We landed on Dong Tac Airport in late afternoon at the same time Phu Yen Province suffered a tropical depression so the weather was rather cool.

We booked into the Cendeluxe Hotel and from our room we could see the Nhan Temple at the peak of Nhan Mountain, immense rice fields and rivers winding around the city.

Not as busy as Nha Trang City, Tuy Hoa coastal city seems to be gentler and more peaceful and quiet.

Phu Yen Province is considered the rice fields of the central region. Not many cities can boast the image of endless green rice fields around the city like Tuy Hoa, creating a unique and peaceful beauty.

Nighttime in Tuy Hoa is also still too. From the 17th floor of the hotel, we could admire Nhan Temple with its sparkling lights flashing into the sky.

Early next morning, we visited Dai Lanh Lighthouse, or so-called Mui Dien Cape, Vung Ro Bay near Ca Pass, passing vast fields along National Highway 1A. Locals told us when the harvest time comes they offer a mouse dish which tourists should try.

On the way to Mui Dien Cape, we gazed at Da Bia Mountain where there is an 80-meter-high stone on the top. Located around 23 kilometers south of Tuy Hoa City and standing 700 meters above sea level, Da Bia Mountain is the highest peak of the Ca Pass Mountain Range. The mountain is also a historical relic where King Le Thanh Ton ordered his soldiers to cross Cu Mong Pass and head to Ca Pass and the King made a stop here and carved some words on the rock.

The mountain is an ideal place for adventure lovers to conquer the mount. A hike to the top and back down takes about three hours. The pain in your legs is compensated by the satisfaction of not only enjoying the splendid surroundings, but the amazing feeling of victory and the awesome panoramic view from above.

Meanwhile, Dai Lanh Cape is where visitors catch the first rays of sunlight on the extreme east coast of the country in the 26-meter-high lighthouse.

There, hundreds of meters above the deep blue sea, tourists can see a real spectacle; a combination of flat ocean, running hills and streams that bring fresh water from high mountains, untouched by modern life.

Under the cape is Mon Beach, a very lean and stunning beach where visitors can relax with fresh and blue water, swim with fish and admire the amazing coral. The name of the beach was explained by locals in that there were many mon plants along the beach which they often use to make sour soup.

Leaving the cape, we moved to Vung Ro Bay, a secret base which the army received weapons from the North to the South through unnumbered ships on the Ho Chi Minh water way. Recognized as a historical location, Vung Ro Bay is not only endowed with a magnificent landscape of mountain, forest and sea, but is also home to diverse flora and fauna as well as seafood.

At dawn, Vung Ro Bay emerges as an immense green round plate, with Ca Mountain in the south, Da Bia Mountain in the west and Hon Ba Mountain in the north. Vung Ro Port, which is so deep that it can receive ships weighing more than 10,000 tons, is linked to Van Phong Bay by a narrow seaport. The path to Vinh Ro is windy but with many fishing boats anchoring, it creates a fascinating view for tourists at the bay.

Next morning, we visited Da Dia Rock Reef, around 40 kilometers from Tuy Hoa Town, famous for its huge pile of hexagonal and pentagonal shaped basaltic rocks with part of the area under sea. The site was formed when the volcano’s mineral flowed into the sea; as the temperature changed suddenly, they formed into rocks.

Coming back to Phu Yen, we visited Mang Lang Church, one of the oldest churches in the country, which was built in 1892 in Tuy An District. The combination of Eastern and Western architecture makes Mang Lang worth a visit and Christians may want to peruse the documents about the life of Saint Andrew Phu Yen. His statue stands solemnly on a small hill in the church yard.

Saint Andrew Phu Yen was beatified in March 2000 by Pope John II. Documents say he was publicly executed in July 1644 after a purge of Christians at the age of 19, three years after he was baptized and 248 years before work began on the church.

Finally we went to Nhan Temple, another famous destination in the province. We also took this occasion to enjoy many kinds of specialties such as fish and beef pasta.

Nhan Island (Swallow bird island) in Phu Quoc District in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang resembles a ship carrying white stones sailing on the blue waters of the sea with swallows flying above.

Nhan Island

A swallow sitting beside her eggs

Visitors leave the wharf in Ham Ninh Commune to travel for over 14 hours to reach Tho Chau Commune. There they transfer on to a motorboat to continue on to Nhan Island for a 10-minute ride.

Hundreds of swallows hover all over the island, which are often seen dipping into the sea to catch anchovy. There are no trees on the island but only stones piled up to create shallow caves which are place for their habitat, nesting and breeding from lunar June to October annually.

A swallow lays only one or two eggs on the stones or in the small caves. It does not hatch eggs like other species of birds do but keeps a close watch on its eggs for a month until the chicks hatch. Then the swallow flies out frequently to look for food to feed her young.

