Hue renews efforts to boost tourism

Package deals: The promotion programme aims to lure tourists by offering three-day tour packages to several local destinations. — VNA/VNS Photo Quoc Viet

While Hue is offering discount tour packages in an attempt to lure visitors during the low season, more should be invested in the programme to ensure its success,Phuoc Buu reports.

While Thua Thien-Hue boasts two UNESCO world cultural heritage sites as well as many other advantages, the province still fails to draw as many tourists as its neighbours. A recently announced promotion programme aims to change this, but many are skeptical that it will be effective.

Annual revenue from tourism in Hue has been consistently lower than in neighbouring Da Nang and Quang Nam, although the former imperial capital has far more tourist attractions.

Last year, Hue received 2.5 million visitors, resulting in revenue of only VND2.4 trillion (US$1.1 million). In contrast, Da Nang's 3.1 million visitors brought in revenue of VND7.8 trillion ($3.7 million) and Quang Nam welcomed 3.4 million visitors paying VND4.2 trillion ($2 million).

The promotion programme aims to lure tourists by offering three-day tour packages to several local destinations for VND1,999,000 ($95). By launching the programme in September - the low season for English-speaking tourists and the last month of the peak season for locals - the tourism industry hoped to lure more visitors. The goal was to bring in three million visitors this year and continue the programme until 2016, said Phan Tien Dung, director of the local Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Destinations and discounts

The Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, Bach Ma National Park and Alba Thanh Tan Hot Springs Spa and Resort co-operated to offer three packages with hefty discounts.

The first package brings visitors to the former Imperial Palace, king's tombs, pagodas and temples. From September 2-30, groups of 10 or more visitors get 20 per cent discounts on entrance tickets to heritage sites in the former royal capital city. Visitors will be allowed to use tickets bought at the Imperial Palace, Khai Dinh or Minh Mang mausoleum to enter other sites; ticket prices for concerts of nha nhac(Hue royal court music), the world intangible cultural heritage recognised by UNESCO in 2003, performed in the Duyet Thi Duong royal theatre inside the palace, will also be cut in half. The package also gives visitors the chance to visit Sinh and Thanh Tien traditional craft villages producing paper paintings and paper flowers, which were historically placed on the family altar in dedication to the ancestors.

New goal: Hue aims to bring in three million visitors this year. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Duc

The third package brings tourists to Bach Ma National Park, a lush jungle that boasts some of the richest biodiversity in the country. In 1925, the French built a health resort here dotted with nearly 140 villas made from cement to protect them from the vagaries of nature. Many of them were restored in 1986 and can now serve hundreds of guests. During the day, tourists can trek to scenic waterfalls and forests; at night, they can enjoy local food and campfires on the mountain top.The second package highlights Alba Thanh Tan Hot Springs Spa and Resort, an attempt to lure visitors who are not really interested in for heritage sites. The site is the first in Viet Nam to offer Highwire, a challenge game set six metres in the air, as well as a long zipline and hot springs discovered by French colonists.

Concerns over effectiveness

However, many doubt that the promotion programme will entice visitors, as it offers nothing new to Vietnamese tourists, who have been familiar with these destinations for decades.

"Tour products in Hue have become too familiar to visitors who expect something new and attractive. Price reduction is not the way to lure visitors," said Vinh Bao Huy, who works for a tour agency in Hue.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which initiated the programme, has been vague about intentions. "We want to have a couple months piloting the model so managers of the destinations around Hue can make a common plan to promote local tourism," said Le Ngoc Sanh, head of the department's tourism division. However, he could not give a definite time for the end of the pilot phase or say what the destination managers would do for the next phase in the three-year programme.

Artisan Than Van Huy said he was reluctant to join the programme, as the department had not offered any incentives for him, even though he had spent money for food and tea to welcome the visitors.

Another official in Alba Thanh Tan said that while the department suggested that the resort offer discounts, they were not given any compensation to do so. — VNS

(References)

(Muslim Tours Vietnam)

Saigon Tax Center throughout history

The Saigon Tax Trade Center, scheduled to close by late September, was first built in 1880.

