Vietcolours Travel

25/05/2024

Mua Cave view point

25/05/2024

Tam Coc Trip

18/02/2024

Goodmorning Hanoi Tour!

11/01/2024

Why is the wooden ship symbol in Ha Long gradually disappearing?

Quang NinhThe traditional wooden boats in Ha Long Bay will gradually disappear in the near future for both subjective and objective reasons.

On August 12, Japan's Nikkei Asia newspaper published an article expressing regret when wooden sailing boats, the symbol of Ha Long Bay and Vietnam, will disappear in the not too distant future. new, modern cruise ships.

According to people who operate cruise ships to spend the night and visit in Ha Long Bay, the story of "the end of wooden ships" has been told a lot before the epidemic, especially in the period of 2016 when the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province. issue a document on the management of cruise ship operations in Ha Long Bay. This document states that wooden-hulled ships operating in Ha Long Bay will have a term of 15 years, which is different from Decree 111 of the Government when the term of wooden-hulled ships for overnight tourism is 20 years.

After much controversy, the ship's age is still counted as 20 years. However, after the expiration of the service life, the wooden-hulled accommodation vessel should be replaced by a new-built steel-hulled vessel or equivalent material; ships imported CBU from abroad, without increasing the number of beds; It is recommended to replace two small tonnage vessels with one larger tonnage vessel.

Department of Transport of Quang Ninh province and the People's Committee of Ha Long city confirmed that the locality has never had a policy of "death" of wooden ships. However, according to the recommendation of UNESCO with Ha Long Bay, it is not allowed to increase the means of operation in the core zone of the heritage. Therefore, ship owners can only build replacements, not add more.

Many people in the cruise ship business also realize that sooner or later wooden ships "will also disappear" because steel and iron ships have many outstanding, modern and safer advantages than traditional wooden ships. Mr. Chien, a ship owner in Ha Long, said that ship owners all want their ships to be spacious, modern, with more rooms to attract tourists. The disappearance of wooden ships is an inevitable trend because of the competitiveness of the market.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Phu, director of Pelican Yacht Joint Stock Company, which has ships running both in Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha (Hai Phong), said that in the past, he also owned many wooden-hulled ships but sold them out in 2010 because of fear. Explosion.

"Wooden-hulled ships have quite a few problems such as being more prone to sinking than steel-hulled ships and especially prone to fires," he said.

According to Mr. Phu, handling the risk of shipwreck is "relatively simple", but the risk of fire and explosion is "almost impossible to handle". He used to wrap corrugated iron to improve the situation but also "doesn't feel good" because the inside of the corrugated iron layer is still a wood layer. The electric cables on the train run inside the wooden layers, making it difficult to control fire and explosion. If you leave the power cable out, the ship will lose its beauty.

With his experience, Mr. Phu believes that wooden ships are very durable if they are built according to the standards of the "old people". However, the traditional method is laborious and expensive, so ship owners often choose a simpler way, causing the ship to deteriorate quickly, potentially sinking, while the problem of fire and explosion is still "really difficult to solve". . Therefore, although he feels sorry that the wooden ships will disappear in the near future, Mr. Phu said it is an "inevitable" trend.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, deputy head of the Ha Long Cruise Ship Association, has similar views and emphasizes that the cost of building wooden ships is now 2-3 times higher than steel hulled ships. The wood used to build the ship must be acacia wood, which cannot be purchased in Vietnam. The price of wood used to be around 700.000 VND per block, then increased to 1,5 million VND and now up to 50 million VND, so building a new wooden ship is "inherently impossible".

Mr. Phuong wants to keep wooden ships, predicting that in the future, traditional wooden ships may "become priceless treasures". "However, if you wait until the ship becomes valuable, it will no longer be registered," he said.

08/01/2024

" Côn Sơn, Yên Tử, Quỳnh Lâm
Nếu ai chưa đến Thiền Tâm chưa đành"

06/01/2024

Tìm về chốn Yên Bình.

