23-year old Nguyen Van Tien from the central province of Quang Binh was sentenced to six years in prison and fined RM200,000 (US$65,000) at a Malaysian court last Tuesday after collecting agarwood in the country’s Penang state.

On January 1, Tien and his two brothers, who later fled, were logging agarwood without a permit at the Forest Reserve in Penang’s Nibong Tebal.

Malay Mail said the five agarwood trees chopped down by Tien and his brothers are believed to be worth RM28,437.50 ($9400).

According to Malaysian law, Tien could have been charged with up to 20 years and a maximum fine of RM500,000 ($165,000)or both.

At the court, Tien asked for leniency, saying that he regretted committing the offence, according to newswire The Star.

The court proceedings were adjourned three times before the sentencing.
Finally, session court Judge Ikmal Hishan Mohd Tajuddin charged Tien a fine of RM200,000 and six years in jail, which started to take effect on February 14.

Penang police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob told newswire AsiaOne that the perpetrators, who are members of a syndicate with links to neighboring countries, were armed.

source from: tuoitrenews

Model Vu Thu Phuong

The designers are well-known names like Vo Viet Chung, Hoang Hai, Duc Hung, Kelly Bui, Chung Thanh Phong, Duy Quan, Van Thanh Cong, Duc Duy and Minh Tu.

More than 100 leading models of the country such as Binh Minh, Anh Thu, Vu Thu Phuong, Ngoc Quyen, Ha Vy, Ho Duc Vinh, Duong My Linh, Vu Hoang Diep, Kim Minh, Kim Dung, Thanh Thuc and Trung Cuong will take part in the event.

The fashion week honors insiders who have made outstanding contributions to the Vietnamese fashion industry. The event will place at the Model Club, 6 Dong Khoi Street in District 1.

source from: saigon-gpdaily

Customers use D-com 3G services provided by Viettel. After three years developing the 3G service, Vietnam has more than 12.8 million subscribers. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Thanh Giang

This was one of the leading issues discussed at a recent conference on the national telecommunications development plan by 2020, held by the Ministry of Information and Communications in Hanoi.

After three years developing the 3G service, Vietnam has more than 12.8 million subscribers, across four providers, namely VinaPhone, MobiFone, Viettel and Vietnamobile.

While the nearly-13 million subscribers appears positive, the quality of the service is still poor, and revenues have remained below expectations. To stimulate demand, providers have launched increasingly inexpensive packages to attract new subscribers and entice current subscribers to upgrade to the 3G service.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hung said one of the bottlenecks restricting 3G development was that content suppliers – such as mobile TV, online music and online payment companies – for 3G services were not encouraged to participate.

This under-stimulation of 3G services has been named one of the main reasons the service has not picked up. Consumers are also spending less as the nation’s economic situation has stagnated.

Customers employing 3G services have mainly used the service to surf the web, and awareness of 3G service remains poor, according to a recent survey on customer satisfaction with 3G services, conducted by the Vietnam Post Newspaper.

At the meeting, Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Institute on Information and Communications Strategy, said it was necessary to enhance 3G services and broadband internet services throughout the country.

Last May, Viettel tested 4G mobile technology but decided not to pursue it.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son said time was needed for enterprises to recoup investment capital from 3G technology, and that the ministry might consider 4G technology licensing by 2018.

Son also emphasised that the State should consider applying 4G technology at an appropriate time to ensure pace-keeping with regional countries.

source from: dtinews

Fresh and unique impression

The Tay Ho Weekend market, located at N⁰ 4, lane 67/12 To Ngoc Van, Quang An, Tay Ho, Hanoi, has been operating for nearly 2 years.  It was inspired by a weekend market in France.  Patrice Gautier, director of the Asian Veterinary and Livestock Services Company, established the market in homage to markets in his home country.  The market aims not only to introduce fresh products from the farmers to the customers, but also to create a place for people to meet each other and have a great time on the weekend.

