Two houses are destroyed in North by the fire

YEN BAI — A fire destroyed two houses in Village 1 in northern mountainous Yen Bai Province's Phuc Loc Commune yesterday morning.

The fire started in a timber house owned by Phung Van Do then spread to his son's house next door.

No one was at home to extinguish the fire. 

Total damages were estimated to reach VND40 million (US$1,900). An investigation of the incident is ongoing. — VNS

The ship fire and three Vietnamese missing

HA NOI — Three Vietnamese sailors were reported missing from a Republic of Korea (RoK) ship that suffered a fire in waters southeast of New Zealand on Tuesday night.

According to an initial report from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand (RCCNZ), of the 23 Vietnamese sailors on board, three were reported missing and four others suffered injuries.

The injured sailors were given medical care and brought to the nearest port in New Zealand.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry asked the embassies in NZ and the RoK to work closely with relevant local agencies to take necessary measures to help the Vietnamese seamen.

The RCCNZ yesterday said that it received an SOS from the fishing vessel Jung Woo 2 of the RoK's Sunwoo Corp. The ship, with 40 sailors on board, was ablaze in the Ross sea, about 3,700km southeast of New Zealand. — VNS 

Cattle in Nam Tra My district situation

QUANG NAM — More than 200 buffaloes, oxen and goats in central Quang Nam Province's Nam Tra My District froze to death during the recent cold spell, according to the district Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on Wednesday.

The cattle had been left to graze in the open. Last year, nearly 1,000 head of cattle in the district died from cold.

The cold killed another 100 cattle in nearby Nam Tra My District. — VNS

Discovering the meaning of things we should do and don't do in the lunar new year

For many of us younger Vietnamese, Tet always had been something very important to our families, to our culture and to our people. However, we often don’t understand certain things that the older folks in the family usually say and do during these 3 important days of the Lunar New Year. Just like many of the young Vietnamese living overseas, I have been through the age of wondering and struggling to find out the real stories and reasons behind each activity and behavior that the Vietnamese people do for Tet.You may not agree with some of the believes and traditions that I’m going to list below, but reading this list will save you a lot of headache and hopefully will help you in starting to appreciate the beauty of our Vietnamese culture and traditions:

1.Say “Happy New Year” in any language that you can when you see a Vietnamese or an Asian person. In Vietnamese, it is “Chuc Mung Nam Moi,” with a big smile!

2.Give red envelopes (Li Xi), though in the old days, only married people were supposed to do this task in the new year because married people were believed to be more successful than single individuals. However, nowadays, giving away Li Xi is an act of showing your generosity and wishing the recipients luck throughout the year. Who doesn’t like getting money from those red envelopes? Because, I DO!

3. Smile, laugh often, and be energetic. Just don’t overdo the smiling and laughing because people may misjudge you as someone recently discharged from an asylum or someone on dope. Nevertheless, seeing someone with a smile on his/her face will brighten the mood of anybody on any day, so definitely do this!

4. Offer others something sweet such as candies or “mut Tet”. People believe that sweet things will bring sweetness for the rest of the year.

5. Offer the elderly a warm cup of tea if they have lost all their teeth or have diabetes. A warm cup of tea is believed to deliver happiness, warmth, and the flavorful sweet taste to the person. Vietnamese families usually gather around during Tet to just drink tea. The tea might not be warm, but love of family is surely warm.

6. Visit all your relatives. This is your golden excuse to visit your relatives and catch up with them. This is my golden excuse to meet the rest of my crowded family members to make sure that that cute chick I’m dating doesn’t happen to be my 5th cousin. (J/K!)

7. Give anything related to number 6 or 8. This is because our culture has been tied with some aspects of Chinese culture. Number 6 in Cantonese sounds like the word “Loc” in Vietnamese, which means Luck. Number 8 in Cantonese sounds like the word “Phat” in Vietnamese, which means Prosperity. I personally don’t believe in these, but I will do anything to make people happy. So, giving $6 or $8 for Li Xi would beat the $10. In the end, I save $2 to $4 for each Li Xi and still make others happy. Nice trick huh?

8. Give anything red in color, such as watermelon, li xi, dried fruits in a red box (mut Tet), etc. The color red is associated with Luckyand High Class rankings in Asian culture, especially the ones that are heavily influenced by Chinese culture.� In addition, the color red brings warm feelings or hotness, like fire. So in short, red brings luck and warmth to the family.

9. Wear new, colorful, beautiful clothes with light colors. Put those wrinkled, stinky clothes in the washer already!

10. Give the following package of fruits: custard apple, coconut, papaya, and mango. In Vietnamese, the fruits, respectively: Mang Cau, Dua, Du Du, Xo In the Vietnamese Southern accent, the fruits will be pronounced as “Cau Dua Du Xai”, which means “wishing you having enough money to spend”. However, if you read number 4 on the 10 Dont’s List below, you will see that people usually take out the custard apple from the package due to the difficulty of finding it during Tet and the belief that 4 is a bad number. You will often see the package contains only coconut, papaya, and mango, which gives you the combination of “Dua Du Xai”, the truncated version with the meaning of “Enough Money to Spend”.

