Vietnam's Tet traditional food - Legendary Chung Cake from Thanh Khuc Village

Thanh Khuc (or Tranh Khuc) Village at Duyen Ha Commune, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi is famous for making their traditional Chung cake. This is a place where the spirit of Tet comes alive the earliest in Hanoi.

Tranh Khuc Village is particularly busy at the end of the year. Although Tet is approaching next month, the entire village is preparing to make Chung cake. You cannot find such a traditional feature of Tet anywhere other than here.

La dong is bought from Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Northern mountainous provinces

Chung cake is a traditional Vietnamese cake which is made from glutinous rice, mung bean, pork and other ingredients. Its origin is told by the legend of Lang Lieu, a prince of the sixth Hung King, who became Hung King 's successor thank to his creation of Chung cake and Giay cake, which symbolised respectively the Earth and the Sky. Considered an essential element of the family altar on the occasion of Tet. The making and eating Chung cake during this time is a well-preserved tradition of Vietnamese people, and the specialty of Tranh Khuc Village.

“Daily, we wash la dong (a special kind of leave which is popular only in southern Asia), rice, beans and then wrap chung cake. We cook it for a night and the next day we will sell it. We keep working day and night,” said Nguyen Thi Thuy, a villager.

Preparation for chung cake wrapping

Each family here has 10-25 workers with 5-10 big pots to cook chung cake. Their business used to be retail sales but now it has grown to wholesale.

Making Chung cake is a traditional business in this farming village and has remained very successful. It helps them to improve their livelihood.

Ngan’s family is among those becoming wealthier thanks to making chung cake. “My family’s economic situation has been much improved thanks the Chung cake business. We just inherited a legacy left by our ancestor and continued to develop it,” said Ngan.

A professional Chung cake wrapper can make hundreds of cake per day

However, the title of “Chung cake Master” belongs to Nguyen Minh Tan, who is over 50 years old but has spent 30 years making chung cake. He has about 20 employees working for him. His entire house is full of la dong, strings, and sticky rice.

He has sold thousands of Chung cakes. The first time he exported Chung cakes was back in 1994. He exported 4,000 cakes to Germany in addition to Australia and Russia.

“It looks simple because every family makes Chung cake on Tet holiday but when it becomes a business, it needs a lot of effort, experience and preparedness. We want to maintain our prestige and reputation for our off-spring,” said Nguyen Quoc Trieu, a villager.

In order to make a good Chung cake, we need to buy and select high quality ingredients. For example, la dong should be bought from Thanh Hoa, Nghe An or Yen Bai, Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces because they are soft, hard to be broken and have a nice green colour after cooking.

La dong and giang strings have to be washed carefully in order to preserve the taste of the cake. Giang strings may be soaked in salt water or steamed so that they can become flexible enough for wrapping. Fat and lean pork is prefered for Chung cake because its fatty flavour associates mixes well with the glutinous rice and bean, developing a special taste, according to Trieu.

“We make Chung cake for the whole year. We can earn VND10,000-15,000 ($0.5-0.8) per cake. But during Tet, we can earn much more money,” added Trieu.

The people here prepare for Tet beginning in early December and keep busy for the entire month. They welcome the New Year after the last cake has sold.

Tranh Khuc Village has 90 percent of its population making Chung Cake. They have been famous for 40-50 years. They don’t even need mould to wrap Chung Cake in the right manner. Many masters can make hundreds of cakes of the same size.

Source: dtinews.vn/by Quang Thanh

Recommendation in Vietnam:
- Vietnam Cultures and Customs
- Adventure tours in Vietnam
- Short Excursions in Vietnam

Road tripping through the hill tribe towns of Vietnam's Central Highlands

Exploring Vietnam's Central Highland's pine tree forests, waterfalls and coffee plantations by motorbike

"Nha san", or stilt house's K'Ho people in Lam Dong, Vietnam

Despite breathtaking mountain scenery and a rich diversity of hill tribe cultures, Vietnam’s Central Highlands remain one of the least 'tourorized' areas of Southeast Asia. This region of pine tree forests, waterfalls and coffee plantations is far from the coastal beach resorts where most tourists flock, and this remoteness is all part of the charm.

The narrow, winding roads of the highlands are strewn with potholes, some so deep and wide it appears as if elephants were dropped on the tarmac successively from various heights in some grotesque experiment. An equally poor bus system and lack of railways make exploration by more maneuverable motorbikes the best option.