The market has no fee for parking vehicles.  With a limited area of about 300m², all the pavilions are neatly organized and offer a range of foodstuffs from chicken, roasted duck, vegetables, wine, tea and cakes to books, clothes, and cosmetic products.The products here are clearly marked with information about where they are produced and have fixed prices.  The products are organized tidily and foods are put in paper bags.  On a recent Saturday, many customers crowded a booth selling chicken meat with the advertisement, Chicken from Soc Son – Hanoi. 250.000VND/chicken.  “Our products have been selling here for a long time. I am a veterinary doctor and today I am a vendor.  Our chicken meat and eggs have good hygiene, quality and food safety.  The chickens are bred following the process for producing healthy foods,” vendor Nguyen Duc Bac said.

The products in this market are not only fresh but also have other endearing features, such as a stall from Donkey Bakery selling German-style breads which are made by disabled children.  “We really want to introduce the products of the children themselves to customers in Vietnam and other countries; let them know more about us, that people can have disabilities but are still really dexterous,” Marc Stenfert Kroese, the director of the bakery, remarked.

The market also has a special booth organized by a charitable group of foreign women who are selling things to benefit a nonprofit organization. The products are secondhand and include used clothes, furniture and other items donated by regular customers. These women contribute the profits from the booth to a charity fund for disabled and orphaned children.

Cultural influence

The buyers and sellers are both Vietnamese and foreigners.  The foreigners living near West Lake have come from many countries, such as France, Canada, England, Australia, Germany, etc.

“This is the first time I’ve come here and the thing I like most here is having both Vietnamese and foreign people.  Although I don’t understand their language, it is really great,” Vu Dung, a customer noticed.  This is his first time coming to the market, and he and his wife chose a bottle of wine. “I see today this wine shop has a representative from the company, this makes me feel more confident. After trying it, I decided to buy a bottle of Cordier wine; its taste is quite good!” he added.

The weekend is a time for people to relax, so they come here to chat. “It’s not like normal markets opening early in the morning; its opening time of 9 am is really suitable because the people get up late at the weekend.  I come here every Saturday,” Bruno Marcmal, a buyer from Belgium said.

App Koller-Keller from Germany added, “I have been living in Hanoi for one and a half years and I come here for relaxing and meeting my friends. It feels like being in my country.”

The consumers can see the difference from other markets.  “I am visiting my son for 3 weeks.  We call this a farmers’ market in England.  We also have markets similar to this, but they are bigger and have different foods.  I love this market, very friendly and happy with fresh food and all kinds of people from different countries, very sociable!” Jenny from London noted.

People come here with their family and friends, or even their cat!  More and more people find time to visit the market each week.  “I know this market from on television, so today I decided to see it. Its great to have so many items from other countries which we don’t have everywhere in Vietnam,” Nguyen Thi Thuong, a Vietnamese customer, observed.

“The owner intends to make it bigger in the near future to serve the rising number of customers and meet the demand for better, high quality products,” said Pham Ngoc Diep, a Program Assistant of the Asian Veterinary and Livestock Services.

source form: dtinews

Purchasing votive products for the Kitchen God.

Votive products are indispensable.

People also purchase chicken for the feast.

This family, in Long Bien district, Hanoi, is preparing the feast for the Kitchen God.

People release carps to lakes and rivers.

Volunteers collect plastic bags discharged by those who release carps.

Carps in the Red River, Hanoi.

Burning paper-made clothes for the Kitchen God.

Lakes and rivers are polluted by plastic bags after the Kitchen God Day:

Many families in Saigon use a new service, which appears this year: hiring men who disguise as the good fortune deities to perform worshipping rituals to the Kitchen God.

Burning votive paper for the Kitchen God.

source form: vietnamnet

Doi Tam village is very famous for its drum-making techniques. The village is located at the foot of Doi Mountain in Doi Son commune, Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province.

There are more than 600 people who are drum makers, most of them are Doi Tam villagers.