31/12/2023

https://youtube.com/shorts/mCU7hYEipvo?si=d828KSpu_yZTpd7o

30/12/2023

the last trip of 2023
Halong Bay Cruise Tour

28/12/2023

04/12/2023

half day trip in Quang Phu Cau - traditional incense making village with the guests from Australia.
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Located in Ung Hoa district, 35km from downtown Hanoi, the village is well known for its century-old craft of making incense. In the past, making incense was done only in Phu Luong Thuong village. Gradually the craft spreads to Dao Tu and Cau Bau villages. At present, Quang Phu Cau commune has become one of the most prominent incense making villages in the suburbs of the capital. Quang Phu Cau still has the traditions of a northern delta village but it also has a modern touch.

Exploring the traditional craft village, visitors can have a chance to learn about the process of making incense. Materials used to make incense must be carefully selected because this profession has many spiritual elements. The bamboo used to make the stems must be "old enough" and have to go through a careful screening process. In the past, people split the bamboo by hand. Today, they rely on machines to complete orders on time.

On sunny days, one can see dyed incense around the village. All sidewalks and roads in the village are colored with the pink and red of incense sticks. Bundles of incense look like giant flowers which create a bright painting. The gentle scent of incense sticks makes people more relaxed when going for a walk around the village.
This incense village has for many years been a destination for domestic and foreign photographers to take pictures. Many photos of this village have won prizes.

It is one of long-lasting traditional craft villages which has been maintained and developed. This place has not only kept the soul of the spiritual and cultural items, but is also a beautiful destination for tourists.
Quang Phu Cau incense village has become one of the special places that clearly depicts the culture of the countryside in the Northern Delta.

01/12/2023

Quang Phu Cau incense Village & Tam Coc - Ninh Binh.

01/12/2023

Somewhere outside Hanoi city.
Duong Lam ancient Village.

14/10/2023

the best way to have a fabulous dinner in Hanoi, Vietnam

13/10/2023

Welcome the lovely guests from Leban to Vietnam.

10/10/2023

Hanoi traditional village tour.
1 day visiting Van P**c Silk Village - Bat Trang Pottery Village and second-hand products market

09/10/2023

Hanoi streetfood tour

06/10/2023

Phu Vinh bamboo & Rattan weaving craft village.

