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by theRedRiver, order by Date newest first.

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Kleang temple in Sóc Trăng
Kleang temple in Sóc Trăng
This temple was built by Khmer people and it's also the oldest temple in Sóc Trăng province.
25 and 27 September 2009 - We left Cần Thơ and went south to Cà Mau, which is the southernmost province of Vietnam. On the way we stopped in Sóc Trăng and Bạc Liêu provinces for visiting some sites. There are 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta and its population is 17 million people, of which Khmer people make up 25%, Chinese 30% and the remaining are Vietnamese according to our guide. Most of Khmer and Chinese people live in Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu and Cà Mau provinces. I saw many Khmer temples along the National Highway No. 1 and various [View Full Entry]

theRedRiver - Hanoi_girl | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
2031 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 40 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 2nd 2009 | 209 Views | [diary=440957]

Mahatup temple
Huge candle inside Bửu Sơn pagoda
Monks at Mahatup temple

At Mỹ Khánh village, Cần Thơ
At Mỹ Khánh village, Cần Thơ
Two local girls are preparing fruit for tourists. They wear traditional shirts of south Vietnamese women with black trousers.
24, 27 and 28 September 2009 - I was back in Cần Thơ city, which is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta, and it was my 3rd visit to this city. On this trip I would go further south through 4 provinces and reach the southernmost point of Vietnam. I decided to book a 5-day tour with a travel agent in Hanoi (Vietran Company) and the tour cost VND 3.9 million (US$200). If I traveled on my own, this amount would be enough for only air tickets (round trip) between Hanoi and Cần Thơ, so it was cheaper to travel [View Full Entry]

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2619 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 28 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 30th 2009 | 298 Views | [diary=440653]

Ba khía (little crabs)
Name of some southern food
Phủ thờ (worshiping place)

By theRedRiver
September 21st 2009
The meaning of life Asia » Vietnam
Prayer wheels of the Tibetan people
Prayer wheels of the Tibetan people
I saw some Tibetan people rotated these prayer wheels (bánh xe cầu nguyện) at Bouddhanath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.
My mother often tells me "Nobody asks you how many countries you've been to, they ask you how many children you have". In my parents' and grandparents' generations, they experienced the French and American wars. Life was very hard at that time and they were happy with having many children, in their cases, 3 to 5 children. My grandmother is nearly 90 years old and she has never been abroad in her entire life. Last year after being convinced much, my mother agreed to travel abroad for the first time to Singapore. It was difficult for her to travel at age [View Full Entry]

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862 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 21st 2009 | 306 Views | [diary=436370]

Bouddhanath temple, Nepal
Brunei tourism brochures
Giza pyramids, Egypt

By theRedRiver
September 8th 2009
Bắc Hà Sunday market Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Bac Ha
At Bắc Hà Sunday market
At Bắc Hà Sunday market
A H'mong woman and her son at the market.
Sunday 6 September 2009 - After an 8 and a half hour train ride from Hanoi, I arrived in Lào Cai. This city is very close to China, only 1km from the Lào Cai - Hekou international border crossing, also on the way to Yunnan province of China. If you look at a map, Sapa is on the left side, 38km from Lào Cai, and Bắc Hà is on the right side, 70km from Lào Cai. Both Sapa and Bắc Hà are popular tourist destinations in north west Vietnam. Tourists often go to Bắc Hà on Sundays to see the market [View Full Entry]

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2674 Words | 5 Comment(s) | 58 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 8th 2009 | 355 Views | [diary=434460]

Bắc Hà market
Outside Bản Phố village
A H'mong woman with ice cream

A house at Mông Phụ village
A house at Mông Phụ village
Soon we will celebrate the Independance Day (2nd September), so a flag is hung up at window of this house.
Đường Lâm (53km away from Hanoi's center) is the first ancient village in Vietnam, which was recognized as a national heritage site in May 2006. There are over 300 old houses at the 9 villages in Đường Lâm commune and they were built 300 - 400 years ago. The old houses are of wooden type, while other houses at Đường Lâm have the walls of lateritic bricks (gạch đá ong) made of the hill soils. Other than the old houses, some must-sees in this area are the temples, pagodas and mausoleums of the two Kings of Vietnam (Ngô Quyền and Ph [View Full Entry]

