HCM City to host Indochina expo

Tourism industry representatives from 31 countries and territories will fly to HCM City next week for an annual travel expo on Viet Nam and three other Indochina countries.

Travel Expo 2011, titled Four Countries, One Destination, will be held at the Sai Gon Exhibition and Convention Centre in District 7 from September 14 to 17.

According to the city Tourism Promotion Division, the four-day event will see a sharp increase in the number of local and foreign exhibitors, including some for the first time from Australia, China, South Korea, Russia, and the US.

The event will feature a conference on tourism in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Viet Nam.

To attract locals, organisers have arranged a dozen free buses from the city centre to the exhibition site.

Thai food festival in HCM City

The Moevenpick Hotel Sai Gon in HCM City is offering lovers of Thai food an opportunity to sample authentic Thai cuisine at an international buffet this week.

Photo: Internet

The lunch buffet is priced at VND380,000 and dinner at VND680,000.

HCM City prepares for Oktoberfest

Over 15,000 visitors are expected to turn up for the 19th Oktoberfest to be organised by the German Business Association at Windsor Plaza Hotel in HCM City next month.

The event, to be the biggest in Southeast Asia this year, will be held in a traditional Bavarian beer – garden atmosphere with traditional, freshly-brewed Oktoberfest beer, German food, and popular Bavarian folk music.

Metropole voted Asia's best

The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel Ha Noi and The Nam Hai Resort in Hoi An share top billing as Asia's best leisure properties this year following an online poll by Hong Kong-based travel and trade magazine Smart Travel Asia.

The Nam Hai ranked second last year and the Metropole third in the magazine's list of Top 25 Leisure Hotels & Resorts.

The Caravelle Hotel in HCM City was 23rd on the list of top business hotels.

The results of the three-month Best in Travel Poll 2011 were culled from votes cast by the readers of SmartTravelAsia.com. Voters had submitted their own nominations from thousands of possible choices in Asia.

Art dolls tell stories with silent voices

The first exhibition of art dolls opened in Ha Noi on Thursday, featuring 20 artworks by Tran Thu Hang.

In naming the exhibition Art Dolls: Silent voices, the artist confided that she wants to bring voices to dolls and create a space for them to whisper and say what they want.

Hang, a Viet Nam University of Fine Arts graduate and a freelance doll artist, is one of the pioneers to bring the visual impact of "art doll" works to Viet Nam. Her doll's delicate and minute facial expressions and postures are unforgettable once visitors see them. They are gaining more and more attention from the general public and media.

Most of the dolls in her collection are inspired by children. She created different gestures, appearances and backgrounds to tell stories of children: when their parents are not around, when they are forced to eat, when they play and wish to pick up stars in the sky.

In this exhibition, a series of 12 art dolls made from 2007-2009, as well as eight brand-new art dolls inspired by Japanese and Vietnamese cultures, will be exhibited in a purple coloured space.
"Children always believe that dolls are alive. Dolls just cannot speak and tell the stories of themselves. Contemporary art is considered a borderless land of art, where artists can freely create what they want with any kind of material. For me, I chose "dolls" to be my material for my creativity."

This exhibition is a part of the project entitled Young Talent Series, in which the Japan Foundation Centre for Cultural Exchange in Viet Nam aims to provide the opportunity for young Vietnamese artists to exhibit their collection of artworks in solo exhibitions for the first time in their careers.

The exhibition will run until October 7 at 27 Quang Trung Street, Ha Noi.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News