Venturing Inland
This adventure starts in the coastal town of Phan Thiet, though the mountains can be approached from any adjacent city between Ho Chi Minh in the south and Danang on the central coast. The road from Phan Thiet winds through Hindu Cham villages and mountain rain-forests before arriving in the town of Dalat.

The K’ho of Dalat
Dr Alexandre Yersin (the noted explorer and scientist who discovered the cause of the bubonic plague) is traditionally considered the founder of the Dalat. The hill station, sanatorium and eventual resorts that developed more than 100 years ago have blessed Vietnam with one of the finest concentrations of French Colonial architecture in Indochina.

The city was named after the Lat clan, a subgroup of the K’ho tribe who inhabit much of Lam Dong Province. Though the K’ho have been assimilated by the dominant Vietnamese culture of modern Dalat, their bamboo stilt houses with thatched roofs can still be seen dotting hillsides in remote areas.
The entire K’ho family, including grandparents and extended family, all sleep together in a single-room "nha san", or stilt house. Cooking is done directly on the floor, without benefit of a chimney. The smoke preserves the structure and repels insects.

An Ede girl in traditional dress weaves textiles in her shop in Dak Lak Province.The M’Nong of Lak Lake
A day’s motorbike journey from Dalat will reach Lak Lake; the lake's shores are inhabited by displaced members of the M’nong tribe, relocated here from the north by the government. On my road trip, I spent the night in immense, wooden M’Nong longhouses. After a morning of elephant rides and canoe trips I drove to Ede territory in Dak Lak Province.

The Ede of Buon Ma Thuat
The Provincial capital of Buon Ma Thuat is the seat of Vietnam’s coffee-growing empire, its capacity now second only to Brazil. Due to tensions between the government and local hill tribes, the ability to travel without special permits can be restrictive. Travellers can be expected to only be allowed to travel between Buon Mat Thuat, which has a few major waterfalls like Drey Sap and Drey Nur, and Yuk Don National Park.

The Jai Rai of Pleiku
Heading north through Gia Lai Province traverses the territory of the Jai Rai, famous for their elaborate wooden funeral houses guarded by erotic totems. The capital city of Pleiku was an infamous battleground in the war with America. Politics in the area is complicated, and hiring a government-licensed guide is required to visit Jai Rai villages and nearby waterfalls, though travellers are free to visit the flooded volcanic crater known as Ho Bien on their own.

The Bahnar of Kon Tum
Just a few hours further to the North, the city of Kon Tum, and the surrounding province by the same name, holds the greatest cultural treasures of the central highlands. The town is populated by ethnic Bahnar, most differentiated from Vietnam’s other minority groups by the thatched communal lodges that tower above the villages surrounding the city. Like many hill tribes however, common cultural icons include musical gongs, “buffalo stabbing festivals” and ruou can (rice wine brewed in large ceramic vases.)

Out to the Coast
The final leg of the journey has almost as many options as the beginning. Roads lead north to Danang via the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail, or out to coastal towns like Hoi An or Qui Nhon. I chose a remote route to Quang Ngai through villages of the indigo-clothed H’re, then loaded my motorbike on a train back to Phan Thiet.

Driving logistics
According to Vietnamese law, all foreign drivers must possess a Vietnamese driver’s license. Vietnam does not honor International Driving Permits, despite persistent claims by the agencies that issue them. Applicants need a driving license from their home country with a motorcycle endorsement, a translated and notarized copy, a validation form from the applicable embassy, a local health exam, and must pay a small fee at a Vietnam Department of Transportation branch in any city.

The process will take a minimum of one week. Without a prior motorcycle endorsement applicants must take a simple driving test, which could add a delay of several weeks. In truth, most foreign drivers do not have Vietnamese licenses and traffic police in the Central Highlands have regularly chosen not to enforce this regulation.

Motorbikes can be rented from many tour offices and guesthouses for US$5 - US$10 per day. Multi-day trips may require a deposit equal to the value of the motorbike.

Source: www.cnngo.com/explorations

Recommendation:
- Travel Guide in Vietnam
- Ride Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Bike Dalat

The Great Red Spider Vietnam Motorcycle Tour with ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA - Part 1

Series of blog entries from Burrows Red Spider group describe their great 16-day motorcycling trip in Vietnam with ACTIVETRAVEL ASIA. Let's follow their trip day by day!

Red Spider bikers over the wood bridge

Saturday Jan 16th

They came from London, Birmingham, St. Louis and Chicgao....that gang of Red Spider bikers. All on a mission, to see new things, to meet new people and to have a great adventure and make friends. Today we made our first new friend..... JOSEF, who took our group picture at O'Hare. So we promised him a spot on the RS Website. We are enjoying our pre-departure time getting to know one another better.

