news: various interesting VN news

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

Sam Son creates safe and attractive environment for tourists

Thanh Hoa Province is hurriedly preparing to welcome visitors from far
and wide to enjoy a convenient, safe and pleasant vacation this summer.

Horse-carts have been warned not to enter Nguyen Du, Thanh Nien and Ho
Xuan Huong streets bordering the coastline which lead visitors to famous
historical attractions in Sam Son Municipality. They will be able to
enjoy the pure atmosphere of the sea and nature. 

The Chairman of Sam Son People's Committee said the authorities will try
to eliminate activities of burglary and fortune-telling before the
tourist season begins. All hotels and restaurants are required to offer
fixed service prices, devise measures to safeguard clients and their
property, and com mit themselves to clamping down on social evils.

The municipality has set up a fleet of tourist cars to enable tourists
to visit Lam Kinh, Ho Dynasty Citadel, En Wharf, Ham Rong Area, and Tu
Thuc Cave.

Emergency stations with the assistance of 30 rescue workers and three
motor-boats are on duty 24 hours a day. By patrolling the sea, they help
holiday-makers avoid strong tides and submerged rocks offshore. The
Thanh Hoa Service of Health, the municipal authorities and the Sam Son
Medical Center h ave also trained 250 directors of restaurants, hotels,
guest houses and refreshment stores in order to guarantee food hygiene
and clean water sources for visitors. Those which discharge garbage out
to sea will be punished. Thus it can be said, this summer, Sam Son has
created a safe and hygienic e nvironment for tourists to have a good time
on its beach.



Raising pythons in the Mekong Delta

By Vo Tu Xuyen
HCMC

If you go to My Tho (Tien Giang Province), Vung Liem (Vinh Long
Province), Rach Gia, Ca Mau (Minh Hai Province), or out-of-the-way areas
in the Mekong Delta, you will at times be surprised to witness a strange
method of raising pythons by people in this area.

It is unclear how people have "domesticated" large, checkered pythons
which are too heavy for them to carry, treating them as a kind of pet.
Many locals say raising pythons is even easier than raising berger dogs.
Some households raise 5-10 pythons unbridled in their rice fields. The
pythons look for prey and take a bath in canals, and even return home in
the evening like chickens and ducks.

Many people in the region are aware of the python-raising skills of Mr.
Nguyen Van Lam, who has over the past three years made a large fortune
with this occupation. He said raising pythons is not as complicated as
raising pigs and chickens, but the profits the former brings outweigh
those from the latter. Pythons do not consume much feed, and do not
require intensive care (they eat chickens, ducks and even mice). They
can keep in good health by eating only once a month. Each month a python
lays 20-30 eggs, which hatch 55 days later.  Python meat is sold to
specialty restaurants or enterpri ses in Cholon specializing in producing
medicinal jelly, and wallets and handbags made from python skin. A large
python sells for between VND100,000-VND160,000/kilo, and a baby python,
40-cm long, costs VND50,000-VND60,000.

Local people say it is easy to domesticate pythons, especially baby
ones, and it only takes one month.



Thirty-four hours to go from Hanoi to HCMC by train

The first two trains running on the Hanoi-HCMC route taking 34 hours
departed from Hanoi Station to Saigon Station. The trains were codenamed
S1 (for the one departing from Hanoi), and S2 (from HCMC).

According to the plan of the railway sector, trains running on this
route usually comprise two air-conditioned carriages, two soft-berth
carriages, two hard-berth carriages and seat carriages. Each carriage is
equipped with a potable water filter, four carpets and two dustbins. In
its toilets, the re are soap, paper tissues and high-quality towels. It
can be said that these are the best equipped trains so far.

The 34-hour train stops at some major stations; ticket prices will
increase by 5% compared with the 36-hour train previously.

During past years, the running time of North-South trains has been
continuously shortened: from 58 hours in 1988 to 48 hours in 1989, then
to 38 hours in 1991 and to 36 hours in 1994.   


A unique house on stilts in Tay Nguyen

By Chinh Huu
HCMC

Located in the heart of an area which is long famous for catching
elephants for domestication, Don Village, has a wooden-roofed house on
stilts, which has been in existence for over a century.

It is possible to say that this is the only house in Tay Nguyen (Central
Highlands) of this kind. The design of the house is somewhat affected by
Laotian architecture. This pyramid-shaped house has four roofs, which
are more than 100-sq.m wide. It comprises four partitions, with the
first partitio n being used as a living room, and the remainder dedicated
to three wives of the then householder. The house has two yards, one in
the front and the other at the back, with two staircases called "male"
and "female". 

In order to build the house, a group of 14 practiced artisans was
required. The construction of the house, designed by Mr. Thavivong
Khamsao, was started on October 7, 1883 and was completed on February
19, 1885.

Traditionally, the house-warming ceremony was organized for three days
and nights, with offerings being three cows, nine buffaloes and hundreds
of jars of can spirits. People from the neighboring villages flocked
there to celebrate the inauguration of the house on March 19, 1885,
exactly, one mont h after the construction was completed.

It is necessary to explain something about the materials used to make
this house. People chiseled 8,726 bars of precious wood. About 7.5 cubic
meters of wood (2cm x 12cm x 35cm) was used to roof the house. The total
value of the house was then equal to the value of 12 male elephants with
long tusk (at present, such an elephant costs some VND60 million-VND70
million, exclusive of its tusk).

This is a unique, strange and beautiful piece of architecture in the
Central Highlands. 




Life in brief

v Vietnamese pupils to tour Africa's tropical forests

Four Vietnamese students, two from Hanoi and two from HCMC, having
passed three rounds of written and oral examinations on environmental
protection, will take part in a visit to the tropical forests of Africa
between July 13-22. This is the second time Vietnamese pupils have been
sponsored by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific to tour the primitive natural
preserve of Lapalala together with pupils from many other countries
worldwide.


v Vietnam to participate in ASEAN Traditional Music Forum in Thailand

Vietnam will take part in the ASEAN Traditional Music Forum to be held
in August this year in Bangkok, Thailand. The forum is one of the
projects approved at the thirty-first meeting of the ASEAN Committee of
Culture and Information (ASEAN-COCI) in Bali, Indonesia. The Ministry of
Culture and Info rmation has assigned Hanoi Conservatory to take charge
of preparing speeches and two compositions for the traditional
Vietnamese "orchestra."  


v Vietnam Open Rapid Chess Tournament in HCMC

The second Vietnam Open Rapid Chess Tournament is taking place at the
First Hotel in Tan Binh District, HCMC between May 19-21. The tournament
is attended by national masters and candidate masters from 15 provinces
and cities nationwide, and a foreign delegation from Macao. These
players will comp ete in individual and team competitions based on the
Swiss system in 11 matches. 


v French summer course to be opened in Dalat

To prepare for the Francophone Summit to be held later this year in
Hanoi, Dalat University, the French Embassy and the ADALY Association
(an association of friends in Dalat following the example of scientist
Yersin) has plans to open a summer course entitled "The French Language
and Development" at Dalat University. The course, expected to last from
July 21-26, will focus on cooperation and development matters in the
areas of agro-forestry, medical care, journalism, communications,
tourism, sports, economics and trading. A total of 130 people of
different nationalities, who are good at Fr ench and have professional
skills, are expected to attend this course. The French Embassy will
sponsor expenses for traveling and accommodation of the prospective
students. The course is now under consideration of the Ministry of
Education and Training.

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