The following photos show the evolution of the center throughout its 130-year run in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

What we now know as the Tax Center was built in 1880 by the French, who named it Les Grands Magazins Charner (GMC). FILE PHOTO

The building went up in the center of District 1--the heart of Saigon. FILE PHOTO

GMC traded luxury goods imported from England and France that catered to the urban rich and wealthy landlords from throughout the south. FILE PHOTO

The building, along with other French-colonial constructions like Ben Thanh Market, the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, the Central Post Office, the Saigon Opera House, helped win the city its reputation as the “Pearl of The Far East". FILE PHOTO

GMC’s owner decided to add an extra level to the top of the building. The neon sign that topped the building could be spotted from afar. FILE PHOTO

  

In the 1960s, GMS was renamed the Tax Trade Center. The center was split into a series of small stalls rented by various salesmen. FILE PHOTO

The intersection remained a bustling place throughout the war. FILE PHOTO

Many well-known brands entered the country at the time. FILE PHOTO

After 1975, the Tax mall was handed over to the city People’s Committee, the municipal administration. The center temporarily ceased to be a shopping center and instead became used as showroom for industrial machinery. In 1981, the People’s Committee intended to change the center into a “municipal shop of miscellaneous goods.” The shop, managed by the city’s trade department, became the largest commercial space in the country. FILE PHOTO

On January 19, 1998, the “Tax Trade Center” sign returned to the top of the building, marking the reappearance of a name familiar to old Saigoneers. FILE PHOTO

The Tax Trade Center received a major makeover that culminated in a grand reopening ceremony on April 26, 2003. FILE PHOTO

After occupying one of the most beautiful locations in the city for most of its history, the Tax mall will be torn down by late September to make way for the construction of a new skyscraper. Tran Thuy Lien, the center’s director, said that the five-story trade center in downtown Ho Chi Minh City will be replaced by a 40-story building on the same site.

(References)

Muslim Tours Vietnam

Some Things to Do in Ho Chi Minh City

1. Visit the War Remnants Museum to learn about the Vietnam War and see guns, equipment, and vehicles from the era

2. Lose yourself at Ben Thanh Market marveling local handicrafts, textiles, and áo dài. It's a pulsating place, always busy; you'll feel its magic for sure!

3. Eat Pho - Vietname Noodles - and drink Vietnamese coffee at any one of the many pop-up cafes. It’s cheap and you just have to point to what you want

4. Take a cruise in the Mekong Delta for the timeless scenery of farmers planting rice in their paddies or to see its floating markets and lush green scenery

5. Tour Saigon on the back of a motorbike - it’s a great way to see the city and feel like a local

6. Get in touch Traditional Vietnamese Medicine or Thuoc Nam, influenced heavily by China. Hopefully you won't need it, but it's really interesting to know!

7. Crawl through the Cu Chi tunnels to get a sense of how the Viet Cong used to hide out during the war. Also, fire an AK-47 nearby!

8. Get inspired by the French: learn to cook French-influenced Vietnamese food or take in an opera at the Saigon opera house

Muslim Tours Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY – SHOPPING – MEKONG DELTA 3 DAYS – 2 NIGHTS

Day 1: ARRIVAL HO CHI MINH CITY (D)

Upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat international airport, you will be welcomed by your tour guide and transfer to the hotel for check in.

Muslim Mosque in Ho Chi Minh city center

Overnight in HCM CityThen you will do a short Saigon City tour to visit Ar-RahimMosque – built in 1885 by Malaysian-Indonesian Muslim, War remnants museum, formerly known as the Exhibition House of American War Crimes ~ a major tourist attraction which primarily contains exhibits relating to the American phrase of the Vietnam War, with display outside the building of various U.S. military hardware like tanks, jets, helicopters and howitzers. Photos stop at Post Office, go shopping at Hard Rock Café for souvenirs T shirt, and visit China Town whole sale market (Cho Lon market) 

Day 2: HCM CITY – MEKONG DELTA (B, L, D)

Breakfast at hotel, then transfer to Mekong Delta (My Tho City) for Mekong cruise. The boat cruise will take you to the Unicorn Island to visit Bee farm, enjoy honey tea, visit home industry of coconut candy processing, local villagers with cheerful smile invite guests to sample taste of fresh fruits right in their orchards with Vietnamese folk music performance, then take sampan boat under the shadow of nipa palms along the tiny canals, return to the land for lunch in Mekong Halal restaurant.

Visit Mekong Delta by small boat

Then transfer back Sai Gon and go shopping at Hong Anh collection,Mai collection and Taka Plaza for Malaysia tradition costume (tekekung, tudung, jubah, blouse, bayukurung) free shopping in Ben Thanh market.

Day 3: HCMC – DEPARTURE (B)

Breakfast at hotel.

In the morning free shopping in Ben Thanh market. Then transfer to the airport for departure flight

END OF SERVICE.

Price in USD per passenger: (USD/Pax)

Group size (Adult)	2	3	4	5	6	7 – 9	10 – 14	15 – 29 + 1FOC	30 – 44 + 2FOC	SGL Supp
Deluxe three stars hotel good location	231	197	186	168	156	150	140	129	118	40

BLOG: SMALL WIN FOR PKR, SO WHAT NOW FOR THE KAJANG MOVE?

