Ho Chi Minh City & Cu Chi Tunnels Tour - 1 Day

Ho Chi Minh City is the commercial hub of Vietnam and this morning your guide will give you insights and history about the various interesting places that this bustling city has to offer. Stroll along Dong Khoi street to visit Notre Dame Cathedral and the French designed post office. Visit the historically significant Reunification Palace and the sobering War Remnants Museum.

After lunch travel 60km west of Ho Chi Minh City and visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. This maze of underground tunnels was begun in 1949 by local Vietnamese guerrillas and the area became known as the Iron Triangle and a base of resistance by Vietcong (VC) forces against American and South Vietnamese troops. Today parts of the tunnel system have been preserved and widened to allow tourists to see how the VC lived and fought during the war. Here you will have a chance to go inside the tunnels, see meeting rooms and storage bunkers, field hospitals, and kitchen facilities.

Cost: Independent Tour - $102AUD (2 people or more)

Includes: English speaking guide, transport, all entrance fees and lunch.

For more Information please contact Adam by Email or visit our Contact Us page.

See Adam’s photo’s from Vietnam at www.adamhurley.wordpress.com

Boat on Danang Beach - Vietnam

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The final 15 also includes Venezuela, Kosovo, Mexico, Vietnam, South Africa, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Colombia, Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the United States and Spain.

Eighty of the world’s most beautiful women have converged on Vietnam for what organisers say is a prime opportunity for the communist country to show itself off.

It may not be the Olympics, but with television audiences in 170 countries expected to tune in to watch today’s gala, it is being touted as Vietnam’s coming-out party.

The show will be screened in Australia tonight at 10.30pm on Channel 7 and repeated tomorrow at midday on the same network.

Venezuela’s Dayana Mendoza, who says she was once kidnapped, is favoured to win, according to the punters who bet on www.bettingzone.com.

US contestant Crystle Stewart and Mexico’s Elisa Najera are also favourites, while Australia’s Dondovic is ranked a distant 13th.

There is much at stake - the winner is awarded cash, a tiara and other prizes. She gets to travel the world for a year, meeting dignitaries and charities, all from the comfortable base of a deluxe apartment in New York City.

Builders have only just finished the palm-fringed venue in the southern beach town of Nha Trang, the Crown Convention Centre at the Diamond Bay Resort - a short drive from Cam Ranh Bay, once a major US naval base.

“It really puts Vietnam front and centre, it puts Vietnam on a world stage,” said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organisation.

The 80 contestants have toured Vietnam for weeks, drawing publicity as they have visited major cities and World Heritage-listed tourist sites such as the island-scape of Halong Bay and the ancient port city of Hoi An.

Their schedule has been packed with gala dinners, charity visits, photo-ops, lead-up contests and dress rehearsals - and where ever they have gone, the women say, they have drawn enthusiastic crowds.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it - thousands of people shouting and screaming,” said Anya Ayoung-Chee, who represents Trinidad and Tobago.

“You can tell they are so happy for us to be here. As much as we are happy to be here, they are happy to have us, and we couldn’t ask for anything more,” she said.

It is a far cry from when a similar US-run contest came to Vietnam - Miss America winners entertained GIs here in the late 1960s, sparking protests at the time from both the anti-war and feminist movements.

Decades later Vietnam is now a fast-growing economy and has won the bid to showcase the event produced by American multi-millionaire Donald Trump.

Tickets sell for as much as $US1800 for the final show - a small fortune in this south-east Asian nation - when a thinned-out field of 15 women will strut their stuff to bag a gold crown studded with over 1000 diamonds and other precious stones.

The assortment of beauties compete in three categories - swimsuit, evening gown and interview - before a panel of celebrity judges, including Trump and former Miss Universe 2004, Australian Jennifer Hawkins.

US talk show host Jerry Springer and British pop star “Scary Spice” Mel B, formerly of female pop group Spice Girls, are hosting the 57th annual competition.

Miss Universe and other beauty pageants have often been criticised for degrading women, but Mel B stressed “the diversity and dedication that the pageant brings inspires and empowers young women across the globe.”

Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori of Japan, will be present to pass on the crown.

A phalanx of bodyguards and chaperones has travelled with the women who, under the contest’s rules, must be at least 18 years old and single, must never have been married, and must not be pregnant or have children.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24016007-5007192,00.html

Name:

Greenfield (Dong Xuan) Hotel, 423 Cau Dai Street, Hoi An.

Contact:

Phone – 863 484

Web – www.greenfieldhotel.com

What’s On Offer?

The Greenfield Hotel provides cheap, clean and friendly accommodation. As a drop of point for several bus companies, the hotel does fills up quickly. Rooms are basic, but have the mod cons that you need for pleasant stay, including air-con, fridge (mini-bar), T.V with cable, hot water and most rooms have windows (many hotels don’t!)

