The Vietnamese Conical Hat

High school Girls wearing non la

17 Apr 2015 | From Isabel of the Philippines

POSTCARD SOUVENIR

By no doubt, the Ao dai embody the femininity and charm of the Vietnamese women, while the appeal and functionality of the Nón Lá creates a beautiful harmony of the entire ensemble, leaving a strong impression of gracefulness and romance to any tourist who visits the country. In recognition of the hat’s distinct shape, Nón Lá earned its common name, “Vietnamese conical hat”. Non La is a symbol of Vietnamese’ charm and romance. It is a traditional symbol of Vietnamese people without age, sex or racial distinctions.

Nón Lá is essential for the people to protect themselves from heat which could last for months. Non la is made out of such simple and available materials as palm leaves, bark of Moc tree and bamboo. Non la is abundantly sold and there are many traditional villages where tourists can get high quality conical hats. 

The image of a young lady wearing Non la and Ao dai is a beautiful symbol of Vietnam.

The charming beauty of Vietnamese schoolgirls

School Girls from Mekong Delta

17 Apr 2015 | From Isabel of the Philippines

POSTCARD SOUVENIR

Áo dài is the typical Vietnamese formal girl's dress. It is worn in white by high school girls in Vietnam. Schoolgirls look more tender, gentle and womanly when wearing Ao Dai. Ao Dai’s design is considered as reserving with foreigners but showing the charming of Vietnamese women. The design is sewn reservedly above. The collar is designed highly, which makes the Vietnamese women’s neck look balance with their body. The waist is sewn closely in order to make the charming of the women. Especially, the lap of dress was split into 2 sides of the waist in order to be easy for moving and taking the viewer’s attention.

The postcard is a souvenir from Isabel, a friend and former colleague, during her 2015 Vietnam tour.

Source: All Vietnam

Vietnam's tourist marketplace

The Ben Thanh Market

30 Mar 2015 | From Phúc of Vietnam

SURPRISE POSTCARD

After some postcard swaps, Phúc sent me this postcard showing the Ben Thanh Market as a surprise.

Ben Thanh Market is one must-see attraction of the most dynamic city of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh. It is bustling market in the daytime and a social center after sunset. Built in 1870 by the French, the market was initially called Les Halles Centrales before being renamed Ben Thanh in 1912. From a wet market created by street vendors by the early 17th century, Ben Thanh has experienced many ups and downs throughout it’s history, and is now the oldest surviving market and one of symbols of Ho Chi Minh city.

Everything that’s commonly eaten, worn or used by the Saigonese is piled high: vegetables, dried fruit, meats, spices, scorpions in alcohol, sweets, tobacco, clothing, one-day suits, wristwatches, blingtastic jewellery, hardware and more spill forth from a profusion of stalls. Souvenir items can be found in equal abundance.

The market is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon and an important symbol of Hồ Chí Minh City, popular with tourists seeking local handicrafts, textiles, áo dài and souvenirs, as well as local cuisine.

Photographs of Vietnam

Quy Nhon. The Tết Nguyên Đán

10 Mar 2015 | From Phúc of Vietnam

POSTCROSSING SWAP

Phúc sent me these two photographs she took along with the postcard. 

The first photograph shows a beach located in the middle of Vietnam. Quy Nhon is a lively and pleasant city virtually half way between the popular cities of Nha Trang and Hoi An. The city is known for its beautiful surroundings, Cham temples, and nearby beaches. Quy Nhon north beach has lots of large boats, but the south side is quieter and nice for swimming. Beaches in the villages around Quy Nhon are beautiful and clean - in particular Bai Xep beach some 10km south of the city.

The second photograph shows the scenes of Vietnam's Lunar New Year celebration - the Tết Nguyên Đán in Saigon, 2015. Tet Nguyen Dan is the most important celebration in the Vietnamese calendar, marking the arrival of spring and the start of a new year. 'Tet' itself means 'festival' and is the shortened version of 'Tết Nguyên Đán', which is Sino-Vietnamese for 'Feast of the First Morning of the First Day'.

Tet falls on the first night of the new moon in the first month of the Lunar Calendar, which in the Gregorian calendar usually takes place between the last week of January and the third week of February.

