ROMANTIC TOURS
HISTORICAL TOURS
WILDLIFE TOURS
SCENIC ISLAND TOURS
FESTIVAL TOURS
FESTIVAL TOURS
 VIETNAMSRI LANKA
SHOPPING TOURS
 MELBOURNEROME
SPIRITUAL, HEALTH & MEDITATION TOURS
TURKEY
 MALTAAUSTRALIA
TIBET
TREKKING
FOR THE ADVENTUROUS
TASTY TOURS
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pbtms world tours Northern Vietnam
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Indochina Adventure
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Self Drive
4WD Adventures
EASTERN HIMALAYAS
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Private Journeys of Asia Collection
Northern Vietnam
Vietnams past reads like a romantic legend, full of heroic struggles and astounding victories whereby this small country retained its culture, absorbing and adapting the strengths of its foes but never losing its traditions or sense of history.
Ancient heroes are still venerated at colourful temple festivals, people honour their ancestors, and village elders teach values of hard work, hospitality, and filial loyalty.
13 day
THE
MAGIC OF NORTHERN VIETNAM
Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sa Pa
includes:
Ambient inspirational cruise, bustling city cycling, refreshing
village trekking, interesting overnight train journey,
magical water puppet show, visits to bustling highland market,
historic monuments, embalmed bodies, and more.....
$3750 pp twin sh Inclusive package ex Sydney/Mel/Bris
USD 1850 pp twn sh ex Hanoi
A VISA IS REQUIRED FOR ENTRY TO VIETNAM
Departs April 2009
A legend known to all Vietnamese people accounts for the split between lowlanders and highlanders. The Dragon King of the south married Au Co, a beautiful northern fairy, and at first they lived in the mountains where she laid one hundred eggs, which hatched into one hundred boys. However, after a while, the Dragon King missed his watery lowland home and decamped with half of his sons, the ancestors of the main ethnic Vietnamese, or Kinh (Viet) people. The fifty left behind in the mountains were the ancestors of the ethnic minorities, also referred to as "Montagnards" or "hill tribes".
Local myth says that Halong Bay was formed by a dragon that fled the mountains to the coast during which his tail carved up the earth, creating waterways and 3,000 islands. Halong means: Where the dragon descends into the sea. Halong Bay Borders Cat Ba Island in the south-west, the east sea in the east and the mainland, creating a 120 kilometre coastline. There are geographical sites such as Van Don (site of an ancient port), Poem Mountain ( with engravings of many poems about emperors and other famous historical figures and Bach Dang River (the location of 2 naval battles fought against foreign aggressors).
Hanoi is called "City of Lakes" (there are dozens of them here). Proud, reserved Hanoi has a romantic, unique appeal -- propably Southeast Asia's nicest capital city. Unlike Bangkok or Jakarta or Singapore, it isn't a bustling metropolis full of skyscrapers and deal makers. The Vietnamese have left that distinction to Saigon. Hanoi is refreshingly different -- a "small big city," with wide, tree-lined boulevards, green parks with lakes, and many interesting neighborhoods. The communists may have taken over from the French in the 1950s, but the European flavour still exists -- in the lakeside parks, in the cafe culture, in the colonial architecture around Hoan Kiem Lake.
Water puppetry is a very old artistic creation of the inhabitants of the Red River Delta and is unique to Vietnam.
The puppets are sometimes animals such as dragons, tortoises, phoenixes and unicorns and they may be fairies, geneirs, Buddhas or spirits
During the performance the artists convey the character using various actions and gestures. The audience will immediately know whether the character is kind or wicked, young or old, rich or poor, stupid or scholarly. It takes years to become an expert as the manipulatory mechanisms are extremely complicated.
The beautiful Tavan Valley, is a magical place where sprawling emerald rice terraces spill down from the steep mountainsides into a
tranquil river valley dotted with Black Hmong and Giay villages.
The Tonkinese Alps, as they were coined by the French, are an absolutely spectacular mountain range. They're very high and rugged, which allows the interesting ethnic groups to continue their centuries-old lifestyles without much interruption from the rapidly modernizing lowlanders who run the country. Sapa is way out there -- far away from bustling Hanoi, far away from the maddening crowds of the city. It's a perfect place to get away from it all and sample rural mountain life.
Sapa was built by the French a hundred years ago as one of those European-style colonial "hill stations," where the culture-bound French could get away from the steamy lowlands to a cooler climate more reminiscent of home. Many old buildings remain today.
Sapa is beautiful, and the people who live there are colourful, tough mountainfolk. Most of them are members of one of the area's many montagnard (ethnic hilltribe) groups. These hilltribes migrated mostly from southern China over the past several centuries, and settled into the mountains around Sapa.
Black Hmong, dress in indigo-dyed black and blue costumes. The women wear their wealth visibly -- usually large quantities of silver necklaces, earrings, and bangles. The black hmong have the most refined look, but the Red Zao stand out the most, with their brilliant red adornments and intricately-embroidered clothing.
Hill tribes gather for the weekend markets in Sapa & Bac Ha to trade with each other as well as with foreign visitors. Their contribution is not only sale and buy handicrafts, jewelry, orchids, mushrooms, and honey, but also to grow relations with other groups, playing games or perhaps find a sole mate. In some weekend evening, singing courtships and marriages take place
A legend known to all Vietnamese people accounts for the split between lowlanders and highlanders. The Dragon King of the south married Au Co, a beautiful northern fairy, and at first they lived in the mountains where she laid one hundred eggs, which hatched into one hundred boys. However, after a while, the Dragon King missed his watery lowland home and decamped with half of his sons, the ancestors of the main ethnic Vietnamese, or Kinh (Viet) people. The fifty left behind in the mountains were the ancestors of the ethnic minorities, also referred to as "Montagnards" or "hill tribes".
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