Strange 20-kilo yam found in Hoi An

Phan Dinh Phung, in Thai Hoa commune, Nghia Dan district in the central province of Nghe An, earlier this week received a 20 kilogram, strangely shaped yam from a local in Nghia Duc commune.

With a random arrangement of branches and buds, the yam looks like a sitting rabbit from one side, and a snail from the other side.

After receiving the yam, Phung planned to split it up among his friends. However, on discovering the strange shape, locals in the commune flocked to see the rare yam.

Phung’s family later decided to keep it so people can come and see the strange vegetable.

Currently, the yam is being exhibited in front of the Phung Nham photo developing shop in Hoa Hieu commune.

Lovesick man kneels for hours to prove love

A young man was spotted resting on his knees for five hours in front of a mattress shop in Nha Trang city’s To Vinh Dien street last Saturday, piquing the curiosity of people in the neighborhood. “I have come and gone from the street today and I still see him here,” said a motorbike taxi driver.

Many passers-by stopped and watched him. Some gave advice, telling him to stand up and go home, but he did not listen. According to newswire VnExpress, the man is a sophomore in business management at Nha Trang University.  Recently, his girlfriend broke up with him to concentrate on studies and her future career.

The 20-year old man had been trying to call her but couldn’t get through. He believed that the girl was still in love with him, so he decided to kneel down and wait in front of the shop where she worked.

“I believe she broke up with me for my sake. By kneeling down like this, I hoped my girlfriend would understand my heart and come back to me,” the desperate young man told the newswire.

Sadly, his girlfriend did not show up on that day, since she had quit working at the shop. An assistant from the shop later came out to consult with him and was able to convince him go home after he had been kneeling down for five hours.

The heartrending story of four orphans

Nguyen Tien Hung, husband of Mai Thi Phuc in the central Quang Nam Province, is still haunted by the day when he heard people shouting in a frenzy around the Thanh My river bank, when he ran over only to hear his wife’s name being called.

The fateful morning

Hung was petrified upon seeing only two arms reach up in vain and sink completely. On the bank, his eldest son, Nguyen Tien Hao, aged 11, lay down on the edge in tears, his arms constantly scratching the earth, “If mom dies, I won’t go to school anymore. Please don’t do this to my mom!”

The next two sons, who were studying in class at the time, ran with all their might under the rain to the river bank as soon as they heard about their mother’s boat accident.

When the body was brought up from the water, the four children were devastated, and ran towards their deceased mother in an attempt to resuscitate and warm her up.

While retelling the tragic story, neighbors of Hung’s family cannot hide their tears. Hai, a neighbor, says: “I still remember the morning of December 7, 2011 clearly. I went to the river bank with six others and Phuc was already there.

Normally, Hung would do the rowing for Phuc, but that morning Hung was taking her kids to school. Phuc was on her own with baskets of unripe chili. She was rowing the boat across the river when the accident happened”.

Married since 1999, the couple had never had a true day of material comfort. There were six people in the family, plus an old mother and a mentally ill brother. Hung and Phuc worked their fingers to the bone in their chili garden.

All the money earned was spent on the children’s education and taking care of the old mother.

“That morning, Phuc woke up early. She said she was about to finish planting the chili. She would try to save up to buy the kids new clothes for Tet”, says Ta Thi – Phuc’s mother-in-law.

Since his wife’s death, Hung has become quiet. In the morning, he takes his three older children to school and leaves the youngest with the neighbor. Then he rows across the river to plant the remaining chili that his wife left unfinished.

Sitting among the newly planted plots, he wonders: “Women must feel so happy wearing a necklace, or earrings given to them by their husbands, right?”

Without even waiting to hear the answer, his eyes are already red, and he cries. Those are the tears of a 40-year-old man, helpless because, from the day he married to the day his wife was laid to rest forever, he had never earned enough to buy her a necklace.

We don’t need Tet, only mother

While waiting for his grandmother to finish the ritual offerings for his mom, the eldest son quickly set the table for his siblings to eat.

The meal consists only of a soy sauce bowl, a bowl of salted beans, and two rice bowls. The four children gather around, the elder ones taking care of the smaller.

Since her death, the children are always dirty and their meals are always too plain”.

After having the make-do lunch, they sit close to their mother’s altar, watching her picture closely, talking and laughing.

Thuong says: “They are talking to their mom! They do that at noon every day. In the evening, the father joins.

The other day I heard the youngest kid say: Mom! Please buy me new clothes for Tet, and a hair ribbon too. The eldest son then said loudly in tears: Keep silence, mom is sleeping. Don’t pester her. Then he hugged his sister and cried his heart out. The little girl didn’t seem to understand, and smiled and went to sleep”.

The eldest son seemed to mature quickly after Phuc was gone. After school, he rushes home, burns incense sticks for his mother, and helps his grandma prepare bathing water for his siblings.

When asked what they want for Tet, the second child cries and says, “We don’t want Tet. We just want mom. If mom could live again, we would never need anything else. We miss her so much!