Located in Phu Nghia commune, Chuong My district, 27 kilometers to the southwest of Hanoi, the Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan weaving craft village is dubbed “the land of rattan” for its well-known handcraft decorative and utility products.
No one knows exactly when the village’s first bamboo and rattan products were made but its rattan and bamboo weaving craft is thought to date back about 400 years ago. In the village, then called Phu Hoa Trang, there existed a large hill which was home to a big flock of white storks. In order to take advantage of beautiful stork feathers, villagers used them to weave hats. At first, they gave these hats as gifts for friends and relatives and then sold to people living nearby. When the demand grew and stork feather supplies run out, villagers shifted to use soft and flexible materials like grasses, bamboo and rattan strings to make household utensils such as plates, trays, sieves, baskets and boxes, among others.
The weaving techniques were handed down from generation to generation and Phu Hoa Trang villagers’ workmanship became better and better. In 1800, the village name was changed to Phu Vinh. Under the reign of King Thanh Thai (1889-1907), the 10th king of the Nguyen dynasty, nine senior bamboo and rattan weaving artisans of Phu Vinh village were rewarded honorary titles by the King. Nowadays, when it comes to bamboo and rattan weaving, there is no one who does not know about the great name of artisan Nguyen Van Khieu (1905-1983) of Phu Vinh village, who succeeded in weaving a portrait of late President Ho Chi Minh from rattan strings. “Bamboo and rattan weaving is truly difficult and you are considered successful only when you can make soulful products,” Khieu once said.
Phu Vinh village is famous for its beautiful bamboo and rattan items with different designs and shapes. The products range from household items to ornaments including necklaces, bracelets and earrings; furniture such as sofas, shelves, stools, lampshades, photo frames, flower vases and window blinds; and decorative objects which require manual dexterity like calligraphy, portraits and animal statues.
It is not easy to create beautiful handicraft items from bamboo strips or rattan hanks, but it is much more difficult to use them to weave a portrait in a way that can display the style and posture of the model. Painters may use seven primary colors for a painting while rattan weavers have only black and white for their works of art.
“The unique feature of Phu Vinh village’s products lays not only in the skills and techniques but also special, sophisticated and meticulous braiding lines. There are some flower braiding patterns that can only be made by Phu Vinh villagers,” said Nguyen Van Tinh - the son of late artisan Nguyen Van Khieu.
The making of bamboo and rattan objects, regardless of whether they are relatively simple or sophisticated, must go through the same steps of collecting, processing and preparing materials to the final stage of weaving.
The preparatory process of bamboo material is a little bit different from that of rattan one.
For bamboo, experienced craftsmen know how to classify old and young bamboo trees. They vary in thickness, flexibility and length. Old bamboo trees can be used to make edges and frames while young ones can be used for splints. After harvested, weavers put carefully chosen pieces of bamboo out to dry. They then soak bamboo culms in a special solution for about 10 days to prevent termites. Past the mentioned time, crafters take them out of the tank, chop off any bumps, scrap off the outermost green layer of the bamboo, smooth the bamboo surface by applying sandpapers to burn all marks and scratches and dry them out thoroughly. To create light brown or dark brown bamboo items, they need to toast completely dried bamboo stalks by straws or bamboo leaves in a closed furnace. After being straightened, these bamboo culms are cut into bars with a width of between two centimeters and five centimeters or split into thinner strips which are ideal for making bamboo products. The thickness and size of the strips depend on the requirements of the products. Nowadays, Phu Vinh weavers sometimes bamboo culms and their products with one layer of paint not only to color them but also to make sure they can withstand humidity and free of molds and insects. Machines are also used to split and smooth small tubes or strips.
To make rattan ware, it is ideal to collect rattan trees when they are about three meters high. In the rattan preparatory process, splitting, toasting and drying rattan canes are considered important steps. To begin the process, crafters have to straighten rattan canes. As the internodes of rattan vary in length and thickness in different plants of the same species, they use sharp knives to peel off the outer thorny skin of the stems and remove the knots and cut them into three-meter pieces. These pieces are later split into thin spokes or hanks. Thick hanks are used to weave products’ rims while thin ones are used to create flowers on rattan products. In reality, a small rattan cane is often split into four or six hanks while a bigger one is split into seven or nine hanks. After that, craftsmen use point knives to whittle and polish these hanks and put them out to dry. Rattan will lose its shiny ivory color if it gets wet and lose its freshness if it is over dried. After dried, rattan hanks are toasted in a closed furnace. Their color will change if there are too much or less smoke. Phu Vinh villagers have a special way to color their products. They boil water with leaves of Chinese tallow tree (Triadica sebifera) and dip rattan hanks into the solution to create a color layer for their products which is unfadeable for up to 40 years.
When the aforementioned steps are done, the bamboo strips and rattan hanks are ready for weaving. There are different techniques that may be used to make a piece of work. To make a piece of furniture, assembly technique is used to combine different parts of a furniture for forming a product while weaving technique is applied based on the frame.
Weaving techniques such as rolling skills, flower and interlacing flower braiding techniques can be used for making both bamboo and rattan products. The results vary in thickness and stiffness. To create classic and ordinary weaving patterns, artisans may also use under-and-over weaving, double weaving, pairing weaving and triple twist weaving techniques. The purpose and the form of products will decide the techniques to be used by weavers.
To finish the last step of the process, weavers polish their hand-woven products and may color them according to their customers’ requests.
With hundreds of households engaged in bamboo and rattan weaving, Phu Vinh has become an ideal destination for those who want to explore craft villages and keen on bamboo and rattan products.

12/09/2023

Mù Căng Chải
12/9/2023

25/10/2021

The Thay Pagoda in Ha Tay province

13/09/2021

Rural life in Vietnam