two or three years. Taxi fares have dropped, and fleets of buses with low fixed fares have greatly undercut the market - a journey from one side of either of the major cities to the other cost less than half a kilometre in a cyclo.

Nevertheless, they remain as a popular tourism attraction, but are not generally useful for city tours because they are banned from many major roads as traffic hazards.

They still reign supreme in carrying awkward loads along city roads, sometimes much to the annoyance of other road users. For visitors, it’s a good idea to have a camera to hand to snap the unlikely loads they carry – complete bedroom suites, live pigs, ten-metre scaffold poles and much more.

If you want to hire a cyclo, always negotiate the fare in advance. If you fail to do so, the driver will often ask for an exorbitant price and then blackmail you into paying it by making a major fuss in the street that will immediately attract a crowd. This is particularly so in Ho Chi Minh City.




Generally speaking, you should offer about a third of the sum quoted, and haggle up to no more than a half. Walking away will often turn an unacceptable price into an agreed sum.

However, it’s likely that the driver will not drop to the Vietnamese price, though – dual pricing has only recently been phased out, and cyclo drivers still stick to their belief that all foreigners are rich and can therefore afford to be more generous. Mostly, they’re right!

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>> Vietnam Today

For us, and for visitors returning to the country after a period of absence, Vietnam is changing at breakneck speed. The potential bottled up by the war and the restrictions that followed as the painful process of reunification and reconciliation proceeded, is now being unleashed.





Emerging from the shadows



The pace of change
For us, and for visitors returning to the country after a period of absence, Vietnam is changing at breakneck speed. The potential bottled up by the war and the restrictions that followed as the painful process of reunification and reconciliation proceeded, is now being unleashed.

In the cities, practically every street has a building site, slum dwellings are being demolished and replaced by modern high and low-rise dwellings, and new districts are being created in the suburbs to house the swelling urban population.

Country areas are being provided with a clean water supply, electricity and new services and facilities. Reservoirs are being built to ease water shortages and new coal and gas fuelled power stations are being opened.

Transport and communications are improving daily. Entertainment facilities are expanding, supermarkets are appearing, and tourism infrastructure is opening up new areas and locations to visitors.

No aspect of Vietnam’s daily life escapes attention, and no-one is unaffected by the changes that are taking place.

The social aspect
Change is never neutral – it always creates winners and losers. Our government treads a narrow path in balancing the benefits of change with the social disruption that it causes. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of our people understand the problems and support the measures introduced to deal with them.

Working together
Our nation has a long tradition of communalism. In the 21st century, communalism is manifested in ‘mass movements’ – national campaigns to overcome social problems such as poverty, drug abuse, pollution, health issues and so on. Involvement comes in many forms, attending meetings, donating money and goods and so on, but the main form is volunteering time to assist. The Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, the Women’s Union and other large national organisations can mobilise millions of people to assist in building bridges, working with handicapped people, cleaning up dirty beaches and a host of other activities.

Challenges and successes
Vietnam’s problems are shared by all developing counties. Each has its own approach, and each has its success and failures. No approach, system or model fits all – each country has a different context, so each has to find its own way. By trial and error, and with help from our neighbours and the international community, we are learning lessons and working out solutions in ways that fit our national culture and beliefs.

Successes
We are now beginning to see the fruits of our labour. Poverty is falling, the economy is sound, industry is modernising and tourism is expanding, for example. Vietnam has had several notable achievements in the health field – it led the world in containing SARS, is attracting international attention by treating tuberculosis successfully, and is well on the way to controlling malaria.

The future
Despite our progress so far, we are only at the beginning of the road that leads to our eventual goal of ‘Independence, Freedom and Happiness’ – a vision laid out by Ho Chi Minh in his Declaration of Independence in 1954. We have yet to come to terms with the major issues of wealth distribution, universal free health care, full employment and all the other conditions necessary for his dream to become our reality.

Every so often, the views and attitudes of Asian people in relation to their quality of life are surveyed. Overall, Vietnam is usually ranked somewhere in the middle (an achievement in itself considering the country’s starting point). However, in one category Vietnam is always at or near the top – optimism about the future. We know the going will be tough, but we’re determined to get there!

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