Afternoon 15 April 2012 – Day 2 of the 5 day trip to Hà Giang (the northern most province of Vietnam). After lunch in Yên Minh, we traveled 14km to Phố Cáo. Both Phố Cáo and Sủng Là communes, which we were going to visit, have preserved typical architecture and traditional culture of the white H’mong in Hà Giang. The population of Hà Giang province is 800,000 people, of which 21.3% are H’mong ethnic minority people. They are called “white H’mong” because H’mong women wear white skirts. If you have traveled to the North West of Vietnam, you may have seen different branches of H’mong group, for example, black H’mong in Sapa, flowery H’mong in Bắc Hà, blue H’mong in Sơn La, and red H’mong in Suối Giàng. Now you will see another branch of H’mong ... read more

Friday, 30 March 2012 - My company organized a one day trip, so I traveled with my colleagues to Thung Nai which is located 100km northwest of Hanoi. Thung Nai means "valley of deer" as deer were coming to this valley in the old days. When Hòa Bình hydropower plant was built in the 1980s, the valley became a reservoir. The mountains were partly submerged in the water and they became islands, as a result the landscape is similar to Hạ Long bay. We left Hanoi at 7am and back to the city at 7:30pm. When we arrived at Thung Nai commune, we rented a boat (about US$60) and cruised on the reservoir. We visited a couple of temples and I saw some interesting things there. Along the way to the temples, the Mường and Dzao ... read more

In two years 2010 and 2012, I made two trips to Tuy Hòa city. It was interesting that on my first trip to the city I traveled by bus from Quy Nhơn (96km, from north) and on the second trip I traveled by motorbike from Nha Trang (120km, from south). On both trips I flew back home in Hanoi from Tuy Hòa airport. I was lucky to have the chance to see the landscape along the coastline. It was so beautiful, not only the beaches, but also the mountain scenery, rice fields and small towns along the way. Tuy Hòa is the capital city of Phú Yên province. It is one of the provinces in the south central region of Vietnam which is often affected by typhoons, rain and flood during the rainy season, especially from ... read more

Sunday 1 January 2012 - I rented a car with driver and traveled 70km to Thổ Hà village in Bắc Giang province. This is one of the poor provinces in northern Vietnam. Thổ Hà village used to be famous for the ceramic products, along with Bát Tràng and Phù Lãng ceramic villages. The ceramic works in Thổ Hà village lasted 8 centuries, from the 12th to 20th centuries. Since 1980 to date, the traditional work no longer existed and the locals changed to make rice papers and noodles, as well as raising pigs and making rice wine. The village is an interesting place for tourists and photographers owing to a number of the old houses and its location by the Cầu river. There is no rice field in the village and it's like an isolated island ... read more

The photos in this blog were taken on my trips to some cities and provinces of Vietnam. Except "thắng cố" (horse meat) of the H'mong ethnic minority people in Bắc Hà town (north west Vietnam) which I didn't eat, the other food in this blog are my favorite ones. You can find various types of food in Vietnam, as Vietnamese eat almost everything, for example pork, beef, chicken, goat meat, fishes, even snakes, birds, eels, dogs, snails etc. The only difference in the taste among 3 regions of Vietnam is that the central and southern people love spicy food, even though the weather there is hot throughout the year. The southerners also put sugar into their food, so the taste is sweeter. There are some fast food brand names which are available in the big cities ... read more