>> Hat ru the beauty of Vietnamese culture

Vietnam attracts the foreign tourists through not only the wonderful and beautiful destinations but also the beauty of the culture and the long-life tradition in Vietnam. And one of traditional music that anyone only listen once can never forget and feel the warmth and the maternal love in it. It is Hat ru (or Lullaby).


Hat ru (or Lullaby) is a part of folk songs, a type of traditional music that plays an important role in the lives of Vietnamese. It also has an essential position in the spiritual lives of Vietnamese until now.

Most of Vietnamese people were lulled with the lullabies by their mother or grandma when they were kids and sing when they become the mothers, especially in the countryside. Hat ru is regarded as a song to lull babies to sleep with the simple and gently rhythm. Vietnamese women use them to consign their fates and also express their feelings, such as homesickness, the mood of a wife missing her husband, sadness, or wishes, etc…





The song’s melody is usually gently and deep in order to lull the child slowly fall asleep, the tone seems to be a little dialogue between the mother and the baby but sometimes it is all things the mother wants to talk to the baby and the mother’s wishes about their child in the future.

The melodies of ‘Hat ru’ quite vary from regions to regions. However, Hat ru is originated from six-and-eight line popular poems following the traditional music. Lullabies usually begin with syllables à ơi, à á à à ơi.

‘Hat ru’ (or Lullaby) not only is to lull the children to sleep easily but also is the way to connect among the hearts. Although the kids cannot understand the meaning of lullabies, they can feel the warmth and sweetness of their mom or their grandma who are lulling them to sleep, and that melody will along them during their long life.

Although the habit of lulling children in Vietnam nowadays is gradually less popular than in the past, these lullabies never disappear but become an important part in each Vietnamese soul who was brought up by maternal love and sweet songs.

Nowadays, when tourism sector more and more develops, many foreigners want to come to Vietnam for traveling. Besides, many of them want to enjoy folk songs and traditional music in Vietnam. It is not enough if we do not introduce Lullabies to foreign visitors. Easily, they can enjoy the lullabies when the tourists order in the travel destinations. When they listen the lullabies, they can feel the warmth and the love of the mother sent to her child.

Foreigners coming to Vietnam now are easier than ever and apply vietnam visa is easier, too. It can be done through the online application service by getting into the website: http://getvietnamvisa.org

>> The attraction from Vietnamese ‘com lam’

Traveling in the north-west mountainous regions, tourists not only experience the picturesque landscapes but also enjoy ‘com lam’, a typical food here. It is rice, usually sticky rice in bamboo tube and used with sesame salt.


Until now, ‘com lam’ is known as unique cuisine, attracts a lot of travelers by its unforgettable flavor. Its name makes many people curious; even they have never tasted it. Why does it have the name ‘com lam’ instead of any names else? We usually have many methods to cook a dish, such as frying, baking, boiling, grilling, steaming, etc. And the reason is in Thai language, grilling means ‘lam’.





Therefore, we can understand partly how to cook ‘com lam’; rice is put in bamboo tube instead of in a pot or a cooker, after that it will be grilled until it smells pleasant. This kind of rice will keep the pure fragrance of rice blended with the flavor of bamboo.

In terms of its origin, ‘com lam’ is a unique and creative food of ethnic minorities. When they go to the forests, from one hill to another one for many days, they usually bring rice to cook everywhere for convenience. They cut down young and fresh bamboo tree to take some bamboo tubes to put rice in, wrap the tube with banana leaves or ‘dong’ leaves and burn it on fire. They can use it for some days.

It is easy and convenient to make ‘com lam’ but the most important ingredient is rice, usually upland sticky rice in the mountainous areas. The kind of rice has small, long and fragrant seeds from provinces like Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Dien Bien and so on. Rice is compressed in a bamboo tube but not too tight in order to create distance from both sides of tube so that rice can expand regularly. When grilling, the cook should remember to turn the tube around frequently until the cover of tube is dried and it begins having the fragrant flavor.





Before enjoying it, you should use a small knife to split the black bark skillfully so that there is a thin cover left with the rice, remove all banana leaves at the both sides of tube. After that, cut the tube of sticky rice into five or seven pieces. Beside rice and bamboo tube, some cooks can add some scrapped coconut or sesame to make more delicious and strange taste. You can enjoy it with sesame salt or grilled chicken and grilled wild boar.

Nowadays when you travel to Vietnam, it is not difficult to get Vietnam visa on arrival. Along with experiencing the wonderful sceneries, you can be easy to find a lot of restaurants serving ‘com lam’ as you visit the northwestern traveling destinations.

(Source :: http://getvietnamvisa.org)