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Water puppet, or literally means “making puppets dance on water”, is a traditional form of art started in the 11th century in villages of the Red River Delta in Vietnam.

The shows consist of up to 8 puppeteers standing behind a split-bamboo screen, controlling the wooden puppets, which are attached to long bamboo rods and strings hidden underneath the water. The water serves as the stage for the puppets as well as a symbol of the rice harvest back in the day. A traditional Vietnamese orchestra consisting of vocals, drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, mono-chord, gongs, and flutes plays background music. The singers sing about the tales being acted out by the puppets.

The skits are based strongly on the folktales told by grandparents to their grandchildren. The most notable character is “Chú Tễu”, which means “Mr. laugh-a-lot”, who has the look of a smiling boy who wears only loincloth. He is similar to the jester in foreign tales, who makes comments about political and social’s realities.

If you are planning riding around Sai Gon on your own, make sure that you ride your motorbike on the right side of the road. At some intersections, you are allowed to turn right even when the red lights are on. Remember this so that you won’t hurt yourself while engage in Vietnamese transport system.

Vietnamese pizza (Bánh tráng nướng) is a popular street food among Vietnamese young people.Though originated in Da Lat, Bánh tráng nướng has gained most of its reputation in Saigon.

This snack resembles the tradition pizza in many ways. They both have a crust, several types of toppings, and a sauce to combine them all together. But instead of a thick dough crust, Bánh tráng nướng uses thin rice papers. As for the toppings, there is no right or wrong in this. You can literally put anything on top of the rice papers. Cheese, sausages, vegetables, anything you like! But here in Saigon, the most popular version of toppings consists of shredded pork, dried-shrimps, crispy fried shallot or garlic, and chopped green onions. Instead of using tomato sauce, Vietnamese use quail eggs and maybe some butter to blend everything together.

There are Brush Pen Street, Grilled Fish Street, Paper Street, Cotton Street,… They were all named after daily-used objects and more surprisingly, you can buy the item, after which the street was named, on that street. The locals call these 36 streets “Ha Noi’s Old Quarter 36 streets”. Back in the days, these streets lived the socialites, the officials, the most wealthy people in Hanoi. People from all near-by provinces came here to trade goods then left at the end of the day. Later on, in order to improve the stealing situation, people who sold the same items gathered around and the street on which they set up their stores was named after the item. Nowadays, even though not all 36 streets keep their original items, these streets are still the signatures of Hanoi. They still have the remnants from the past in their architectures and it would be great to get a tour around in a “xích-lô”. Most shops in 36 streets would close after 8:30pm but Beer Street Ta Hien would open till dawn and tourists can come here for a 0.5$ cup of beer and exciting night-life experiences.

Phở from the Northern of Vietnam is made, mainly, from beef soup and served with some Chinese crullers and hardly any vegetables could be seen in that bowl of Phở. While in the Southern, people serve Phở alongside with a lot of other kinds of vegetables, also, the soup could be made from chicken or pork, not just beef alone.

Different in the way it’s made could be leading to the differences in the way it tastes. Phở in the South is usually tastes sweeter and greasier due to the addition of other flavours which do not have in the North.

Not only so, Vietnamese also have an array of types of Pho, such as Sour Phở, Phở Roll, Stir-fried Phở,… When in Vietnam, remember to check out all of them for full experiences!

The Indochina is consisted of 3 nations: Vietnam, Laos and Campuchia. Among 3 countries, Fansipan is the highest mountain peak, which is 3,143 m (10,312 ft) in elevation. Fansipan is located in the Lào Cai Province of the Northwest region of Vietnam, 9 km southwest of Sa Pa Township in the Hoang Lien Son mountain range. In the local dialect, the mountain is called "Hua Xi Pan" and it means the giant tottery stone plate.

Fansipan is great for anyone who loves trekking or love the feeling of conquest. The road to Fansipan is the most beautiful in late February because this is the time when flowers starting to bloom. The journey conquering The Roof of Indochina could be a 3-day long adventour, even only in 2 days for those who are in great health and already had trekking experiences.

For those who do not wish to climb up that high, there is a cable car system. The Guinness Book of World Records has awarded two Guinness certification for the Fansipan Sapa, including the world's longest three-wire cable car (6292.5 m) and the three-wire system that has the longest distance between the arrivals’ station and the departure’s station (1,410 m).

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