Vietnamese national costume (2)

Women in áo dài

10 Mar 2015 | From Phúc of Vietnam

POSTCROSSING SWAP

Phúc initiated this direct swap with me for her friend in Germany who wanted a Tarsier postcard. I am to send the tarsier postcard (unwritten and in an envelope) to Phúc in Vietnam and in turn will mail the postcard to her friend in Vietnam.

The postcard Phúc sent me shows Vietnamese women wearing the traditional áo dài while performing with musical instruments. The áo dài is a Vietnamese national costume. It has become the symbol of the Vietnamese feminine beauty, and the pride of the Vietnamese people. It is often called áo dài Việt Nam to link it to patriotic feelings. The ao dai is now standard for weddings, for celebrating Tết and for other formal occasions. A plain white ao dai is a common high school school uniform in the South. Companies often require their female staff to wear uniforms that include the ao dai, so flight attendants, receptionists, bank female staff, restaurant staff, and hotel workers in Vietnam may be seen wearing it.

Tràng An Scenic Landscape Complex

Beautiful landscape of Trang An - Ninh Binh

11 Feb 2015 | From Mu Chu of Vietnam

THANK-YOU POSTCARD

Ninh Binh (pronounced Neeng Beeng) is the capital city of Ninh Binh Province in North Vietnam, famous for the nearby Karst scenery and the village of Tam Coc. The Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex is located in the districts Hoa Lu, Gia Vien, and Nho Quan of Ninh Binh Province in northern Viet Nam. The heritage property is spread over a large area of 10,000 hectares, and is made up of three individual components within a single buffer zone. 

The Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex is situated inland on the coastal plain of within the highly eroded limestone block of Hoa Lu, part of the Truong Yen – Bich Dong mountain range.  This range comprised of by limestone karst peaks of high fragmentation forming low mountains separated by valley floors composed of sedimentary rock, where shales predominate. These valley floors are characterized by a long process of denudation, erosion, and surface runoff which has accumulated as a mixture of aluvi – deluvi – proluvi.

The Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For Vietnamese people throughout the ages, the landscape of Trang An, with its dramatic mountains, mysterious caves, and sacred spaces, has provided a vision of beauty and a metaphor for the Vietnamese culture.  It is a place of inspiration where natural history and cultural history are inseparable. A place where culture encounters the wonder, mystery, and magnificence of the natural world and is transformed by it.

Source: Halong Travel

Vietnamese national costume

Ao Dai

2 Jan 2014 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP

The áo dài is a Vietnamese national costume, now most commonly worn by women. In its current form, it is a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over pantaloons. Áo classifies the item as a piece of clothing on the upper part of the body. Dài means "long".

The word "ao dai" was originally applied to the outfit worn at the court of the Nguyễn Lords at Huế in the 18th century. This outfit evolved into the áo ngũ thân, a five-paneled aristocratic gown worn in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by Paris fashions, Nguyễn Cát Tường and other artists associated with Hanoi University redesigned the ngũ thân as a modern dress in the 1920s and 1930s. The updated look was promoted by the artists and magazines of Tự Lực văn đoàn (Self-Reliant Literary Group) as a national costume for the modern era. In the 1950s, Saigon designers tightened the fit to produce the version worn by Vietnamese women today. The dress was extremely popular in South Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s. On Tết and other occasions, Vietnamese men may wear an áo gấm (brocade robe), a version of the ao dai made of thicker fabric.

Source: Wikipedia

Children of Vietnam

Children's Smile. Northwest Region

2 Jan 2014 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP

North West Vietnam the poorest region in the country with rugged sceneries and a primitive infrastructure. The remote Northwest provides a strong contrast to this modern-day Vietnam. But despite that, Northwest Vietnam is filled with friendly people and breathtaking landscapes. 

Many ethnic minorities live here. Amongst them are the Muong, Thai, Hoa (ethnic Chinese) and Xa Pho. Many older women in particular make items such as ethnic-style clothes and blankets, to sell to tourists. Children from these ethnic minorities often begin to support their families financially through selling trinkets to tourists.

By the river

"Market on River"

"Huong Pagoda's Festival"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (14 of 14 postcards)

Huong Pagoda Festival is a Buddhist festival held annually and lasts three months, from the 6th day of Lunar New Year to the 6th day of the third lunar month in the year. But, the official days of the festival is only from 15th to 20th day of the second lunar month.