The 10 Dont’s:

1.Don’t show up at somebody’s house on the 1st day unless you have been invited by the house owner first. Otherwise, go on the 2nd day or at a later time. People believe that the first person who shows up at their house will bring to the family all the characteristics of that person. If a person is a successful person, the family will be successful. If the person has been unlucky last year, the family will be in bad luck all this new year. So it is best for you to stay home until someone has invited you over. It’s their signal of telling you that either someone already has entered their house for this year or they personally like your characteristics to have you over and bring them luck. Believe it or not, I don’t think all this luck stuff is true, but I recommend you to listen to this advice to avoid being unreasonably blamed.

2. Don’t wear dark clothing or just black and white. Dark, black, and white clothing is believed to be associated with death and funerals. By the way, wear something nice and lively–it’s New Year!

3. Don’t swear, curse, trash talk, or argue. Any of these is already bad for any time of the year, not alone the New Year…

4. Don’t give presents with unlucky signs. For example: Any foods with squid or duck meat and number 4 and 7. Squid produces black liquid, which is considered to be dirty and harmful, though the squid itself tastes super good! Ducks are believed to be stupid and their meat is dark (at least darker than chicken meat). Number 4 is pronounced as “Tu” in the old Vietnamese language system which sounds almost like “Tu”, which means Die or Death in the old Vietnamese language that is heavily influenced by the Chinese language. Most people have mistaken the fact of number 7 being a lucky number. However, in old Vietnamese language, 7 is pronounced as “That”, which is the same spelling and same sound as the word “Lost” or “Missing” in old Vietnamese language. So in Vietnamese, number 7 is actually very bad! Not as lucky as you thought. Oh yeah, and if you are in Vietnam, don’t eat or give dog meat during New Year. I’ll tell you the reason in person.

5. Don’t talk about negative topics such as accidents, deaths, or funerals. Who likes to talk about these things anyway?

6. Don’t ask someone to repay you a debt or loan. Wait until the next 2-3 weeks. People believe that if they have to repay or borrow money at the beginning of the year, they will have to borrow and repay money for the rest of the year. Best time of the year to dodge your debt, eh?

7. Don’t ask for “Li Xi” if it was not given. This is considered equivalent to asking the person to pay their debt. In my personal opinion, this has more to do with courtesy and politeness.

8. Don’t visit anyone’s house for the first 3 days of the lunar calendar if you have funeral in your immediate family in the last 3 years. Vietnamese people believe that the dead person in the family will not go to Hell within the first 3 years of his or her death. Their spirit will follow the family members for 3 years before they either get tired from it or witness the fact that the family has gotten over the fact of their death. People don’t want spirits to go into their house during New Year because gods, goddesses, and Buddhas are partying it up during this time and paying less attention in guarding the house of the owners from ghosts and spirits. So, sit home with your beloved spirit; people will come to your house to share your sadness if they are considerate. You do not want to take any stupid blame if some family sheds some blood for something that is totally unrelated to you.

9. Don’t take or ask to take things that are related to fire out of somebody’s house such as: lighters, matches, coals, fire fluid, gas, etc. Fire is considered to be the source of the warmth of the family, the desire of couple’s love. It is believed that families with fire taken away will have problems within the family. Firefighters should take 3 vacation days during Tet if their station happens to be within the Asian neighborhood.

10. Don’t take or ask to take things that are related to water out of somebody’s house such as: bottles of water, water containers, water dispensers, drinking cups, glasses, etc. People usually wish each other “Tai Loc Nhu Nuoc” or “Money and success coming in like water”. So, taking water out of somebody’s house is equivalent to taking away their wealth. If you are thirsty, drink the water inside the house, don’t take the bottle home or you will see the owner coming to your house to take back their waterbottle with an angry face.

Lastly, I wish all the readers and travelers a happy new year, a successful 12 months, an amazing 365 days, and a wonderful 8,760 hours with your loved ones!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

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The number of Vietnamese sailors die in boat fire

HA NOI — Three Vietnamese sailors died and at least seven others injured after the blaze of a South Korean ship, the Jung Woo 2, while it was fishing in the Ross Sea, about 3,700km southeast of New Zealand - near Antarctica.

The South Korean Embassy in New Zealand confirmed that the three sailors lost their lives while sleeping aboard the burning ship.

The NZ Rescue Co-ordination Centre received signals calling for help from the burning ship on Tuesday. There were 40 crew on board including 23 from Viet Nam.

The Vietnamese Embassy in New Zealand is co-operating with the centre to verify the identity of those killed.

An investigation is being made into the cause of the blaze.