“My 3-year-old sister used to sleep with mom. But now mom’s gone, she sleeps with me and my dad, but she cries every night.”

At a hollow noon in an airy house, beneath the altar of the recently deceased woman, are four children lying close together, as if trying to find the warmth of their mother.

In their intermittent sleep, sometimes a child laughs out. Perhaps they have just dreamed of getting new clothes, sweet candies and hugged by their loving mother.

The 3-year-old wakes up in disbelief, looks up at the altar and bawls: Mom! Mom! Then the four children burst into tears.

Disabled teacher has the “sound heart”

People who live near the mountainous commune of Canh Hien in Binh Dinh Province are not surprised when they see a skinny man walking on his wooden crutches on the uneven country-road. The middle-aged man is often followed by several disabled students of various ages.

For years, Nguyen Tran Khiem has offered several underprivileged children and handicapped people in the commune computer knowledge, stable jobs, and human love.

The heart of teacher Khiem

‘Tuition’ of the students is a few kilograms of rice, a basket of potatoes, or wild vegetables they pick as they look after cows in the forest.

He simply wants to teach the students without getting money in return. “My students are very poor. I just hope to give them knowledge to overcome poverty and disability,” says Khiem, who also has little in the way of possessions.

The students have to travel long distances to reach class, and they sometimes have to sleep in his house. The teacher fears that his students are hungry and tired when they walk home, and he often cooks rice for them.

His students, who understand love from the teacher, try their best to learn. As a result, more people from the poor commune have been able to attend universities recently.

With little money in his pocket, he gradually bought memory, a mouse, and a keyboard, and was finally able to assemble the first computer for his class in 2005. The computer became a treasure for him and his students.

“Many curious people visited my house to see the computer. Some of them wanted to learn typing, but there were so many students that I had to save money and assemble more to teach them,” Khiem recalled.

Of course, the poor teacher did not have enough money to buy brand new computers for his free class, so he collected accessories from broken computers that had been thrown away at local trash warehouses.

Several computers were assembled this way, and there are now ten machines at the center, though they operate slowly.

Xo Y An, who is a member of the Bahnar ethnic group and also a teacher, travels 50 kilometers on a forest path to attend the computer course, said: “It’s very hard to reach teacher Khiem’s house. I cannot go if it rains, and I sometimes have to sleep there after class. He is very kind and creates the best conditions for me.”

Without the center the Bahnar student would have to travel an additional 50 kilometers to reach another computer center.

Students who attend the class are ethnic minority communities including Bahnar and H’re. Even farmers attend his class to learn how to update farming technologies.

Teacher Khiem is training a Bahnar ethnic minority man to learn computer (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Home for the handicapped

However, Khiem offers priority to people who are disabled.

Students who are unable to walk, have poor vision or hearing, or are even illiterate, are welcomed to his class. Some use Khiem not only for knowledge, but also to get an opportunity to integrate into the community.

Two years after assembling the first computer for his center, Khiem negotiated with Binh Dinh Province’s Sponsoring Association for People with Disabilities and the Orphans to set up a branch, so that he has the legal basis for further fund raising activities and job-seeking for his students.

Khiem teaches the disabled students computer knowledge and then mobilizes funds from their families and the community to open centers that offer services related to computers. 

Training a disabled person is not easy. Dao Thi Le Diem, whose legs are paralyzed, lives in a family with three disabled people. Diem fears going out to places with many people.

Khiem visited Diem’s house several times and told her about his center. Diem now leads a group which offers photocopy and computer services.

Diem said: “If I had not met teacher Khiem, I would not know anything about society, not mention have a job like this. He is a step father of several people like me.”

Khiem found materials and attended courses related to teaching disabled people that allowed him to come back and apply the training to his students.

“Teaching the students is a great challenge for me. They are ashamed of their situation and become naughty and don’t want to study. I am in the same situation, so it’s easy for me to persuade them,” Khiem said.

After finishing the course, those who are able to walk are introduced to work at an internet café. Khiem mobilizes money to purchase a computer and learn typing for those who cannot.

Khiem has to knock on the door of local agencies and schools to find customers for his students, and they strongly support him.

After teaching for several years without any benefit, Khiem officially became a teacher when he signed a contract with the provincial department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to open a computer training school for officials and people living in Van Canh District.

Khiem, whose father died when he was a child, and mother died during his last year in school, worked his way to a degree from the Da Nang University of Technology in 1997. His efforts have changed the lives of numerous people in his community.

He sums up his mission as such: “I think I have to do something. I don’t want to waste my knowledge, which was built by my mother’s, and my own, sweat and tears,” Khiem said.

Most expensive dining experiences in Vietnam

These expensive dishes may cost a few months’ salary for an average Vietnamese but the upscale restaurants catering them are always crowded with people trying to get a seat to savor these high-class dishes made from carefully chosen ingredients by renowned chefs

Is the money spent on these dishes worth their promised health and nutrient value or is it just for the glamour of dining in fancy places? Only insiders can answer.