Huong Pagoda Festival is very different from other traditional festivals in Vietnam that recreational activities aren’t central part of the festival. Each year, thousands visitors from all regions in the country and foreign tourists as well go to Huong Pagoda at the time of festival. However, their aim is to visit scenic setting of Huong Pagoda (so-called Huong Son Pagoda) and pray for themselves and their family.

The beautiful verse describes scenic spot of Huong Pagoda, designated by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site, which makes one can’t help having the feeling that is one were lost in a world of fairies.

Vietnam's countryside scene

"Peaceful Countryside"

"On the way to the village"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (12 of 14 postcards)

Vietnam is one of the most beautiful countries located in the South East Asia. Most of Vietnam is small, agrarian communities. Vietnamese society is structured around làng (ancestral villages).

Although it is a small country with the area of 329,560 square kilometers, there are up to 54 different ethnic groups inhabiting in Vietnam, of which Kinh (Viet) people accounts for nearly 86% of the whole population, and the others are ethnic minority groups that represent about 14%.

Rice Harvest

"Picking young rice for summer and autumn"

"Harvest"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (10 of 14 postcards)

Rice is the most importnat food crop in Vietnam. Wet rice is the main crop with two annual harvest cycles.

Depending on the weather and the cycle of the varieties, it is possible to obtain from one to four harvests per year.

In tropical climates, rice is generally harvested twice a year. Sometimes, there are three harvests as in Vietnam and the Mekong Delta. Up to four harvests have taken place in China. The main harvest normally occurs between December and February.

In temperate and cold tropical climates (in high altitude areas), there is only one harvest per year - from September to October in the Northern Hemisphere and from March to April in the Southern Hemisphere.

Vietnam's Agriculture

"A Hamlet Lane"

"Collective Field Ploughing"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (8 of 14 postcards)

Agricultural production is the backbone of Vietnam's main development strategy. Vietnam has been, for much of its history, a predominantly agricultural civilization based on wet rice cultivation. However, the Vietnam War destroyed much of the country's agrarian economy, leading the post-war government to implement a planned economy to revitalise agriculture and industrialise the nation. Agriculture's share of Vietnam's GDP has fallen in recent decades, declining from 42% in 1989 to 20% in 2006, as production in other sectors of the economy has risen.

Foremost among Vietnam's agricultural troubles was exceptionally adverse weather, including a drought in 1977 and major typhoons and widespread flooding in 1978.

Rice farming in Vietnam

"Irrigation"

"Rice Transplanting"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (6 of 14 postcards)

Vietnam is one of world's richest agricultural regions and is the second largest (after Thailand) exporter worldwide and the world's seventh-largest consumer of rice.

In the geographical region of Vietnam which has a total land area of 33 million ha, there are three ecosystems that dictate rice-growing culture. These are: the southern delta that dominates rice coverage which has a warm and humid climate throughout the year with sunshine, the northern delta with tropical monsoon area with cold winters with rainfed and flood prone rice varieties; and highlands of the north which has upland rice varieties; and the percentage distribution of area grown in the three ecosystems are 60, 32 and 8 respectively.

The fishing industry in Vietnam

"Morning Dance"

"Catch Fish"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (4 of 14 postcards)

Vietnam’s fishing industry has so far attracted more than 70 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects amounting to US$310 million.

With a coastline of over 3,260 kilometers, 2,860 rivers and more than 3,000 islands and islets offshore, Vietnam’s landscape provides great natural opportunities for the fishery industry.

Vietnam is also a transport junction from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

My first postcards from Vietnam

"Relax"

"Village Market"

29 Nov 2013 | From Muchu of Vietnam

FACEBOOK SWAP (2 of 14 postcards)

Lying on the eastern part of the Indochinese peninsula, Vietnam is a strip of land shaped like the letter “S”. China borders it to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, the East Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the east and south.

Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 90.3 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "Southern Viet" (synonymous with the much older term Nam Viet).

Viet Nam's diverse natural environment, geography, history, and culture have created a great potential for the tourism industry. Viet Nam consists of long coastlines, forests, and mountainous regions with numerous magnificent landscapes. As well, Viet Nam has a long history and diversified culture with variety of ancient architecture constructions, and wonderful legends.