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Eager
for an angle: Fishing has become a popular pastime in
urban centres among people of all ages. — VNS File Photo
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Where
to go
To
discover where your closest fishing getaway is,
call 1080. Some of the more popular sites close
to Ha Noi include: (staff don’t speak English,
so arm yourself with a few useful Vietnamese
phrases).
1.
Gia Lam District: Huynh Ngoc Thanh Orchard. Tu
Dinh, Xa Long Bien. Tel. 875-2094
2.
Dong Anh District: Ha Dung Garden.
Tel.04-883-3130
3.
Dong Anh District: Hai Rong, Van Noi Village.
Tel. 04-833-3869
If
you are in HCM City you can try:
1.
Binh Thanh District: Binh Quoi 1. Tel.
08-898-6696
2.
Binh Thanh District: Binh Quoi 2. Tel.
08-899-1831
3.
Can Gio District: 50km south of HCM City. Tel.
08-874-3068
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Hooked
on relaxation
by
Hoang Lan
The weekend has
long been a fixture in western countries, but for many Vietnamese people
the concept of two days of rest is still relatively new.
The weekend only
came into being for most people in October 1999, when the Government
decreed all State employees would work a five-day week.
Local businesses
have been quick to catch on to the resulting demand for leisure
activities, especially from city residents with a yearning to escape
their concrete surrounds.
Around Ha Noi a
number of licensed "tourism sites" have sprung up which offer
lazy meals relaxing in garden settings, along with pond fishing.
Tu Liem district,
11km south-west of the city centre, has a number of such sites which
cater to urban dwellers.
Director of the Tu
Liem Orchard and Tourism Company, Vu Xuan Kinh, says his company’s
50ha of gardens, orchards and pond service hundreds of people a day.
"We are
trying to turn our site into a "green garden" to help people
relax and forget about their daily pressures," Kinh says, adding
that the grounds include 60,000 plants.
There is also an
on-site restaurant housed in a traditional stilt house which offers
dishes made from "clean" or organic vegetables.
Vietnamese people
are increasingly concerned about excessive pesticide use and its
associated health effects, so a number of retailers are pushing fruit
and vegetables which are grown using permitted levels of chemicals.
Foreign tourists
might think this is an unusual drawcard but the locals rank food high on
their entertainment agendas.
Nguyen Phuong Thao
and Phuong Nhung, students at the University of Foreign Trade, say they
and their friends often go to the site to enjoy the fruit, vegetables
and flowers.
The day Thao and
Nhung visited they arrived with a large group of students from the
university to celebrate their imminent summer break. They decided to
pass on the fishing, preferring the pleasures of cards, drinking games,
feasting, napping and singing.
As well as the
hectares of trees and garden, the site boasts a large fishing pond
surrounded by private, thatched platforms which can be rented by weekend
anglers.
About VND10,000
will get you a simple bamboo rod, rice dough to use as bait and a
platform to call your own. For another VND10,000 you can get a rod with
a reel.
The pond is
stocked with fish, however, the bigger specimens seem to stick to the
middle of the pond, far from the huts which attract small fry adept at
nibbling the bait off the hook.
Kinh says it is
common for big groups of people to hold fishing contests, and in keeping
with Buddhist tradition the winner is allowed to set his or her fish
free.
Unlike fishing
convention in other countries, the company normally fines people who
catch fish then release them back into the pond.
Anglers lucky
enough to hook a fish pay per kilogram for their catch, the price
differing according to whether you eat it on site or take it home.
Don’t expect to
while away the hours in peace and quiet though. Viet Nam’s ubiquitous
karaoke sounds fill the air, jostling for space with the roar of cicadas
and screams of children playing hide and seek.
At the height of
summer the sound of cicadas is deafening and it doesn’t take long for
children to track down the source of the sound and incorporate the
musical insects into their games.
Similar
fishing/garden sites can be found around Ha Noi in Gia Lam and Dong Anh
districts which are within 10km of the city centre.
Quiet
retreats
Orchard gardens
are also booming in the south, with foreign tourists drawn towards the
home-stays in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
Delta farmers have
invested millions of dong in guest houses that capture the essence of
the southern lifestyle and the country’s cultural heritage.
Ho Tien Sinh from
Can Tho province says his family earns VND40 billion every year from his
fruit orchards and tourist operations.
Sinh sought the
the help of the Can Tho Tourism Company before he built a 150sq.m
thatched-roof guest house designed for travellers.
He says visitors
to the orchard relish the opportunity to stay with a local family,
surrounded by children and animals in a relaxing environment, eating
local food and drinking rice wine.
Sinh’s orchard
is just one of a growing number of gardens in the province that offer a
getaway for visitors, according to an official from the provincial
tourism centre.
The centre
provides training to the new tourism hosts and approves the licences
permitting guest houses to be built.
The director of
the provincial Tourism Department, Dao Huy Tam, says the garden getaways
stand out from other tourist activities, ensuring their continued
popularity. — VNS |