Now that the Kajang by-election is over, the Kajang Move seems to have fizzled out. At any rate, it hasn’t turned out the way it was designed to. It doesn’t look like the game-changer it was touted to be.

PKR’s candidate, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, devoted wife of party supremo Anwar Ibrahim, may have won the by-election, as expected, but by a smaller majority. Even in terms of percentage.

In the 13^th general election (GE13), PKR, then fielding Lee Chin Cheh, won by a majority of 6,824; this time around, Azizah managed only 5,379.

To be sure, the voter turnout then was a whopping 88% while this time, it was only 72%, but even by mathematical extrapolation, if all things were equal, Azizah would have had to garner 5,583 to proportionately equal Lee’s majority. She obviously fell short.

That may be splitting hairs, but the signs on the whole are that the Kajang Move is not capturing the people’s imagination. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that since Anwar could be not the candidate any more after he was convicted for Sodomy II by the Court of Appeal, the plans spelt out for the Kajang Move became stillborn. So what happens to those plans now? Rafizi Ramli, the prime mover of the Kajang Move, would no doubt have much to explain.

Does he still advocate that Selangor needs to be protected by a strong leader against the threat by Barisan Nasional (BN) to wrest it from Pakatan Rakyat? With Anwar now deprived of the possibility of becoming state assemblyman as a stepping stone to becoming menteri besar, will the Pakatan state government soon succumb to incessant attacks by BN, especially Umno, with Pakatan assemblymen defecting to the other camp? Will Selangor now cease to be the platform to launch Pakatan to Putrajaya? Will the current menteri besar, Khalid Ibrahim, be now persuaded to do more for Selangor to make it a model city, in order to convince the general electorate that Pakatan is ready for Putrajaya?

Or was the Kajang Move, in the first place, the wrong gambit? Because apart from lowering the esteem of PKR in the eyes of some erstwhile Pakatan Rakyat supporters who broke out in choruses of disapproval and cries of moral outrage, the forced by-election seems to have reinforced the perception that BN is still a strong brand - despite expectations.

How else does one explain why despite the public anger against the ruling BN government for the rise in cost of living, despite the shouts of “kangkung! kangkung!” at polling centres to remind voters of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s infamously insensitive blooper, the coalition was not trounced at the by-election. In fact, it did marginally better.

Was it because the BN candidate was MCA Vice-President Chew Mei Fun whom some voters believed could truly serve them? Or that some voters decided to punish PKR for forcing the by-election to serve what is perceived to be the party’s own interest?

Whatever it was, the MCA seems to have scored a moral victory from the by-election. Initially written off by pundits as a likely big loser, Chew has instead shown some mettle to attract 11,362 votes against Azizah’s tally of 16,741.

Proportion-wise, she has done better than her party colleague Lee Ban Seng who stood at GE13 and obtained 12,747 votes. One couldn’t call it a big loss at all.

(Continued)

(References)

Muslim Tours Vietnam

SINGLE FATHER'S FORMULA FOR MOTHER'S MILK

For 19 months, Tuan has been collecting breast milk from other people to make sure he gives his baby the most valuable nutrition source. — Photo Courtesy of Trinh Tuan

by Thu Van

The baby began to cry just as the taxi started moving.

Trinh Tuan was at a loss. He had no previous experience of taking care of any baby, and here he was, alone with his 14-day-old baby daughter for the first time, going home from the Tu Du Hospital in HCM City.

He tried to remain calm. He checked her diaper. She had peed. Clumsily, he put her down on the car seat and changed it, hoping that would do the trick.

She was quiet for sometime. Then she started to cry again. Tuan felt like crying too. This time she appeared to be hungry. He didn't know what to do.

Tired after some loud wailing, the baby began to suck her own finger. Tuan felt like screaming out loud from the pain he felt.

His wife had died a week earlier, just 10 days after giving birth. She had begun to bleed suddenly, but the day it happened Tuan was out of town for a meeting and his phone was on silent mode. As soon as Tuan got back, doctors told him that she needed an operation to remove her uterus and stop the bleeding.

"I remember telling my baby that her mom's going to be ok and will be returning home soon," Tuan said.

After being taken into the operation theatre, his wife never regained consciousness.

To prepare for the funeral, Tuan had to send his baby to the childcare unit at the Tu Du Hospital. During the four days that it took, he visited her everyday.

"When I looked at my baby through the glass window of the childcare unit, I wanted to cry. Every time I left, I wanted to cry. My family and friends said I should leave her there for a while until I could recover from the shock," he said.

"I had promised my wife that I would always be a good father and stay beside my baby. But now that we were in different worlds, I was all alone, and I didn't know how to take care of a baby, I thought, does that make breaking a promise easier for me?"