Coming to Doi Tam, visitors will see big drums placed in front of each house in the village and hear the sound of planers and saws from every house. Only four workers work in three days to make drums with diameters of 1.5 to 2 meters. They say that stretching the drumhead is the most difficult stage because it requires craftsmen’s skills to assess the sound. The remaining steps like making drum barrel and painting do not require high skills and techniques.

Cutting wood is also important and requires accuracy.

Thanh, a senior drum maker in Doi Tam said that the biggest difference between drums of Doi Tam and of other villages is the sound. The sound of Doi Tam drums are very clear. “It is not by chance that Doi Tam drums are chosen for many big festivals and events of Vietnam,” he said proudly.

To make very big drums, which are called “trong sam” (thunder drum), Doi Tam craftsmen often use jackfruit wood and buffalo skin from the Central Highlands. These drums are produced at order. It takes workers even a year to create “trong sam”. Doi Tam produced tens of “trong sam” for the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi, including the largest drum in Vietnam, which has a diameter of 2.3m and a height of 3m.

The village has produced drums for over 1,000 years. It is said that brothers Nguyen Duc Nang and Nguyen Duc Ban were the founders of Doi Tam. In 986, to welcome King Le Dai Hanh to Doi Tam village to attend a plough ceremony, the two brothers made a big drum, which created sounds like thunder. The brothers were called Trang Sam (Masters of Thunder). In photo: This 1.4m high was made within three days, by four workers.

According to custom, drum-making techniques are transferred to sons and their wives, not daughters and their husbands. Any family that breaches the rules is expelled and cursed and booted from the drum-making occupation. In photo: stretching a drumhead.

A drum is made in three major stages: leather tanning, drum-barrel making and drumhead stretching. Doi Tam craftsmen use buffalo skin to make drumheads. They shave buffalo leather till it becomes very thin and dry it in the sun. The drum-barrel is made of dried jackfruit timber.

Doi Tam kids are taught about the village’s tradition when they are 5 years old. At the age of 14-15, Doi Tam boys travel with their fathers to other regions in the country to make and repair drums.

Stretching a drum-head.

The village’s chief, Dinh Van Luong, said since the government banned firecrackers, drum-making has developed strongly. Doi Tam village was recognized as a traditional craft village in October 2004. The Vietnam Craft Village Association granted it the “Vietnam’s outstanding craft village” title in November 2007. Not only does it make drums, the village has formed a drum-playing team to serve festivals in the country.

These drums are ready for sale.

Near Tet, some families in Doi Tam also make wine decanters. Mrs. Sang said that the village has produced this product for around five years. Each decanter is priced from VND130,000 to VND500,000 ($7-25). This is also an important source of income of Doi Tam people.

source form: vietnamnet

Brocade weaving retains the traditional characteristics of the Co Tu ethnic group of Quang Nam Province.

Long ago, local people wove brocade products to serve their own family’s needs. With the development of a market economy, the Co Tu began to buy clothes from elsewhere and their brocade weaving almost faded out.

A few years ago, Japan’s Fund for International Development and Relief granted Nam Giang District $55,000 to restore the local weaving craft.

Pham Thi Nhu, Vice Chairwoman of the Nam Giang District People’s Committee, said many contracts have been signed to ease local artisans’ worries about outlets for their products.

The Japanese funded project has helped to promote the brocade products of the Co Tu people, improve their design and teach women in Zora hamlet the weaving techniques.

Their products have been displayed at trade fairs in HCM City and overseas. Thanks to these efforts, local products have found their way into foreign markets. Many contracts have been signed to ensure outlets for local brocade products,” she said.

As Co Tu women work all day in the fields, it was difficult at first to persuade them to join the weaving group. However, appeals to their cultural identity convinced 20 women to join the group.

Over the few past years, the Zo Ra brocade weaving group has turned out dozens of beautiful and eye-catching designs and patterns. After working in the fields during the day, in the evening they join the weaving group to produce beautiful handbags, clothes, towels and hats.

