Quang Nam: Tourism and trade village exhibition fair 2007

The Quang Nam Department of Trade, in conjunction with the Duy Xuyen’s People’s Committee, held a traditional trade village and tourism exhibition fair for the first time in July, in Duy Xuyen District.

The fair attracted the participation of 150 kiosks from 60 domestic and foreign enterprises and traditional trade villages of Duy Xuyen District.


The fair is one of the major commercial promotion activities of Quang Nam Province, with the aim of offering favorable conditions for enterprises to exchange, popularize, and introduce products for market expansion and mutual development and to create shopping and amusement festival days for local people.

This is also a chance for tourists to visit two world’s cultural heritages such as Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Temple and local trade villages such as the Mai Chau weaving village, Dong Duong mulberry village, and Ban Thach sedge mat weaving village.

The fair will close on July 9, 2007.

Pandanus woos travelers with new services

Tourists ride the all-terrain vehicle, a sea sport game at Pandanus Resort

After 12 years developing as a tourist destination, Mui Ne, in the coastal resort town of Phan Thiet in the central province of Binh Thuan, is the home of some 80 small and large resorts which were built on winding pristine beaches and lie under thousands of coco trees.

Traveling along Nguyen Dinh Chieu Road, travelers have many choices of resorts for their vacations. The Pandanus Resort is among the 80 resorts where travelers can spend their holidays.


The resort is still young compared to others, but very spacious. It was built in 2004 within a ten-hectare tropical garden and with a private beach three hundred meters long.

Scattered throughout the garden are some 130 rooms, suits and bungalows designed with views of the ocean, the landscaped garden or facing the pool area that has a huge free-form pool surrounding an island covered with palm trees.

To make guests feel relaxed and comfortable, the resort offers, among other luxuries, a foot and body massage service on the beach, around the pool, or in the spa.

However, to provide more choices for travelers during their stay, the resort has just set up activities for those who are sports enthusiasts.

Steve Raymond, general manager of the resort, said that last month the Speed Boat Pleasure Company set up operations at the corner of the resort, providing jet ski rentals, snorkeling trips, rubber rafting excursions and fishing trips.

When night falls, at the resort’s Blue Lagoon Restaurant, diners can enjoy a performance by the Philippine group “Stardust” that has joined the in-house traditional Cham band. For families, the resort has just added a ‘kid’s corner’, so that parents can leave their children to play in the supervised games room while they enjoy cocktails and listen to the bands.

Apart from these new activities, there are other things to do while not swimming in the pool or lounging on the widest pristine white sandy beach in the area. Around the gardens are a flood-lit tennis court, a badminton court, a football field, beach volleyball, karaoke rooms, a discotheque, billiards tables, table tennis, complimentary bicycles and a game room.

In addition, the resort is located close to the famous Orange Sand Dunes and Red Canyon. Guests can take a ten to fifteen minute walk to both attractions.

Currently the resort offers promotional rates of US$75++ per night for a superior room, US$90++ for a junior suite and US$99++ for a bungalow.
By SGT

Touring Tien River in the south

Tourists visit Thai Son Isle by boat

The Tien River, a branch of the Mekong River in south-ern Vietnam, flows through an area enriched with alluvium, making the land of Tien Giang and Ben Tre, the two provinces that the river flows through, prime for growing thousands of hectares of tropical orchards.


Lying not far from HCMC, the two provinces attract many visitors coming for eco-tourism, exploring specific features of the land along waterways in the south, and for the hospitality of the locals. Tourists wanting to discover this area can book a new tour offered by some HCMC tourism services.

Joining this new tour, tourists can learn about the daily lives of the local people by visiting traditional three-compartment houses and orchards of the locals, and exploring the surroundings on foot following small paths through the isles.

Tourists can rest at a restaurant nestled in the green trees and bonsai gardens, and taste local fruits and specialties. A special lunch will be served with dishes of grilled or baked recently caught fish. For those who want to catch the fish by themselves, there are many kinds of fishing supplies such as fishing rods, buckets or fishing tackle for them to choose, or tourists can simply join the locals in bailing out water from the ditch and catching fish by hand.

To tour the two provinces, tourists have a choice to go by boat or canoe, the main means of transport here, and pass through canals having green orchards on both sides. The floating market, a unique tourist attraction in the waterway lands of the south, is also a must-see.

In Tien Giang, the Cai Be floating market originated from the establishment of a small town on the banks of the Tien River. The market serves not only as a trading place for the locals but also as an attractive destination. Reaching the Cai Be rivulet’s mouth, tourists can see dynamic trading activities along a large section of the river.

Everyday, hundreds of boats and canoes, transporting many kinds of local fruits, anchor in this section to wait for traders. The area, at this time, is filled with sounds of transportation, laughter and voices creating the special charm of the waterways in the south.

Coming to Tien Giang, tourists can visit landscapes such as the Thoi Son Tourism Area, the Rach Gam – Xoai Mut relics, Tan Phong Isle and more. In Ben Tre, tourists should not miss Minh, Bao and An Hoa isles, and Qui Islet.

Among them, Qui Islet, despite having a small area, still reserves the rural beauty of the waterway lands with hospitable locals. It can be reached by canoe and will offer tourists a breath of fresh air.

The tour to the two provinces from HCMC is a one-day tour by car. There are also homestay services for tourists who want to stay longer.
By SGT