It did not.

A week after the funeral, Tuan took his baby home, alone, in a taxi.

‘My fight'

Un had been breastfed by her mother for the first 10 days. She was only given formula milk during the week she stayed in the hospital by herself. For three days after she was taken home, she could not relieve herself. Formula milk is always hard to digest.

"I decided that I have to try all means to give her breast milk. That's all I could do for her then," Tuan said.

"Someone once said: everyone has their own fight. My fight was to get breast milk for my baby."

Tuan, a member of the Viet Nam team that won the 2006 Asia-Pacific Robotics Competition, said he did not intend to lose the fight.

He asked for breast milk on online forums, on Facebook, and his friends' circles. Loving mothers answered the call.

For nineteen months, his neighbours have seen Tuan with his baby in the carrier, carrying a cooler to pick up frozen breast milk from those who were willing to give. Thanks to them, Un has grown up healthy.

There were times when Un refused to eat, and Tuan's mother said the baby needed formula. He had been fighting with her for quite sometime on this, but at one point he made a concession, partly because he was stressed out, and partly because he was worried about Un not gaining weight.

But the baby did not like formula very much. She often spit it out.

"I think my mom wanted to shift to formula for Un because she wanted to take the baby away from me to her home in Nghe An Province, so that I can concentrate on my work," Tuan said.

"But I can't let that happen to my baby. She has lost her mom. She has to stay with me."

Bringing up a child is never easy. It's even more difficult for a single dad. There are times when he feels really down, and desperately needs a woman's warmth in the family.

"Sometimes, it is all I can do from bursting out crying in front of Un. Then I would go and talk to my wife at the pagoda where my family has kept her ashes. But she's so far way. Can she hear me at all?"

"Sometimes I want to ask her why life is so cruel to me? Why do I have to stand such loneliness and suffering? My wife and I used to joke about who would be the one to die first – because the one alive would be the one to suffer more."

Privately, he had thought at those times that he would be the one to stay on and prevent his wife from suffering, but she'd actually said the same thing - that she'd rather suffer than have him suffer.

"She taught me how to love someone."

An idea strikes

With Tuan's initiative to procure breast milk proving a success, his fridge was sometimes overloaded with it. This gave him the idea of a breast milk bank for babies who lacked mother's milk.

Tuan had learnt about the true value of breast milk when he tried to find out whether breast milk from other mothers would be good or harmful to his baby, so he was now eager to help other babies benefit from this invaluable resource.

However, he found that the rate of mothers exclusively breastfeeding their babies for the first six months in Viet Nam was quite low – only about 20 per cent, compared to 60 and 70 per cent in China and Cambodia respectively.

"The pressure from work and from unscientific viewpoints has created a bad habit among many new Vietnamese mothers. They do not want to breastfeed their babies and give them just formula milk – that's not the best thing for babies," Tuan said.

He spent time translating a lot of information about the value of breast milk to share with new mothers and encourage them to breastfeed their babies. He also became a bridge connecting those who wanted breast milk for their babies and with those willing to give.

The Milk Bank, founded by Tuan in June, 2013, has attracted more than 6,000 members so far.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Hoa, former head of the Nutrition Department of HCM Pediatrics Hospital II, said the idea of a breast milk bank was wonderful.

After meeting Tuan at a conference on breast milk, Hoa said she was deeply touched by his story.

"His case is proof that breast-milk is the best for any baby," she said.

In March this year, the Viet Nam Milk Bank linked up with the global Human Milk for Human Babies.

But Tuan is not done.

Baby solutions

He is determined to share pretty much everything he has learnt, and is learning, about taking care of a baby.

He is now working on a project called babyMe.vn, a technology solution for parents to manage the first 1,000 days of a baby.

The website will provide new moms and dads with useful information about how to take care of their babies, a mobile app called babyMe, a messaging system to remind parents of their babies' medical records and vaccination schedules. It will also include another website, Tramyte.vn, for medical staff, towards raising the quality of public health management of childcare.

"For those who are in the Information Technology field, start-up projects might have to do with entertainment, but the babyMe project is how I want to say thanks to this life," Tuan said.

"That's how I am going to teach my baby about following one's dream. I can't tell her to do it if I give up on my own dream. I might not have much money to give her, but I will try my best to teach her to follow her dreams when she grows up."

For Tuan, Un is not a burden. She is his biggest comfort.

"After my wife's death, I could have become a nomad. I could have retired to a pagoda. I could have become a man with mental problems, or something worse. But she has held me back. I am thankful.

"I still have my baby to love, to care for, to come back to." — VNS

Muslim Tour Vietnam