Now, the weaving craft is flourishing in this hamlet. Local women have even learned how to promote their products in tourist hubs such as Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang and Hoi An. As a result, their sales have increased dramatically.

Nguyen Thi Ki Lan feels very lucky to be a member of the weaving group. “The women’s union and the project have helped us develop the weaving craft. They helped to find outlets. Thanks to the project, our family has more money and we can now buy more home appliances. This project also helps us promote our cultural identity and that’s why we try our best to maintain and develop this trade,” Lan said.

Many local artisans skilled in the craft have passed their secrets to younger generations. The craft has now spread to other communes in Nam Giang District.

Le Thi Le Thuy, Vice Chairwoman of Nam Giang District, said that many others throughout Nam Giang district are now following the brocade weaving trade and this model has proved to be very effective.

source form: dtinews

Sao Beach draws visitors seeking a place to reflect on the beauty of Phu Quoc. The beach, on the opposite coast from the rapidly developing Long Beach, is prized for its relative inaccessibility.

IT was my first time operating a motorcycle, but I handled the Honda with the confidence of a veteran, zipping alongside my boyfriend, Caleb, through rain-filled potholes on red clay streets. The morning was overcast after a night of thunderstorms, but we were determined to spend as many daylight hours as possible on Sao Beach, the white sand haven rumored to be among the most beautiful spots on Phu Quoc, an island 30 miles off the west coast of Vietnam.

It was somewhere near a street market selling the island’s signature products (black pepper, fish sauce and saltwater pearls) that we took a wrong turn and ended up looping back toward Phu Quoc National Park, whose forests, mountains and beaches cover roughly 70 percent of the 222-square-mile island. There, on a rough stretch of highway, the Honda slid from beneath me and I ended up sprawled on the side of the road with a deep gash in my knee.

I shakily drove 16 miles back to the hospital in the town of Duong Dong, where I received three stitches. Determined to stay on course for the day, I then climbed back onto the Honda. I simply could not allow myself to be laid up on Phu Quoc, where the ocean is myriad shades of green, and densely forested mountains slope down to white sand beaches.

Caleb and I had arrived from Ho Chi Minh City the day before, on an hourlong flight packed with tourists, most of them looking for tranquillity after whirlwind tours of Vietnam. The single-runway airport where we landed will soon be dwarfed by an international terminal being built on the east side of the island. When it is finished, Phu Quoc will be flooded with visitors eager for a taste of what some say is the next Phuket.

But for now, with over 50 hotels and a plethora of spas, markets, beachside bars and restaurants, Phu Quoc has all the creature comforts of a luxurious getaway at relatively inexpensive prices. Most of the resorts are on Long Beach and Ong Lang Beach on the island’s west side, which is indented with hidden coves buffered by black volcanic rock. Offshore, coral reefs sheltered by sandbars await divers and snorkelers.

Phu Quoc has only recently become a tourist destination. A sleepy outpost of fishing villages until the end of the 20th century, the island was the subject of numerous border disputes between Cambodia and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Coconut Tree Prison was used by the United States as a detention camp for North Vietnamese soldiers. Today, the penitentiary is a historical site and all international conflicts are over. The island’s hopes rest with tourism: By 2020, Phu Quoc, population 90,000, is expected to attract three million visitors a year.

The island, one hopes, won’t sacrifice its unexpected charms. Any turn on a road can lead to an encounter with tradition: a group of girls dressed in white school gowns, riding their bikes home for lunch; a cemetery full of tiny pagodas, partly hidden in fields of golden grass; fishermen lounging beneath palm trees beside their turquoise and red boats.

THE doctor at Duong Dong allowed me to ride my motorcycle, but he forbade me from swimming. Fortunately, I had spent the previous day exploring the waters off the northern tip of the island on a trip arranged by the concierge at Mango Bay, an eco-resort near Ong Lang Beach. For hours, Caleb and I had snorkeled above coral reefs teeming with rainbow fish, snappers and sea urchins, breaking only to have lunch beneath the canopied shelter of a fishing boat that Conrad, our young South African guide, had anchored off a deserted strip of sand.