Out the back is nice pool area, along with a bar/restaurant, a great place to cool off, enjoy a drink and meet other travelers.

The hotel has free WiFi, travel desk; bicycle hire and the staff are friendly and helpful.

The Good Oil:

With rooms starting at around the 10USD mark, this is a great option for the budget traveler.

Overall, it’s a great place to stay, meet people and being only a 10/15 minute walk from the Old Town of Hoi An, it’s easy to get around!

Remember to ask for a discount, you never know!

Out of 10:

08/10

PlanetEye.com was offically launched today. Check out the Press Release below for full details! If you want to visit site (highly recommended!) head to PlanetEye.com

PRESS RELEASE

PlanetEye Launches First One-Stop Destination for Travel Planning
Needs

Unveils Partnership with Travelocity;
Leverages Microsoft Technology

TORONTO, Canada – July 10, 2008 – PlanetEye Inc. today launched an innovative online travel planning service that puts an end to the frustrating and time-consuming process that people experience whenusing the Web to plan a trip.

Until today, researching, organizing, and booking travel on the Web involved visiting dozens of Web sites and sifting through hundreds of search results. Those days are now officially over.

PlanetEye.com is a one-stop destination for all your travel planning needs. It features a powerful and easy-to-use planning tool, compelling photography and leading edge mapping technology. PlanetEye also has extensive travel content from a team of in-house writers and a growing number of professional sources.

“We want to make travel planning easy. We want to inspire travelers to explore and discover the world, and then help them book their trips – everything from flights, restaurants, hotels and attractions,” said Butch Langlois, PlanetEye’s president and chief executive.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, says “PlanetEye pulls together advanced social networking elements, contextual mapping, and professional travel information to create the most advanced travel planning tool I have ever seen. If you are planning a trip or simply want to imagine one, PlanetEye is the first place you should go.”

At the core of PlanetEye’s travel planning service is the Travel Pak that lets travelers “clip” the interesting photographs, attractions, hotels and restaurants discovered on PlanetEye when they are planning a trip or simply putting together travel ideas. PlanetEye members can look at their
Travel Packs as a list or on a personalized map.

“The Travel Pack is a valuable and useful tool if you’re looking to travel tomorrow, next week or next year,” Langlois said. “As you add items to Travel Pack, it starts to reflect your interests and aspirations. Being able to visualize your travel pack on a map lets you understand their relative locations within a destination and add new trip items that make sense according to your interests or the length of your stay.”

It’s easy to introduce local flavor into your Travel Pack by adding PlanetEye’s top-rated selections on where to stay, what to do and where to eat. As well, PlanetEye provides valuable editorial content from a list of “Trusted Sources” to enhance the planning process.

Once you’ve created your Travel Pack, you can book your flight and hotel and car rentals right from your Travel Pack through Travelocity.com, which recently entered into an affiliate agreement with PlanetEye.

“Having a dynamic partner such as Travelocity will play an important role in PlanetEye meeting the needs of travelers – whether it’s booking a flight, a hotel or a rental car,” Langlois said. “We’re really excited to have Travelocity on board.”

On PlanetEye, you can also make restaurant reservations (OpenTable), buy tickets to events and attractions (StubHub), and even book a spa appointment (WaySpa).

After a PlanetEye member returns from traveling, they can upload photographs to their Travel Packs, rate the places where they stayed, dined and toured, and then share their Travel Pack with friends, family and other travelers.

A key part of PlanetEye’s technology comes from a Microsoft research project: World Wide Media eXchange (WWMX). Microsoft contributed the technology to PlanetEye as part of their IP Ventures group. This was the first time that Microsoft research technology has been commercialized through a third-party partner in Canada.

“We are very excited about this collaboration and the way that PlanetEye is taking the cutting edge technology developed at Microsoft Research and applying it to the online travel experience,” said Bob Tenczar, director of marketing for the Intellectual Property Licensing Division at Microsoft.

About PlanetEye

PlanetEye is an online travel planning service for travellers looking to easily and quickly research, organize, share and book their trips. Featuring more than 70,000 beautiful, geotagged photographs, leading edge mapping technology, and extensive travel content, PlanetEye is
designed for travelers who want explore where to go and what to do. With in-house writers at your disposal and a growing amount of professional content, we provide valuable information so you can make smart travel-planning decisions.

PlanetEye’s investors include J.L Albright Venture Partners, GrowthWorks and Microsoft Corp.

For more information or to speak with a PlanetEye executive, contact:

Karen Geier
karen@planeteye.com
647-288-1383

(05/07/08. ) The spine-chilling documentary Bong Ma Cuoi Cung Cua Chien Tranh (The Last Ghost of War), about the corrosive effects of Agent Orange (the toxic defoliant used by the Americans during the war in Viet Nam), will be aired for the first time on Vietnamese television today.

