Hanoi, Vietnam>, Jan 31, 2010
i’ve tried this hotel once! it’s ok and reasonable!
http://www.vietnamvisa-online.com
Archive for January, 2010
Shuangliu, China>, Jan 30, 2010
Well, I’m back, and unfortunately, I feel very disappointed, not about the place, that was a beautiful as can be, but I learnt nothing about the Tibetan culture, even though the guide spoke quite a lot about everything, Sugar, the human information filter, pretty much filtered out every worthwhile piece of information told. Let me set the scene of the trip for you.
Check in at Chengdu airport. We are checking in our bags, me because I didn’t realise China has a strict liquid rule on domestic flights as well as international, I had actually pack to ‘carry on’, but - well, that’s not part of the story… We are checking in our bags, Sugar is having a conversation with the check in staff, and I stupidly thought that Sugar would tell me any pertinent information. Well, once we were in the terminal, and had been waiting for a while, I said to Sugar, “We will board in five minutes.” Her reply was, “no we won’t”, me “yes we will, our flight is in 25 minutes, we will have to start boarding in 5 minutes.” Sugar, “No.” Me, “Why do you keep saying no? Tell me what you mean.” Then Sugar says, “The guy at check in told me the flight is delayed by two hours.” A slightly flabbergasted me, replies as calmly as possible, “and that’s not something you thought I might like to know, or even something that I need to know?” and it was all downhill from here. Unless I said, “What did they say?” even then, I would only get some of the information. I had to know what questions to ask in order to gain any information, but I had no idea what questions to ask. I am so annoyed that I came home not knowing a thing about where I went, or the people who live there, because Sugar could not be bothered to tell me. Thank you Sugar. I tried every trick in the book to get her to give me the information, but to no avail. I will have to do some research on the net to find out the three days of information I missed. It’s not as is she was surprised that I would need a translator either, when we were booking I said to here that this tour will only cater to the Chinese travellers and that I will most likely be the only foreigner on the tour and that she would need to translate. “Oh sure, I’m happy to.” - oh sure…
Nothing was in English the whole time I was away. Not that I go to other countries expecting things to be in English, I don’t, but when tourist info places advertise ‘English maps’ and what not, I kind of expect them. But there was not one.
Anyway, you can probably tell I’m a little frustrated. I did have a good time regardless of the fact I didn’t learn one piece of information the whole time I was away. The place is as gorgeous as all the photos, and even though we went in the coldest month of the year, there was no snow. The peaks of the mountains were still covered in it but there was none on the ground.
Well, I know this is not way to start a blog, but I am going to put this on my third day, you will read it first as I still need to type up what happened on the other days. Don’t worry there’s more to tell than my whinging. I just needed to get this off my chest.
Koh phagnan, Thailand>, Jan 29, 2010
For day two, we decided we would rent a motorbike and drive around the island to check out some of the other beaches. We ended up renting an automatic bike from Salad Hut for 200 baht. We first drove south past Thong Sala and onto Haad Rin on the Southwest coast.
The drive for the last 4km is very steep up and down and with lost of sharp corners. This is the area where, I believe, a majority of the drivers who are seriously injured or killed get into their accidents, especially after drinking all night at Haad Rin. My driver was very careful and although some of the sharp corners with oncoming trucks were a bit scary, we made it there in one piece.
By the time we arrived in Haad Rin it was about 12pm. The beach was pretty back and is lined with resorts and restaurants. We decided to swim in front of the make shift beach soccer area where there were less people. The water had pretty big waves and was the only beach where I saw garbage floating in the water.
Haad Rin also has the biggest selection of shops so we did a bit of shopping. Beach towels were 350 baht each and the best I could get the guy down to was 660 baht for two.
We then headed back towards Thong Sala and North to Ao Chaloklum, with a mini stopover to see “Paradise Waterfall” (the bumpy road leading up to it is very not worth it in my opinion).
Our map showed a small beach with four resorts on it called Haad Khom. Between Chaloklum and Haad Khom there is a resort called Belvedere Resort which has a restaurant with an amazing view looking back into Chaloklum Bay. We stopped for some food and when we went to pay, we realized that Dave’s wallet was missing from my backpack. This was very bad seeing as his wallet had everything in it that he uses in Perth. This included drivers licence, bank cards, Australian money and lots of Thai Baht.
