The government will also allow foreign tourists to claim refund of value added tax (VAT) when they buy goods during the two months under the “Impressive Vietnam Grand Sale 2010” program, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Meanwhile, many shops, trade centers, and service providers in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City have pledged to offer discounts of 10-40 percent to both local and foreign tourists during the promotion.

Vietnam attracted 1.35 million foreign visitors in the first quarter this year, a 36 percent year-on-year increase.

The country hopes to welcome 4.2 million visitors this year.

Southern food is sweet and succulent, but it would be a sin to neglect these delicious northern novelties

Vietnam’s three major regions are as different as earth, wind and fire.

The people, landscape, weather and yes, even the food, change in almost every province, but the most pronounced differences come between the northern, central and southern regions.

Southern food is often sweet and filled with fruit while central food is known for being spicy and a bit salty.

But northern dishes are known for their subtlety and are often prepared in a minimalist way without losing out on flavor. Northern chefs concentrate on freshness and focus more on vegetables and pure fish sauce rather than on fruits and sugar like in the south. Spice is added to dishes by diners, not by the cooks.

Ho Chi Minh City has a cornucopia of restaurants from every region and sub-region in Vietnam and the world and many locals frequent northern eateries to get the rawer, simpler flavors of Hanoi and its surrounding areas.

Banh cuon (rolled rice cake) is one of the most popular northern dishes in HCMC.

The meal, which is often taken for breakfast, starts with a thin sheet of freshly cooked rice paper. Though these are normally prepared beforehand in HCMC, in the north they are made fresh to order. The papers are super-thin, sticky, wet, stretchy and chewy.

Skillfully rolled in the silky smooth paper is a delicious combination of ground pork and spices.

The cake is placed on the plate and sprinkled with tiny shrimp, chopped peppermint and coriander for a dash of freshness. The rolled cake is served with fish sauce and two kinds of Vietnamese cold-cuts: cha lua (lean pork paste) and cha que (roasted cinnamon pork paste). Northern banh cuon is served with a straight fish sauce, while southern eateries mix the sauce with sugar. Diners can add red-hot chilies to the sauce if they like.

Other northern foods popular in HCMC are pho ga Ha Noi (Hanoi chicken and rice noodle soup), banh da cua (rice pancake with crab soup), cha muc (squid cake), bun rieu cua (shrimp crab tomato soup with rice noodle) and canh bun (round noodle crab soup).

Many people in HCMC love eating canh bun with rau nhut (water mimosa) and rau muong (water spinach). The green, crispy leaves blend perfectly with the sharp broth and savory crab meat. This soup is also often a breakfast dish.

Other popular northern meals not usually taken for breakfast include canh cua rau day (jute plant crab soup) and ca phao muoi (salted egg-plant), which is served with mam tom (shrimp paste).

To get a taste that brings you back to the old historic streets of the northern capital, try the dishes listed above or go for ga rang muoi (fried chicken with salt), rau lang luoc (boiled sweet potato bud), and ca ro kho tuong ban (stewed anabas with bean paste) at any of these HCMC eateries specializing in northern delicacies:

Goc Ha Noi Restaurant
24/8 Pham Ngoc Thanh Street, Ward 6, District 3

Huong Xua Restaurant
222 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1

Dang Xua Restaurant
33 Cao Thang Street, District 3

Nga Restaurant
23 Ton Duc Thang Street, District 1

Bun Cha Hoang Tuan Restaurant
T11 Hong Linh Street, Bac Hai Quarter, District 10

Banh Cuon Restaurant
127 Dinh Tien Hoang Street, District 3

Reported by Nguyet Anh

A man in the Central Highlands has transformed his cafe into a Jurassic Park of sorts, displaying more than 300 fossils he"s collected, some of them dating from hundreds of millions of years ago.

Most of the fossils on display at Hoang Thanh"s cafe in the Dak Lak Province town of Buon Ma Thuot are the remains of ferns and pines. Dozens of them are the remains of animals. Thanh collected the artifacts for dozens of years all over the highlands region.

His largest wood fossil, 1.7 meters long and weighing more than two tons, has been identified by scientists as coming from the Jurassic period 175 million years ago, Thanh said.

People can still see the core of the wood and its brown bark.

Another fossil 2.2 meters long is a mixture of minerals from a volcanic eruption. It makes a loud bell-like sound when struck. 

Thanh calls it the “rock bell” and named his café after it: Chuong Da.

He has refused several offers to buy his fossils. They are "too precious" for money, he said.

Sa Huynh Beach in the central province of Quang Ngai has clear water, golden sand, and pine trees… It also has a small rocky surprise

The stretch is just 200 meters long, cut off from the rest of the 10-kilometer long Sa Huynh Beach by two rocky ranges.

But Bai Con (Little Beach), which locals call Sa Huynh’s “abandoned child,” has its own unique beauty.

Unlike the other part of Sa Huynh Beach, the waters of Bai Con are always calm and peaceful.

From the nearby Cam Mountain, Bai Con’s golden sands make it look like a yellow silk strip floating on a blue sea.

The two long rocky ranges offer a special adventure for the beachgoers, as navigating them is fun, but not always easy.

From Bai Con, we went west along the rocks, listening to the bird songs from the trees of a nearby mountain. Some of them decided to give us a surprise by darting out of the trees and flying to the rocks we were “walking” on.

After walking for about 20 minutes, we saw the Thien Y A Na Goddess Temple. Thien Y A Na is the Vietnamese name for Po Nagar, the Goddess of the Cham people.

Sa Huynh fishermen visit the temple and pray for a safe trip before heading out to sea.

How to get there

- Bai Con is around 60 kilometers south of the town of Quang Ngai in its namesake province.

- To reach the beach, visit the Sa Huynh Tourism Site in Pho Thanh Commune in Duc Pho District. You can park your vehicles there or around the site. Then ask a xe om (motorbike taxi) to take you to Bai Con (about VND15,000 per person) as there are no parking lots near the beach . You will arrive at Bai Con twenty minutes later.

- You should bring food to enjoy at the beach.

- Apart from Bai Con, you can also explore Hoc Mo Cave in Thanh Duc 2 Hamlet in Pho Thanh Commune and travel around Ma Vuong Hill in the neighboring Pho Khanh Commune to see historic archeological sites.

We moved back and went east. Not long after, we saw smoke rising into the air from people baking oysters. We sheltered behind a large rock to avoid the smoke.

When locals have some free time, they come to the beach with lit torches. They choose some rocks to which numerous oysters cling and bake them. The high temperature force the oysters to open their mouths but their shells are still attached to the rocks.

They are then seasoned with pepper, salt, and lemon juice before the meat is taken out and consumed, accompanied very often by local alcohol. If you are a visitor, chances are you will get invited by the hospitable residents to join them for this special meal.

It is also possible to buy fresh oysters on the way to Bai Con for around VND35,000 (about $2) per kilogram. An oyster soup of rice porridge is a surprisingly enjoyable meal.

Local residents will extend their hospitality if you ask to join them as they take their boats out to sea. Drifting on the gentle waters of Bai Con is a good way to soak in the peaceful atmosphere.

When you are on the boat, it is not a bad idea to carry a pair of binoculars to watch monkeys forage for food on the nearby mountain.