During the breeding season, visitors have to be very careful not to step onto swallow eggs, which are the same color as the stones.

When the breeding season is over, from lunar November to March, the swallows migrate from the island only to return during the next breeding season.

Visiting Nhan Island is also an opportunity for tourists to bathe in the pure blue waters, or deep-sea dive and collect colorful and uniquely shaped corals. They can also sit around the white stones or go fishing for cuttlefish in a serene atmosphere filled with the chirping of swallows.

Further information about phu quoc island, hotel in phu quoc, please visit the website http://Vietnamhotels.net!

How Vietnam hopes to boost tourist numbers to 2 million with the help of a rustic, no-frills island.

By Christopher Johnson

If you ever wondered what Thailand was like in the late 1980s, check out Phu Quoc Island off the southwest coast of Vietnam, the new hop on the Gulf of Siam’s circuit that embraces Koh Samui, Koh Chang and Koh Kong.

Phu Quoc is fast becoming Vietnam’s hottest new island destination. But it also maintains — at least for now — a character unlike anything in Thailand.

Market traders in conical hats hawk baguettes, ducks, flying lizards and other items rarely seen on the Thai side of the Gulf, while motorcycles ply red dirt roads to pearl farms and old-style fishing ports.

Villagers, who water the roads and erect thatch fences to protect their homes from dust, gather up seaweed and haul in squid nets by pedaling homemade winches.

Protected forest reserves on Phu Quoc are splashed with waterfalls where brave Vietnamese youths enjoy cooling off alongside foreign travelers.

The industriousness of the islanders has boosted the local economy — and prices — by around 10 percent per year.

 

Protected forest reserves on Phu Quoc teem with waterfalls where brave Vietnamese youths enjoy cooling off alongside foreign travelers.

Two million tourists by 2020

Amid government plans to expand Duong Dong airport to handle international flights, Phu Quoc — the largest of Vietnam’s islands at 574 square kilometers — is taking off fast.

The government plans to boost annual tourist arrivals from 77,000 in 2010 to 2 million by 2020, and many investors from Europe, Thailand, Malaysia and mainland Vietnam are buying up land and opening restaurants and dive shops.

Many veterans of Thailand are already comparing it to Koh Samui in the 1980s, or Koh Chang in the 1990s.

“The island has a very nice preserved forest and the size is also nice,” says Jean-Marie Helleputte, a judge from Belgium who bought land a few years ago near Phu Quoc’s Long Beach with his wife Thanh, a Vietnamese exile who has returned to her native country.

“You have a great variety of plants and trees and the beaches are very nice. The colors of nature here are splendid, all different greens because it rains a lot.”

He says new roads are making travel easier, especially in the muddy rainy season, and new taxi companies, whose drivers wear shirts and ties, are driving down transport costs to more reasonable levels.

But like others on the island, Mr Helleputte worries that a growing influx of tourists and construction will disturb the island’s tranquility. “The Vietnamese government will make this a little Singapore,” he says. “The inhabitants of Phu Quoc are making a lot of money by selling their land to foreigners for construction of hotels.”

Sanne Rasmussen, an instructor with Rainbow Divers, which has been operating dive trips off Phu Quoc for 10 years, says increasing numbers of tourists, big hotels and asphalt roads will take away “the charm of unspoilt Vietnam” and turn the island into “any other city around the world.”

 

Using local coconut wood and thatch, construction workers and their families are working fast to help Vietnam’s tourism industry catch up with Thailand.

Dive spots and delicacies

“My point of view is that the island is not ready at all for this — there are still power cuts every second day in high season and some places don’t have hot water.”

The water in the ocean, at least, is always a nice temperature for diving and snorkeling.

Rasmussen says that shallow waters around smaller islands are great for entry-level divers, and expert divers also can look for nudibranchs, cowrie shells, bamboo sharks and turtles.

She says that Rainbow Divers have just recently discovered a sea grass site with sea dragons and spotted dugongs, some of the rarest creatures in southeast Asia.

While the colorful fish resemble their neighbors in the Gulf of Siam, Phu Quoc’s cuisine is more influenced by French touches, and the island also produces delicious pepper and nuoc mam fish sauce.

Among the myriad stalls of the bustling night market, Rasmussen says her favorites include breakfast or tapas at Mondo, owned by a Swedish couple; German food at German B; Peppers Pizza; a restaurant in front of the Viet Thanh hotel; and coffee at the wonderfully-named Mister Dung.

For upmarket resorts, she recommends Eden, Mango Bay and especially Chen La for honeymooners, while many divers stay at the Viet Thanh hotel.

Half-way down the long beach from Duong Dong town, the family-run Thai Tan Tien resort offers spacious new bungalows for US$20 per night in a quiet abode with a boardwalk leading over a marsh to a seaside restaurant where enterprising local ladies give traditional massages on the beach.