We decided it would be best to retrace out steps and hope for the best. After going to the bike rental place and then all the way back to Haad Rin to each store and the beach spot, which was now a full fledge soccer game, we went to the Haad Rin Police Station. In each place we went to and told the workers we lost a wallet, they either chose not to understand what we were looking for or didn’t understand the English words. This included the man at the police station which was of no help whatsoever. Unfortunately Dave’s travel insurance only includes medical expenses so he won’t be able to make a claim for it even if we did report it.
After a well deserved home made ice cream at a shop just off the road heading back up to Au Chaloklum (amazing ice cream and if you pay extra you get it served in a coconut), we made a last attempt at finding the wallet by returning to the petrol station we had used on the previous drive north. Again, they didn’t understand that we were looking for a wallet, so we gave up and drove away.
Fortunately his passport was safe with the rental company so although he lost a bunch of money and getting those cards back will be annoying, I can withdrawal money and we won’t have to return to Bangkok to get a new passport.
As it was now past 4pm, we didn’t go to Haad Khom, but drove on to Haad Mae Haad to check out Koh Ma. It’s an island connected to Haad Mae Haad by a sandbar. The snorkelling is supposed to be some of the best on the island. I was a bit nervous leaving our only money and atm cards by themselves on the beach, so I let Dave take the snorkel gear and explore the reefs. He said he was a bunch of coral and some fish and seemed happy about it. I laid out on the beautiful stretch of beach and was quite content watching from a distance.
View had a fantastic view of the sunset, with just enough clouds in the sky to give it some colour.
Returning to our beach, we ate dinner at Cookies Resort, which has a restaurant on the southern end of the beach, up on the rocks, overlooking Salad beach. The various restaurants along the beach are lit up in various colours and vendors sell lanterns you can purchase and then lit something inside so they float up while glowing. It makes for a very lovely view while you’re eating your whole barbecue sea bass, 300 feet off the beach.
The day was fun, although the missing wallet definitely put a damper on the day. Dave’s been a good sport about it and said he wouldn’t let it ruin his trip. If it was me in the same situation, I don’t think I’d be so good about it!
Koh phagnan, Thailand>, Jan 30, 2010
Since we had a few hours remaining on our motorbike rental, we decided to go to Haad Khom, which we had missed out on the previous day, and find a restaurant on the beach for some breakfast. After missing the resorts and almost wiping out when the road instantly changed to dirt and rock after the top of a high hill, we found a paved road leading down to the resort and chose to eat at Ocean View Resort. The restaurant lived up to its name, being directly on the beach with fantastic views of the beach and bay.
We then returned to the bike rental shop and had forgotten to fill up the tank with petrol. Since our time was up, we went to the first place that said “gasoline”. It ended up being a barrel of gasoline with a glass container on top showing how many litres were being poured into the tank. Before she saw how much we needed she said “100 baht”. If you want a fair deal, make sure to go to a proper petrol station!
After we had the two litres put into the tank, she used a crank to refill the glass jar on top with the orange gasoline. It was a pretty scrappy looking setup but it got the job done.
After seeing the gorgeous beach at Koh Ma and Dave’s attempt at snorkelling the day before, we decided to rent a kayak to get us from Salad beach over to Koh Ma. It was the first overcast day, which made for comfortable kayaking along the coast line. We had a stopover in a cove for some swimming and rock jumping and then stopped over at a nearby beach that was secluded from the main tourist beach. From a distance it looked nice but up close it was lined with garbage and sharp rocks. We headed over to Koh Ma and discovered that snorkelling at high tide was useless as the visibility was about a foot and the reef was several feet below. Giving up on snorkelling we headed back to begin preparations for the evening’s festivities.
We had an early dinner and bought the customary Full Moon Party plastic kid-playing in the sand bucket that came with a can of pop, a mini red bull and a bottle of alcohol about half way between a half pint and pint. You’re supposed to dump it all in, add a straw and enjoy.