Sunday Jan 17/Monday 18

Lost Luggage has haunted the Red Spider tour at the onset. BeerPong Bill, had his luggage get sent to Honolulu becuase of course the airline code for hong kong which is HKG is so much like HNL....gofigger. So beer pongs bag is yet to arrive. Morrocco Dave had his bag left in Hong Kong but it arrived here today Monday safely. And finally Red Spider Steve received his bag as normal but many items missing and now a part of the TSA Christmas party for 2010 no doubt.

Today we enjoyed a short day touring the Hanoi Hilton, and then had a great lunch and a few beers. Now we are fitted with our cycle helmets and chillin at the hotel. And Wingman with all bags in hand has been busy trying to find that perfect sweatshirt for his favorite sweetie.

Tonight we will hit the town locally and enjoyed some good local cuisine and some beers and generally some good laughs. Tomorrow, our Tuesday we do some morning sight seeing and then we...................are off folks to Mai Chau around noon for our first leg of the journey.

Tuesday 19

Road to Mai Chau

Its early in the morning here and jet lag and anticipation of the trip has the Red Spider gang up early. We will go to the lake where John McCain crashed his plane and a few other sites today before heading out to Mai Chau for our first leg of the trip. We stay in a local home tonight so the next website update may be a few days away. We will update when we can so be patient. We, and especially Beer Pong, hopes that Beer Pongs bag will catch up to us tonight. Wish us well and we send our greetings to all of you enjoying our trip.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday January 19, 20 and 21

Sorry that we have been off line for so long but we have not had any i-net connections for 3 days. And we have so much to catch up on. Since we left Mai Chau, the Thai community we have moved south by about 600 KM's to Tan Ky and now to Dong Hoi. Check the map on the "Tour" tab if you really want to know where that is. So what have we seen and experienced since we last logged on?

Arrival in Dong Hoi, Quang Binh, Vietnam

• we learned that vietnam roads are for bikes, people, motorcycles, cars, trucks, cattle, dogs, cats and people.
• We learned that the roads are used for not only transportation, but for bathrooms and for agriculture to dry anyting from corn to wheat, to bamboo and other things
• We finally got Beer Pongs Bag. What a happy moment that was after four days of United Airlines total screw-up
• We played the first of many 31 card games which bruce wingman won kicked butt on the first night
• We saw beautiful Thai villages, chopstick factories, the most incredible rivers and topography that you could imagine
• we saw "Indian Jones" type bridges and crossed two of them ourselves on the bikes.
• We went from orange groves, to sugar cane fields, to bamboo forests to tea plantations and always surrounded by the perpetual rice paddies with hard working people in them at all times of day
• We found some of the dumpiest hotels in the world but still had a good time
• We learned that driving at night in Vietnam is a bad idea and we wont do it again
• We decided that a rainy day is good day to load the bikes in a truck and take the van to the next destination rather than risk harm on a slippery road.
• We saw a spectacular river cave
• We had lots of laughs and a great time so far and only in day 3 and about 380 KM's of a 1,500 KM trip

Tomorrow, our Friday, we travel from Dong Hoi south to the infamous DMZ and end up in the coastal city of Dong Ha.

Friday January 22

Today we are off to Dong Ha, similar sound as where we are now which is Dong Hoi. On the way we will visit several famous spots from the Vietnam War and will pass thru the DMZ. We departed Dong Hoi, a city of about 500,000 people around 9:00am and headed to our first site in a light mist and drizzle which made the ride more interesting, but we maintained slow pace until the roads dried out.

Tunnel entrance DMZ

The first stop was the Truong Son National Cemetery....the Vietnamese version of Arlington Cemetery. More than 10,000 soldiers are buried here and we paid our respects. Next rode to the Vinh Moc Tunnel. An amazing place with three underground tunnel systems that the VC used to hide from Americans and plan attacks on the South. There are over 40 KM's of underground tunnels and some are more than 24 meters below the surface. Some of the bikers adventured into the tunnels, but Red Spider and Feel Good took a pass.

Then we moved on along the coast which was beautiful and headed to the 17th Parallell.....the dividing line in history between the north and the south. We viewed the memorials on both the north side of the river and the south side of the river built to honor the respective soldiers who gave their lives. We also visited the Doc Mieu firebase, which was a French installation perched high on a hill just over the boarder to the south and a great place to launch many rocket attacks on the north we suspect. Today we completed another 250 KM's of our trip bring us to about 550KM's in total under our belts.....or butts as the case may be.

Tomorrow we head for Khe Sanh Air Base among other things.

Saturday January 23rd

Today we go west from Dong Ha to the famous US Airbase called Khe Sanh. Go to "Part 2" for the next update

Source: peterb.yolasite.com

Travel Tips
- Motorcycle tips: Viet Nam motorcycle travel tips
- Motorcyle guide & trail: Ho Chi Minh trail & travel guide
- Motorcycle tours: Motorcycle tours in Vietnam

Cham island, Vietnam – A part of the world’s lung

Lying in Tan Hiep commune, in the central province of Quang Nam’s Hoi An town, Cu lao Cham or Cham island is a cultural historical monument that is closely associated with the establishment and development of Hoi An town for a thousand years.

The island has become one of 15 Vietnamese maritime reserves since 2007. However, in May, 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) accepted Cham island as a world biosphere reserve thanks to its topography, the biodiversity value and the unspoilt and attractive landscape.

Cham island, Vietnam – A part of the world’s lung

The sapphires

The island consists of eight islets, including Hon Lao, Hon Dai, Hon Kho me or the mother Hon Kho, Hon Kho con or the child Hon Kho, Hon La, Hon Tai, Hon Ong. Each islet with a distinct feature of beauty and wonderful sand beaches make an ideal landscape. The abrupt mountain slopes, big waves and floristic composition makes these islets like unpolished sapphires. The island is, therefore, an ideal destination.

Kingdom of aquatic animals

With 500 hectares of sea-weed alga, marine algae and sea grass and 165 hectares of coral and sea creatures, the island is considered a kingdom of aquatic animals. Of which, the coral has 135 species, algae and sea grasses have 500 species, fish 202 species, lobster 4 species and mollusks 84 species. Under the clear fresh water is coral and shoals of colorful fish. If you go for a scuba dive you will encounter a beautiful marine world.

Cham island, Vietnam – A part of the world’s lung

Go and discover

Cham island is 15 kilometres from Cua Dai beach and 20 kilometres off the coast from Hoi An ancient town. If reach the island by hi-speed boat, it will take you just 30 minutes. Meanwhile, boat ticket prices are very reasonable. Therefore, there will be no reason for you to miss the chance of taking a visit to such a natural and unspoilt landscape, fresh air and cool climate. From Cua Dai beach, you can also take a trip to the island by a normal boat.

However, before starting the trip, you should be aware of environmental protection. You should not bring anything made from plastic or anything that could damage the environment.

After starting the boat, you will quickly reach the largest islet- Hon Lao, that covers 1.317 hectares and is 500 metres high. This islet is, therefore, considered as the rooftop of these islets. Continuing on the trip you can visit the historical monuments of Hai Tang Pagpda-a 300-year architecture located among three mountains called Bat Long, Ngoa Long and Tiem.

There are so many wonderful landscapes on Cham island that you can not visit far-away places on a day tour. However, destinations that you should not miss include Lang Ong, the old well, Huong fishing village, and an exhibition of nature and the Cham island people’s culture.

Come and enjoy

If you come to Cham island you will have chance to join in many water sports, including swimming, water skiing, paragliding, kayaking, kite flying and boat racing. You will also have chance to scuba dive and go on glass-bottomed boat that allows you to discover the underwater world. At night time, you can also participate in cultural activities on the beaches until late.

Finally, there is nothing that could bring you a more enjoyable feeling than enjoying the special fresh seafood at reasonable prices after your trip or tour.

Source: By Nho Trung /dtinews.vn

Related sites:
- Vietnam City Guides
- Bike Ho Chi Minh Trail

Bac Ha, a white highland in Vietnam

Visiting Bac Ha Highland in Lao Cai province on early spring days, tourists will be treated with a pure and special selection of beautiful Tam Hoa plum flowers covering villages with its white colour.

Villages of ethnic minorities such as the Mong Hoa, Tay, Nung, Phu La in Ta Chai, Na Hoi, Ban Pho, Nam Mon, and Lung Phin areas, all of which are 1,000 metres above sea level, are covered with white plum flowers. That’s also the reason why Bac Ha is called, “A white Highland”.

Source: By Ngoc Bang Pham/dtinews.vn

Recommendation in Lao Cai, Vietnam:
- Visiting Bac Ha Market
- Trekking tours in Vietnam