For now, Phu Quoc is fun in a raw form, still dominated by local families who rent motorcycles for US$5 a day and bungalows for US$20 per night.

Though lacking Thailand’s abundance of “Coffee-Mate” white sand, Phu Quoc’s golden beaches are deep, soft, and attracting more and more travelers.

 

The simple life of Thai islands in the 1980s is kept intact on the island of Phu Quoc.

getting there

Travelers from Saigon used to swear by the cheap flights (around US$50-100) on Vietnam Airlines, Mekong Air or others to avoid long, tiring bus journeys through the Mekong delta’s matrix of swamps.

But new bridges and smoother roads mean quicker, cheaper bus trips — mine took 5 hours — to Rach Gia port, and then the fast hydrofoils, about two hours, to Phu Quoc.

Ha Tien, only one hour ferry from Phu Quoc, is a jumping off point for Cambodia.

(Source: CNNgo)

(VOV) – Located in the coastal district of Vinh Linh in the central province of Quang Tri, Cua Tung Beach is the nation’s “Queen of Beaches”, arousing the curiosity of many tourists to come and experience its beauty.

Cua Tung Beach - Quang Tri

The one kilometre-long beach is not particularly long or wide, but the water is gentle and clear. Two underground rock formations, Mui Si and Mui Lai, encroach on the sea, creating a small bay that shelters the beach from strong waves and tides.

The beach is surrounded by a belt of basalt and stone mountains that resemble a huge comb passing through the hair of the waves. On the hill grow green orchards of jackfruit, pineapple, banana and custard-apple.

While the central region is known for its harsh weather, with dry winds from the southwest and major storms from the sea, Cua Tung Beach is protected by Mother Nature, out of the wind on most days, and the bay offers safe harbour for fishing boats.

The first foreigner to set foot here during the time of French colonialism saw the area’s potential for developing resorts. At that time, Vietnam was divided into three regions and the central region was known as Annam. Ernest Albert Briere, the governor of Annam from 1891-97, was one of those who fell in love with the place, and he built a palace here in 1896 to spend his holidays on the beautiful beach.

The palace was transferred to King Duy Tan (1900-45), the 11^th king of the Nguyen Dynasty, who ascended the throne at age 7 and bridled at living in confinement in palaces under the control of the French. He travelled extensively around the country, and Cua Tung was one of his stops.

King Bao Dai (1913-97), the 13th and final Vietnamese feudal king, often traveled from his capital in Hue to Cua Tung to enjoy this amazing beach.

The Frenchman Andre de Laborde, who had a deep understanding of this land, described Cua Tung as a gentle sloping beach which is part of the green highland 20m above sea level. From the slope, people can see the changes in the colour of the sea and sky. Shades of blue change hourly under the sunshine, surprising anyone who has the chance to witness it.

The sea here is so shallow that a person can run about half a kilometre from the shore and the water will only be up to their chest.

Nearby Cat Son village is a short stroll along the beach. It has been famous for hundreds of years for its fish, drum-making, carpentry and mother-of-pearl inlay. Here, you can dine on cuttlefish, prawns, lobster, butterfish, mackerel, Chinese herring, and other kinds of seafood cooked in the local way.

To the south of the beach is the estuary of the Ben Hai River with Hien Luong Bridge just 10km from Cua Tung Beach. The bridge lies on the 17th parallel and formed the border between North and South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975.

This symbol of separation and loss in wartime is now one of the links between Vinh Linh and Vinh Gio districts in the province. Boarding a boat at the base of the bridge, travellers can see lush rice paddies, bamboo and casuarinas trees along the river banks. The slow rhythm of life, the whisper of the wind and the rippling of the water, all bring a feeling of peace.

About 30km offshore from the beach is Con Co Island, a 4- sq. km island with a coastline of about 8km and an average elevation of 5-30m above sea level. At the centre of the island is a 63m-high mountain which was a strategic position during the time the country was divided. Though it is isolated from the mainland by heavy winds, soldiers braved the strong waves and enemy attacks to carry food and weapons to the island.

Lush forests and fruit trees cover the island, including hardwoods with resin as red as blood. In autumn, the bang (Malabar almond) trees also turn red, making the island even more picturesque.

Since 1989, 4,000 coconut trees, symbolising the 4,000-year history of Vietnam, have been cultivated on the island. It is also the home of a small rattlesnake that is used to steep in rice wine to make medicine for treating backache and other ailments. Black and white sea cucumbers as big as a toe are found in the surrounding waters and make a good dish that also has medicinal properties.

Tours to the battlefields in the province and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) allow visitors experience the Vinh Moc Tunnels – a 2km-long network of tunnels up to 23m underground that were used to shelter residents during wartime – as well as the Old Citadel of Quang Tri, the Ta Con airstrip, the Khe Sanh – Road 9 Battlefield, and the legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail.