Saigontourist
offers yacht tour

Saigontourist Travel
Service Co has announced a four-day tour to Nha Trang from HCM City which
includes a yacht tour in Nha Trang on board the four-star yacht King.

In Nha Trang, the
yacht tour will start at the wharf in front of King Bao Dai’s palace before
cruising to Tre, Mun, Mot, Mieu, and Tam islands.

Visitors will cruise
around Mun for swimming in the ocean, coral reef diving, and fishing before
stopping at the Tri Nguyen Aquarium. Tourists on board the $1 million yacht can
also request to stop at sights along the way.

The first batch of
tourists will leave HCM City on January 22 and there will be one every Saturday.
More information about the tour that will cost VND3.4 millon to 5.7 million is
available at .

Special Tet tours for visitors

HCM City-based travel
agencies have unveiled special tours for foreigners who want to experience the
atmosphere of the Lunar New Year or Tet.

Ben Thanh Tourist has
launched a one-day tour to the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long that will take
visitors to Vinh Sang Tourist Park and people’s houses in Vinh Long to take a
look at rural life and Tet celebrations. It costs US$45 per person for groups of
ten.

Saigontourist Travel
Service Co has launched a tour called Celebrate Tet with Saigonese for five
hours which will take in Cho Lon by cyclo, the flower market, and other tourist
destinations in HCM City. Foreign guests can also join local people in making
banh tet (the cylindrical glutinous rice cake) and have a meal with a local
family. The tour is priced at $30 while a tour of My Tho costs $45.

Cebu Pacific
adds VN flights

Philippine carrier
Cebu Pacific has added two more fights to its HCM City-Manila service, and plans
to turn it into a daily service next Friday.

The additions take the
number of flights a week to six.

The carrier carried
around 30,000 passengers to and from Viet Nam last year, and expects to increase
that number in 2011, Candice Lyog, the airline’s vice-president for marketing
and distribution, said.

Cham culture to
go on display

The Cham Cultural
Exhibition Centre in Binh Thuan Province will host a week of cultural events
from January 30 to February 8 for Tet (Lunar New Year).

The highlights of the
events will be an exhibition of costumes worn by Cham royalty, their crowns,
seals, swords, and betel nut-making accessories.

Visitors can also see
musical instruments and objects used by the Cham people in festivals, farming
equipment such as buffalo carts and fish traps, stone jewellery, stone statues
of Apsaras — the heavenly nymph of Hindu mythology – the gods Ganesa and
Avalokitesvara, and a lion, linga-yoni, and documents written in the Cham
language.

Rija Nugar (New Year
Festival) and folk art performances will be held every night.

A toast to beer
drinking record

The first Viet Nam
Beer Festival organised by the Mekong Star JSC will attempt to break a beer
drinking record in HCM City later this month.

On each day of the
festival from January 21 to 23 at the Ministry Zone 7 Stadium, 5,000 guests are
expected to come to enjoy the local and international beers, Vietnamese and
western cookings, DJs, and live music.

On the first night an
attempt to break the Vietnamese record for the most people to offer a toast will
be made.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News