The film, made possible by a grant from the US’s New Jersey Council for the Humanities, was produced by Pham Quoc Thai and Janet Gardner, directed by Janet Gardner and narrated by Kevin Cline, from the New York-based Gardner Documentary Group.

The 56-minute film starts at 2pm on VTV1.

The film focuses on the physical and spiritual plight of terminally ill Agent Orange (AO) patients at Tu Du Hospital in HCM City.

“Thirty years after the end of the Viet Nam War there are several million people diagnosed by the Vietnamese [health services] as victims of Agent Orange,” says the Gardner Documentary Group’s website www.gardnerdocgroup.com.

“In The Last Ghost of War we meet several people who are plaintiffs in a class action against 32 US chemical companies. Attorneys, activists, scientists, and a military historian take us to a new battlefield.

“These Vietnamese victims are seeking compensation and justice. The question is: were these dioxin-laden herbicides chemical weapons? And if so, who should be held accountable in the wake of what was allegedly the largest chemical warfare operation in history?”

The film provoked strong emotions in the US when it was shown on north America’s KCMS channel in May.

When talking about the film, the US’s NewsDay newspaper said: “A must-see documentary… A catalyst to a much-needed national debate on Agent Orange.”

Janet Gardner said: “We hope the film will speak for itself. By telling the story of AO victims, we prove to others what its consequences have been and we hope no country will ever use those chemicals again in the future.”

Gardner is an award-winning documentary maker, especially noted for her work on Southeast Asia. Her first documentary film about Viet Nam, entitled Viet Nam: Land of the Ascending Dragon (produced in 1993), won a Cine Golden Eagle at the Lowell Thomas Awards organised by the Society of American Travel Writers, and a Bronze Apple from the National Educational Film&Video Festival in 1989. Since then, she has made three other post-American War documentaries, including A World Beneath the War and the Precious Cargo.

She has also written a number of articles about the devastating side-effects of using Agent Orange.

Source - Vietnam News

If your planning a trip to Vietnam or perhaps you live here and have been thinking about Xmas?

Well check out Air Asia! They are offering $2USD fares from Hanoi/HCMC to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. The price does not include taxes.

You need to book today! Yes, the offer runs out tonight - 6th July! You also need to travel between the 12 Jan 09 - 30 Apr 09.

So if your up for it - book online now at http://airasia.com/site/vn/en/home.jsp

Note - If your a budget traveler or just like saving money, do not book “Express Boarding”. It will cost you $7USD (Adult) or $2USD (Child) for the privilege. Express Boarding means you get on the plane first, however in my experience, everyone else buys it as well. It’s just easier to wait and get a spare seat once everyone has finished pushing and shoving!!

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Hoi An Fish Markets

Located behind the main market area on the river, the local Hoi An fish market is a real photographers dream. Best to visit around 6 – 7am each morning when it’s at it’s busiest.

Cooking Classes

Hoi An is a great place to do a cooking class. Many cafes and restaurants now offer classes. Many run over lunch meaning you miss the heat of the day, while others run over dinner. One of the best in town is at Hai’s Scout Cafe (98 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street).

Shopping

Hoi An is one the shopping Mecca’s of Vietnam! Here you can buy sandals, lanterns, ceramics, tailor made clothing, bags, art work, crappy t-shirts, wood carvings, novels, bad looking hats and so much more!

Beach

Cau Dai Beach is located about 4km from the main part of town. It’s an easy, flat ride which should take the slowest person around 30 minutes. On the beach you’ll find a stack of cafes all selling cold drinks and fresh seafood! My favorite cafe there is called “Hon” Cafe and they do the best Crab in Tamarind Sauce. The swimming is good as well!

Hire a Bicycle

Hoi An being flat and not so busy with traffic, makes it a great place to hire a bike to ride around and visit all those great places. Bikes cost only $1USD per day and can be hired from just about anywhere. My advice: pick a road (or lane) and just go. You’ll see some great sites and get some amazing photos!

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A while back I wrote about a fantastic Charity Bike Tour to be held in Cambodia - see post here - well they are having an info night soon, see image below.

This is a fantastic opportunity to see Cambodia and to help a worthy cause. If you can not make the info night in Sydney, you can find the contact details below as well or you can visit www.look2thefuture.com

So jump on board get fit, see amazing Cambodia and the Cambodian people!

Cambodia Charity Bike Tour - Info night

Last weekend my family and I went down to a local park so my son could hit the swings and slippery slide!

Back in December of 2006, Vietnam introduced new coins and plastic notes in the system. Now you will see the new vending machines around the larger cities such as Hanoi and HCMC selling cold drinks. So now you have somewhere to spend all those annoying coins!!

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