“The Russians are coming,” Conrad had told us, as we lingered over grilled squid, spring rolls, shredded mango salad and Phu Quoc’s signature fish sauce, which is the island’s main export. “And money talks,” he said, referring to a rumored new port that would accommodate the mega-yachts of Russian oligarchs. In Phu Quoc’s schools, he said, the first language children learn is Vietnamese, the second is English and the third is Russian, a reflection of the increasing number of well-off Slavic tourists drawn to the island.

As we ate, we watched a group of Vietnamese in neon-orange life jackets bob away from the boat they had just arrived on, only to be retrieved, screaming with laughter, by a dinghy. Eventually, a few brave pioneers from the group paddled to the shallows of the reef and stood on the coral, watching us impassively. “Not a single one of them can swim, not even the crew,” Conrad said.

At the time, the observation was amusing. Little did I know that the next day, I would be similarly handicapped.

Despite the doctor’s warning not to swim, Caleb and I were determined to get to Sao Beach, even if it meant just sitting in the sand. I tremulously drove my motorbike, with its newly smashed rearview mirror, a bit unnerved by the motorists honking their horns and zooming past me.

As a respite, we stopped for a short hike up Tranh stream, which ran perpendicular to the highway, to reach a waterfall. My knee felt stiff, but with Caleb’s help, I steadily made my way up the slope. On a rock near the waterfall, we sat for a bit, entertained by the young Vietnamese men who were celebrating Sunday by standing beneath the rush of water in their underwear.

Back on our bikes, we rode across the sparsely populated hills in the center of the island, past pepper farms and billboards advertising future shopping malls and resorts.

Eventually, we reached a town filled with restaurants and outdoor markets, and turned left at the sign for Sao Beach. On pockmarked roads, we followed a stream of traffic that steadily thinned as we got closer to the ocean.

Sao Beach is no secret to tourists on the island. What makes it such a treasure is its relative inaccessibility. On the opposite coast from the rapidly developing Long Beach, Sao Beach has yet to be conquered by resorts. To get there, we had traveled 40 miles over unfinished roads, and we had done so at the expense of my knee.

Finally, we pulled our motorbikes into an empty courtyard at the beach’s entrance. By that time, our only companion was a gray-bearded dog that followed us as we made our way through the dusty restaurant that blocked our initial view of the ocean.

We emerged onto a cluster of tables sheltered by umbrellas of woven palm fronds. All sounds disappeared except for the lapping of the waves.

To our left, a young woman sat alone on a sandbar a hundred feet out in the water, engrossed in a book. To the right, a Vietnamese family dressed in bright T-shirts greeted fishermen tugging a boat onto the shore. White sand stretched out in all directions, seeming to meld with the cloudy sky in gradients of soft milky shades of ivory and cream. Occasionally the ethereal glow was broken by the silhouettes of solitary bathers in the shallow waters.

This was the paradise that Phu Quoc had promised us, and it delivered. Caleb and I kicked off our shoes and dropped our helmets next to a palm tree. Beachcombers for the day, we made our way across the sand until our path was blocked by mounds of rocks. The next beach on the coastline, entirely secluded, was just beyond our reach.

We would have braved the slippery climb had my knee not been throbbing. Instead, we contented ourselves with the sand that was already beneath our feet, and it was more than enough.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE

The fastest way to Phu Quoc is to fly from Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam Airlines (vietnamairlines.com) offers one-hour flights up to eight times a day. Once there, the easiest way to get around is on a motorbike (around $8 a day).

WHERE TO EAT

The food almost anywhere in Phu Quoc is great, but the best bet for an outstanding meal is the Night Market in Duong Dong (open nightly, 6 p.m. to midnight), which has dozens of stalls serving fresh seafood, juices, beer and traditional Vietnamese fare. For less than $20, you can have a feast at one of the ramshackle restaurants that line the stalls.