A series of burned motorbike happened make officials worried about the quality of fuel

HCM CITY — Agencies under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) have been told to examine the quality of 3,000 fuel samples taken from filling stations across the country.

The results of the inspection will be used to identify whether low-quality gasoline is the main cause behind recent vehicles fires, according to Tran Minh Dung, chief inspector of the MST. Inspections conducted in 2011 found sub-standard fuel. 

"We must wait for the results of the comprehensive inspection on this issue," said Dung.

Automobiles and motorbikes are popular means of transportation in Viet Nam, but many users have failed to use them safely, ignoring periodic maintenance and lubricant renewal.

Some of them have even installed extra equipment on their motorbikes, said Dung.

Inspections of the gasoline samples from vehicles that suddenly burst into flames showed that the fuels in the gas tank were standard octane, methanol and water.

Dung said that claims that the low octane index had affected fuel quality, leading to the vehicle fires, were irrational.

He said the major errors made at 1,537 filling stations that were inspected last year were the use of unregistered pumps and broken pumps that gave inaccurate measurements.

In addition to fuel quality, there are various reasons behind these recent vehicle fires.

"Relevant authorities are working seriously on these issues," he added.

In related news, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai has asked the MST to report to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung the results of the inspections on fuel quality conducted in 2011.

Suspected fuel

Gasoline samples taken from suspected gas stations in HCM City passed quality inspections, according to a report of Quality Assurance and Testing Centre 3 yesterday.

The tests were conducted in response to suspicion that traders were mixing low-performance fuel with additives to improve its combustion. The samples were taken from stations in Binh Thanh and Thu Duc districts, all of which received gasoline from a tank truck that was found to be holding mixed fuel in early January.

However, experts still doubt the quality, saying that potential errors in the procedure could have affected the results. — VNS

Visit Hoi An and taste specialty in Hoi An

Many people come to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hoi An for its well-preserved architecture. Walking around Hoi An, it's easy to get lost in time and be shuttled back to an age when the river-front city was the largest harbor in all of Southeast Asia. It's very easy to understand why Hoi An is such a top tourist destination in Vietnam. I, however, came to Hoi An to eat. It just worked to my benefit that I had such lovely setting to do it!

There are a number of local delicacies specific to Hoi An that can draw a traveler to and persuade them to stick around Hoi An for awhile. I know because I fell in love with Hoi An's specialties and ended up eating my way around town for almost two weeks (well, also because I was having clothes custom-made but more on that in a later post)!

Although many restaurants serve up all the usual Hoi An dishes for a few dollars a plate, heading to the street stalls is really where you'll get the authentic taste and the local price!

Com Ga
Com ga is as ubiquitous in Hoi An as pho is in Saigon on so you'll be able to find it on nearly every street corner. It's a straightforward meal of seasoned rice and shredded chicken, served with a side of fresh onions, greens and mint leaves. Nothing about com ga will change your life but it certainly makes for a filling meal when you're in the mood for something simple and fast. The tastiest spot I found was away from the city center, near my hotel on Hai Ba Trung at the family-run Cafe 619. I'll let you in on a secret though; their com ga is good, but not half as good as their savory pork. Same meal, different meat, but trusts me on the pork!

Cau Laucau lau hoi an
Cau lau is a bowl of doughy flat noodles served with bean sprouts, green vegetables, slices of juicy pork and croutons. The secret to a good cau lau is said to come from the water from the Ban Le well in town. Whatever the secret ingredient may be, the taste is simply delicious! The best street cau lau can be found along the river, just outside the Citronella Restaurant near the old Japanese Bridge. They add sprigs of fresh mint into their bowl of cau lau, and it makes all the difference!

White Rose
With such a pretty name as White Rose, you can expect something as delicate and light as these steamed shrimp dumpling-like appetizers. Trust me, they're small and you'll need something more substantial for a full meal. In any case, no meal in Hoi An truly starts without a plate of White Rose on the table.

Fried Won Tonsfried won tons
Delicate and crispy fried won tons topped with fresh ingredients is another Hoi An specialty to help start a meal right. I'm typically not one to indulge in fried foods, but the fried won tons are light and tasty, not greasy and oily. With a number of toppings to choose from such as beef and duck, as well as vegetarian options, these friend won tons can win over anyone, no matter how picky an eater.

Dessert at Cargo
Perhaps the best surprise in all of Hoi An is the delightful bakery found at the wildly popular Cargo restaurant. The chocolate cheesecake literally changed my life! It's rich, creamy and the milk chocolate topping is absolutely divine. So good that I had to have a slice three days in a row! In fact, every dessert I tried at Cargo was fabulous, including the cinnamon waffle served hot off the grill with a scoop of ice cream. Magnificent! An evening is not complete in Hoi An without a stop in Cargo for dessert and once you try one, you'll find it hard to not keep going back.