Since we had booked a group taxi for 9:30, we had a couple hours to spend pre-drinking before heading down to Haad Rin. We drank our bucket of booze while playing cards on our bungalow’s front deck, protected from the sudden rain that started pouring down. About 10 minutes after starting a game of cards, the power went off and the only light we had was my head lamp. One of the resort staff came by with long, narrow white candles with no candle holder that were supposed to last 2 hours. About 45 minutes later, the candles had burned down inside a glass we used as a makeshift candle holder and we were back to using the head lamp as a light source. About an hour and a half after going off, the power came back on and the rain started to let up. It was then time to get our taxi to the party.
There were about 30 people wanting to get into the taxi went it arrived. At first it was still raining and they asked us to load into the back of a pickup truck. Wanting to get there as soon as possible, we jumped at the chance. The Thai workers decided against us and then pointed to a “taxi” with a cover on top. We were the first in after mildly pushing past all the kids in there late teens / early twenties. We were by far the oldest people waiting to get on the taxi.
The ride there was made more interesting by the fact that we brought along a newly purchased bucket of booze that Dave shared around the taxi. We were the only ones who brought booze on with us, which I thought was strange seeing as by this time it was closer to 10 and we were heading to the Full Moon Party. Ah well.
We arrived in Haad Rin and there were people EVERYWHERE. Within the town’s streets and the beach itself there had to be over 10,000 - 15,000 people. Pretty much every shop is selling booze buckets out front and lots of them we selling florescent zinc with the option to have designs painted on you or as a “do it yourself option”. There were also florescent beaded necklaces, hats of every sort, more booze and lots of take away food options. In between all these options were thousands of people wearing all the crap that was being sold. After a walk along the throngs of people on the beach, I felt underdressed (or more appropriately overdressed in shorts and a tank top) and we decided for the “do it yourself” paint option to look a little less uptight.
By this time the booze had kicked in full swing and we found the Rocks area which is a bunch of large rocks suitable to sit on at the end of the beach. From here we could watch all the crazy action. One a huge scaffolding the words “Welcome to Koh Phag nan Full Moon Party” which were lit on fire and looked pretty sweet. There were lots of pictures taken in front of the huge sign.
The rest of the time there was spent drinking more buckets and taking in the crazy atmosphere. There was mostly house (duf duf) music playing, which is a bit tough to dance to drunk, but the people on drugs seemed to have no problem enjoying themselves.
By 3am I was starting to fade so we headed out to the main road to find the woman we were introduced to early who would lead up to our taxi back. By the time we arrived at the taxi bus some people had been waiting for a long time and the bus would only leave when full. There was a pretty irate Kiwi that decided to get us to leave sooner he would lean on the horn over and over again. Being tired and annoyed by his constant ranting I told him off and he finally shut up. Soon after we left and made the 45 minute windy drive back to our beach. The commuting was annoying but we were both thankful we weren’t staying any where near Haad Rin that night because of the mayhem.
All in all the Full Moon Party was a bit over the top and I’m not sure if I’d do it again, but a crazy party that was worth the effort and will not be soon forgotten.
Koh phagnan, Thailand>, Jan 31, 2010
Going into last night I knew today was not going to be productive. Although I must say, waking up with a hangover on Salad Beach makes it a bit easier to stomach. The day was spent trying to eat, drink water and nap on and off with a bit of floating around in the water mixed in for good measure.
After seeing a poster for a fishing trip on our first day here, Dave seemed excited by the possibility of catching a “6 foot barracuda” and had signed up for a fishing trip. The trip last from 3:30 to 9:30, which has given me some time to be lazy with my hangover by myself.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung left Davos on the evening of January 30 for Hanoi, concluding his working trip to Switzerland.
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Before leaving, Mr Dung met with the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, who handed over his special letter extending greetings to Vietnamese people on their upcoming lunar New Year festival. He said he hopes that cooperative relations between the UK and Vietnam will develop further and Vietnam will successfully chair ASEAN in 2010.
Prince Andrew and PM Dung expressed pleasure at the positive development of the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in recent times. They said despite the global financial crunch, the economic, trade and investment ties continued to grow and flourish in 2009, with two-way trade reaching US$2 billion and the British investment in Vietnam fetching over US$2 billion.
