By
Adi Arifin
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| Notre Dame Cathedral - HCMC |
The most popular area to backpackers is Pham Ngu Lao in the 1st - out of 16 - district of Ho Chi Minh City. In its strategic location close to the heart of the citym Pham Ngu Lao offers a long array of budget accommodations starting from as low as $5 per night.
History Museum, War Remnants Museum, Giac Vien Pagoda, Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Ben Thanh Market are just to name some of tourist attraction sites in
Ho Chi Minh City. Whilst it is not as beautiful as its northern counterparts, traveling from one tourism attraction site to another is quite easy in Ho Chi Minh. Forget the memory you may got from Hollywood movies about the war, Ho Chi Minh is safe, even to travel around at night.
One of the worth-to-visit sites is Notre Dame Cathedral. Built back in 1870 by French architect Jules Bourard, the cathedral has two 187-meters-high towers, making it one of the icon of Ho Chi Minh for decades. For natural attraction, Mekong Delta is the place to go. Here we can cruise along the river, interact with local people in the floating market, and enjoy beautiful rice field scenery along the river side.
For a different atmosphere we can leave the modern city life of Ho Chi Minh and go to Hoi An. Full of old
architectural heritage, Hoi An brings you back to the previous century. Sipping Vietnamese tea at a sidewalk cafe in a full moon night, with colorful silk lampions, traditional music, local kids playing hacky sack, you will find yourself in a mystical ancient land.
Hoi An was once the most important port in South-East Asia and therefore in 1999 UNESCO declared it as one of the world's cultural heritage sites.
Pedestrians and bicycle riders will like
Hoi An as motorbikes and cars rarely appear here. In addition to historical sites like The Japanese Covered Bridge which is the icon of Hoi An, Chuc Thanh Pagoda, and Museum of Folklore, Hoi An is also famous for its clothing home industry.
From Hoi An we can take a four hours bus trip to Hue, a city split into two parts by River Perfume. In the days of the Nguyen Dynasty, the northern side of Hue played an important role. The kings of Nguyen Dynasty ruled from The Forbidden Purple City at the northern side of Hue. The buildings of the ancient empire town remains as it was.
Other attractions in Hue include Thien Mu Pagoda, Dieu De National Pagoda, and the tomb of king Khai Dinh. Cruising River Perfume on a tourist boat is another way to enjoy Hue.
Exploring Vietnam will never get completed without going up north where popular tourism sites such as Halong Bay, Cat Bay Island, and Sa Pa hill are located.
Halong Bay offers impressive scenery of soaring karst, tropical forest, caves, and waterfalls. Hiking addicts should find themselves in paradise at Sa Pa. Located at the foot of Fansipan Mountain, Sa Pa has beautiful hill and terraced rice field scenery as well as unique local traditional life.
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| Halong Bay - Vietnam |
So much Vietnam has to offer for backpackers, you can also enjoy it in style. Forget budget accommodations and rent a
Vietnam villas for ultimate luxury experience. More than luxury accommodation you can also get customized tours perfectly suited to preference by personal butler.
for defense is now one of the national sports of Cambodia. According to new rules, moves have been slightly altered but the main focus remains the same which is to win the competition. Though Pradal Serey involves focus on four major strikes which originate from the knees, elbows, fists (punches) and feet (kicks) but they tend to utilize more elbows than that of other regions because success is more visible via elbow techniques. It was believed that Kickboxing and other Martial Arts were started with the Mon Khmer and then the trend continued in Cambodia.
. The entire North Vietnam was taken over by the communists while the Southern part remained free of their influence. However a insurrection aided by the Communists from the North was started in South Vietnam.
. It's a city that never sleeps. Where tall modern buildings, sit next to colonial French villa's. Where motor bikes once ruled, they now fight with cars for space on the mad, often insane city roads. 