WHERE TO STAY

Long Beach is the most densely populated strip on Phu Quoc, boasting the luxurious La Veranda (84-773-982-988; laverandaresort.com), a resort in the style of a seaside French mansion, with doubles starting at $225 during the high season.

The eco-lodges around Ong Lang Beach in the north are quiet, less expensive alternatives to the more-traditional resorts in the south.

Mango Bay (84-773-981-693; mangobayphuquoc.com) has bungalows with ocean views from $100 a night, and there is Freedomland (84-226-586-802; freedomlandphuquoc.com), which has private huts, starting at $35 a night, that are a 12-minute walk from the beach.

WHAT TO DO

Water activities abound, including snorkeling and diving in the reefs around Phu Quoc’s 22 satellite islands. Most of the resorts have day trips, but Rainbow Divers (84-913-400-964; divevietnam.com) also offers tours starting at $25.

For gifts, Phu Quoc Pearls (treasuresfromthedeep.com) harvests over a billion oysters on an isolated stretch of Long Beach, and it houses a boutique selling pearl jewelry ranging from $5 to $40,000.

US Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear has presented a grant for US$30,000 to officials of the Thai Binh Province Museum to restore and preserve a valuable collection of wooden devotional objects.

This grant was provided through the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation.

This restoration project will allow Nam Dinh Provincial Museum to preserve 29 red-lacquered and gold-trimmed wooden objects and to enhance the training and skill level of the museum staff.

The pieces, dating from the 17th to 19th centuries, were collected by Thai Binh Museum from many places in the province (mainly in communal houses, pagodas, temples, and shrines).

The objects not only have historical and cultural value but are also folk art pieces which reflect the culture and spiritual life of the Vietnamese people living in one of the key Red River Delta provinces.

The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) was established by the US Department of State in 2001 to help less developed countries preserve cultural heritage and to demonstrate US respect for other cultures.

Since then, the AFCP has supported more than 650 cultural preservation projects worldwide, including ten projects in Vietnam, totaling $29 million.
source form: tuoitrenews

A 27-year-old man survived after falling twice from the Yen Tu Mountain during his visit to the Yen Tu relic site in Quang Ninh Province on December 13.

The lucky man is Nguyen Tai Quyen from Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi. He was hospitalized at Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi in the morning of the following day in a serious condition.

He broke the collarbone and a spinal vertebra and also suffered internal injuries in several organs which led to kidney failure and elevated liver enzymes, said Dr. Dinh Manh Hai.
His eyes were also bruised and his cheek was scratched, Hai said.

Quyen is being treated for liver and kidneys problems and will undergo a spine surgery on December 19, Hai said.

Talking with Tuoi Tre yesterday, Quyen recalled, “At 4 pm I went alone to a cliff and then climbed over the barrier to take some photos, but the string of the camera got stuck into the barrier.

“When I was pulling the string out with one hand, I slipped and fell down to a large bush and then to another cliff, about 10 m below the barrier. I felt sharp pain in my shoulder but I remained conscious.

“Lying on the cliff, I tried to use my cell phone to call my parents but it didn’t work. I couldn’t stand up due to aches and pain over my body, so I crept on the cliff and began shouting for help. But once again, I fell down to several bushes before dropping to another cliff, which I was told later is about 70 m below the barrier.”

Quyen said after the second fall, he was too painful and exhausted to shout for help or move. He had to lie on the cliff as it turned dark and cold, hoping that someone could find him.

On the next day, the owner of the boarding house where Hai stayed informed to the management board of the Yen Tu relic site which later sent out a rescue team to look for him for several hours and finally found him after he tried to his best to shout for help at 3 pm.

The center gave him first aid and informed his parents who later took him to the hospital.

Quyen had suffered from the pain from the accident for more than 24 hours before he was saved, Vu Ngoc Huong, head of the relic management team of the Yen Tu Relic Center, said.

source form: tuoitrenews