PM Dung proposed that Prince Andrew, as a senior UK representative in trade and international investment, provide continued support for Vietnam and encourage UK businesses to invest in Vietnam.
He said he hopes Prince Andrew will create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses and commodities to penetrate the UK and the European Union so as to raise two-way trade value to US$3 billion and the UK investment in Vietnam to the same amount in the coming years.
Prince Andrew put forward measures to increase bilateral cooperation in trade and investment and proposed that the two countries’ relevant ministries and agencies discuss cooperation in education, including the building of an UK university in Vietnam.
Mr Dung invited the Prince to re-visit Vietnam and attend celebrations to mark Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary. He also conveyed his invitations to the Queen and the British Prime Minister to visit Vietnam.
VietNamNet/VOV
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VietNam’s total number of workers will increase by 10.4 million by 2020, which means there will be an average of 800,000 workers being added to the market every year.
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Young people seek employment opportunities at a career fair in HCM City. The total number of labourers in Viet Nam is estimated to increase by 10.4 million by 2020. |
The report also said Viet Nam was still very much a rural country and deficient in productive employment.
Though the proportion of agricultural labour fell by 13 per cent between 1997 and 2007 to 52 per cent of the country’s total employment, agriculture remains the most important economic sector, according to the report.
The rural nature of the country and the still heavy dependence upon agriculture means that a very large proportion of total employment is in own-account and unpaid family work categories, which accounted for three-fourths of total employment in 2007.
The lack of productive employment is reflected in the large numbers of manual employees, which totalled 28.1 million persons in 2007, or 62 percent of total employment.
This shows a “very high degree of total employment that is vulnerable”, the report added.
The report, however, acknowledged encouraging trends in the nation’s efforts to develop its human resources and labour market. The unemployment rate was kept stable over the last decade and there has been an increase in the number of newly-employed workers and those moving to better-paying jobs.
The “Vietnam Employment Trends” report was prepared by MoLISA with technical support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through the Labour Market Project, funded by the European Union.
“The labour market’s transition and facing of important challenges and opportunities was hailed as being ‘very timely’ as Viet Nam approaches middle income status relative to other global economies, said Willy Vandenberghe, Head of Co-operation at the EU Delegation to Viet Nam.
The Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs expressed her appreciation for the first ever report on the labour market, “Reliable and meaningful statistics and analysis of the labour market are vital to the government to review and renew existing labour market policies and programmes, to promote the decent work agenda and overcome deficits and to set targets and measure progress,” she said.
VietNamNet/VNS
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The Mekong Delta can supply an estimated 4 million tonnes of rice husk as fuel for thermoelectric plants with a potential capacity of 500MW.
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Farmers pack dehusked rice before export at a mill in southern Tien Giang Province. |
The institute’s recent survey at 108 rice mills in Can Tho City, An Giang, Kien Giang, Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces found only about half of the rice husk from the mills is used for household fuel, fertiliser and other purposes.
The other half is disposed of by burning or dumping into rivers and canals, polluting the environment.
If the Delta’s rice husk is used to fuel thermoelectric plants instead of being wasted, it could meet the plants’ fuel demand and help reduce environmental pollution, said the institute.
The Japanese company J-Power is one of the companies planning to use rice husk in the Delta for generating electricity.
J-Power is now co-operating with its Vietnamese partner, Dinh Hai Thermoelectricity Joint-stock Company, to build a 10-MW thermoelectricity plant fuelled with rice husk in Can Tho City’s Thot Not Industrial Park. The construction of the 10-MW rice husk-powered plant, which can consume 80,000 tonnes of rice husk a year, is scheduled to start late this year, according to J-Power.
J-Power said if the construction of this first rice husk-powered plant was successful, it would build between 10-15 others in the Delta provinces.
Huynh Van Hoa, owner of Hong Phat Private Business Establishment in An Giang Province’s Thoai Son District, said his rice mill produced 13,000-16,000 tonnes of husk a year.
Hoa said in his district there are 20 rice mills which produce a total of 400,000 tonnes of husk a year.
To build a 10-MW thermoelectric plant, the plant investor only needs to sign contracts with 10 rice mills to ensure the plant’s fuel demands are met.