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2468 Words | 5 Comment(s) | 59 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 1st 2009 | 249 Views | [diary=432546]

The gate of Mông Phụ village
At Mông Phụ village - Đường Lâm
These jars for making "tương" sauce

English dictionary
English dictionary
This English - English dictionary (printed in the US) is a gift from an old English couple in Hong Kong. I met them when they travelled in Hanoi.
"Where did you learn English?" Many people asked me this question. Actually, English was my 3rd foreign language and I learned it at the evening classes in Hanoi. While English was not my official foreign language that I learned at school and college, it's now my major foreign language at work and I can travel extensively with the ability to speak it. If I could turn back the hand of time, I would focus on learning English and French, maybe a little Japanese. All the international organizations prefer English and French when employing new staff and they often provide good offers [View Full Entry]

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757 Words | 9 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 26th 2009 | 260 Views | [diary=430657]

French book
Japanese dictionary
Japanese book

One of my Áo Dài
One of my Áo Dài
Sometimes I bring my Áo Dài (traditional dress) and Nón (conical hat) to travel with me.
It has been 12 years since my first trip as a solo traveler in Vietnam, but the same questions like "Why do you go alone? Don't you feel bored/sad/lonely?" that I was asked all the time have not changed at all. I realize that there are still very few solo Vietnamese travelers and people still have not changed their minds yet about going somewhere without a companion. For most Vietnamese, when you travel alone, it's very boring because you have no one to talk with, or you may be in danger because of the possibility of being kidnapped (no, it's not [View Full Entry]

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1204 Words | 16 Comment(s) | 18 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 11th 2009 | 775 Views | [diary=425734]

India guide book
Alarm clock
Ricoh film cameras

Hanoi in summer 2009
Hanoi in summer 2009
In October 2010 (next year), Hanoi will celebrate the Millennium Year anniversary. This board is placed outside Thống Nhất park for propaganda of the event.
My summer this year is pretty quiet. We experienced the hottest June ever recorded. Some days in Hanoi the outdoor temperature reached 45-46°C with very high humidity (often it's 30-38°C during the summer time). Then it rained almost every week in July and August. I didn't dare to go anywhere close to the mountains, as I was concerned about the risk of floods and landslides. Also the pig flu (A/H1N1) is spreading here with the number of patients increasing every day. The warnings that we hear on TV or see on the webpages are to "avoid the crowds". Some people are [View Full Entry]

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359 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 4th 2009 | 321 Views | [diary=424913]

Vote for Hạ Long bay
Good bye Michael Jackson!
The construction site where I work

Điện Biên Phủ is a remote city inside the Mường Thanh valley in the north west of Vietnam, only 36.5km from the Lao border. The ethnic minority people living in this area are the Thai and H'mong. The city is famous for the site of the battle, where the French troops were defeated by Việt Minh (the League for the Independence of Vietnam - Việt Nam độc lập đồng minh hội) forces on 7 May 1954 after a 56-day siege, resulting in the end of the French rule in Vietnam (1858 - 1954) and its colonial control in Indochina. To a [View Full Entry]

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2269 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 85 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 30th 2009 | 286 Views | [diary=408977]

Tank near the French headquarters
Memoirs of war
At Điện Biên Phủ museum

Bhaktapur, Nepal - April 2009
Bhaktapur, Nepal - April 2009
I am wearing Vietnamese traditional dress with pictures of Japanese girls wearing Kimono and Sakura flowers on the front and back panels.
Bhaktapur, also known as the City of Devotees, was the capital of Kathmandu valley during the 14th to 16th centuries. It's located about 35km east of Kathmandu. The city is filled with palaces, temples, statues and squares connected by a maze of largely pedestrian-only streets. This is one of the must sees in Nepal. At present, this city is a UNESCO world heritage site. Tuesday 28 April 2009 - Car came to pick us up at Nagarkot and we left for Bhaktapur. We traveled along an asphalt road and went down the mountains. I travelled from Nagarkot, as it was the [View Full Entry]

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3093 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 100 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 14th 2009 | 268 Views | [diary=397016]

A temple in Bhaktapur
With my Nepalese porter
A very old house



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