Van Ha Phong, permanent deputy chairman of the Kien Giang Province People’s Committee, said the provincial Department of Industry and Trade is working with relevant departments to find a site to build a rice husk power plant with capacity of 11MW.
The plant will be backed by Ha Noi-based Viet Trung International Investment and Trade Company.
The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta has an annual paddy output of more than 20 million tonnes. Rice husk supplies are most abundant in rice harvest seasons, particularly from February to July.
VietNamNet/VNS
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Monosodium-glutamate maker Vedan should expedite investigations and compensate residents affected by its actions, said the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
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During a working visit to the Taiwanese-invested firm in southern Dong Nai Province, Nguyen noted the improvements made by the company in wastewater treatment.
However, until it paid due compensation for the environmental pollution that it had caused for many years, its business and reputation would remain affected, he said.
The provinces of Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau as well as HCM City are the three main areas affected by the untreated, toxic waste discharged into the environment by Vedan Viet Nam for almost 16 years.
Nguyen said provincial and city authorities had worked closely with local residents to estimate losses incurred for compensation purposes, but only Ba Ria-Vung Tau had sent its initial report to the ministry.
“I want the process of verifying losses and discussions between the ministry and Vedan on the extent of pollution [that Vedan is responsible for] to speed up,” said Tran Ngoc Thoi, deputy chairman of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province People’s Committee.
“Vedan should declare for how long the affected residents have to wait for the compensation.
“I promise that all figures of losses and affected areas are done precisely to ensure the benefit of both residents and Vedan. The affected area, for instance, is only Tan Thanh District with four communes. Vung Tau City and Ba Ria Town, mentioned in the initial declaration, have not been included,” Thoi said.
Vedan General Director Yang Kun Hsiang said all wastewater produced by the company was strictly treated before discharge into the Thi Vai River. The water quality in 20 biological reservoirs had been improved, he added.
“We installed three automatic stations for monitoring and testing treated waste water before it runs into the river,” Hsiang said. “The biological reservoirs will receive further treatment and a total of more than 30ha [that contains the reservoirs] will become an eco-zone.
“Vedan has set up four new systems to produce fertiliser from the fermented waste released by the company,” he added.
After visiting the site of the wastewater treatment plant that was put into operation late last year and noticing the absence of malodour in the water, Nguyen said: “Vedan had successfully improved its waste treatment system.”
Nguyen told Vedan the ministry was going to investigate the company’s four cassava processing plants in the country for an overall assessment of its operations.
Hsiang said the plants in Binh Phuoc and Gia Lai provinces were generating biogas used to fuel their wastewater treatment systems.
Vedan’s cassava mills in Binh Thuan and Ha Tinh provinces were also equipped with similar systems, but they had not been put into operation yet, he added.
VietNamNet/VNS
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At the main national sport centre in Ha Noi, each doctor has to take care of between 80 and 90 athletes.
More serious injuries are treated at the general hospital.
The Viet Nam Sports Hospital, which opened in 2007, was the first of its kind in the country. The hospital, which was built on the National Sports Complex campus, cost VND50 billion (US$3.14 million).
The hospital contains state-of-the-art equipment and has 100 beds, along with a surgical unit, physiotherapy centre and oriental medicine unit, as well as a special dope-testing facility.
Duong Nghiep Chi, the former director of the Viet Nam Sport Science Institute, said the shortage of specialist medical facilities for athletes meant recovery time was often longer than it should be. Taekwondo artist Hoang Ha Giang, who won a gold medal at the World Youth Championship in Viet Nam in 2007, had to retire sick from the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She was later diagnosed as suffering from a virus which affects the muscles.
Earlier, rower Vu Dang Tuan, who won a silver medal at the Asian Championship, could not take part in the Olympic qualifiers because of congenital heart disease.
Meanwhile, top athletes Nguyen Huu Viet, who won three gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games in 2005, 2007 and 2009, and Asian silver medallist Vu Thi Huong, who shone in regional sports events, have yet to have their heart rates, strength and fitness officially tested.
Le Quy Phuong, the director of the Viet Nam Sports Hospital, said medical staff should be sent abroad for training for five to ten years.
The Sport Science Institute enrols just 15-20 students each year.
VietNamNet/VNS
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