1. Appetizers fetch $750, an everyday occurrence for the rich

At S.H. restaurant on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, 50 kg of lobsters are consumed every day. Though it costs VND3.2 million ($150) a kilogram, lobster is one of the favorite dishes here. Some customers spend dozens of millions of dong just on this.

T., a waitress at the restaurant, says it happens ever day. She lists some expensive appetizers like red snapper fin and crab-roe soup (VND1.5 million), bird’s nest and shark fin soup (VND1 million), and Australian abalone soup (VND1 million). A meal for six could cost $1,500 without drinks. Wines cost $1,000. Customers can bring their own drinks, but corkage is $15 for wine and $20 for booze. The waitress says hundreds of customers come every day, with weekdays being busier than weekends.

“They usually come to talk business. 

Since they pay a bill of $1,500 without batting an eyelid, I guess they are not spending their own money," said the waitress.

2. A bowl of pho costs 100 kilos of rice

A bowl of pho costs $34, as much as 100 kg of unhusked rice - yet the dish has been warmly received and eagerly consumed by many customers, said Mr. To Lam, General Director of the Hanoi-based Capital Garden (Vuon Thu Do) Restaurant, where this special and shockingly priced beef noodle is served.

The place offers mainly two kinds of beef noodle: the VND650,000 ($34) Sagagyu beef noodle served in fine china gold gilded bowls with curved spoons, and the VND125,000 ($6.5) American beef noodle served in normal bowls with straight spoons. The service is also more elaborate: broth and noodle is served in one bowl, and machine sliced beef served in a separate dish. The VND500,000 ($26) Kobe beef, or the VND220,000 ($11) Wagu beef are also available here.

Prohibitive as it is, the dish is in such a demand that his three restaurants, accommodating 150 guests, are often overloaded – guests are mostly businessmen and wealthy families.

A man is tasting the expensive pho at Capital garden

3. Hundred-dollar beefsteaks 

My Way restaurant on Hanoi’s Ly Thai To street serves beefsteak made from expensive Japanese Kobe beef at VND1.9 million (US$900) for tenderloin and VND1.7 ($800) for strip loin. Each dish includes a 200g steak, mashed potato, bread, salads and a choice of five different sauces: green pepper, red wine, BBQ, cherry tomatoes and mushroom cream. At lower prices, customers can choose Japanese Wagyu for VND1.28 million (US$500) or American and Australian beef starting from VND380,000 ($20). The reason for such high prices is due to the high costs of the ingredients and the complexity of the preparing and cooking process. 

Ho Toan Thang, the restaurant chef, said about 20 guests visit the restaurant to savor the steaks every day. Besides curious people who wished to try the expensive dishes once, 70 percent of the guests are frequenters who take family, friends and partners to the restaurant. There are also reservations for a table for two with candle lights, Kobe beefsteaks and Spanish wine for a sweet proposal night.

4. Drinking gold wine to prevent HIV/AIDS

A gold wine brand called G. is said to contain 22 carats of pure gold to help increase iron levels in blood, decompose stones inside organs and increase energy. Each 500ml bottle is sold for VND1.5 million (US$75).

At the same price, consumers can buy a set of three bottles of Korean gold wine, which is said to help prolong lifespan, brighten skin and prevent HIV.

“My husband bought them during his business trip to Korea,” said a gold wine seller in Ho Chi Minh City. 

“Take one glass before each meal and you’ll see the effect in a week.”

Doctor Do Thi Ngoc Diep, director of the HCMC nutrition, said no research had shown gold to have any benefit to human health. It is not listed as a healthy nutrient. 

“There is no need to eat gold,” Diep said. “On the contrary, overeating can cause poisoning since gold is a heavy metal.”

5. Eating golden turtle to cure heart diseases

If you think these Hanoi restaurants and their patrons are decadent, they pale in comparison to what goes on the Mong Cai border in Quang Ninh, where rich people feast on golden turtles.

According to a rich man living here, golden turtles are very precious and rare. Since they live in high mountain habitats, they breathe the freshest air and are very nourishing.

Eating them can improve one’s health and wine mixed with turtle blood or gall can help cure heart disease, he claims.

Their price? A turtle no larger than a cup costs VND50 million ($2,400).

6. Local chef, local ingredients, international price

Chef Vo Quoc’s high-class catering has got popular by word of mouth, and he does not pay for marketing or advertising, but instead lets his clients find him.

Every time he receives an order to cater at a house or company party, Quoc introduces his clients to three simple courses with five dishes each. Depending on the quality, each course can cost VND2-8 million (US$100-400) per guest. At the highest price, the menu includes fresh seafood, abalone and shark fin.

An abalone dish prepared by Vu Quoc

Quoc caters six luxurious parties like this each month.

“Parties I cater cost more than usual because I pledge not to use salt, sugar, MSG or any other addictives,” Quoc said.

Quoc said that other than Australian beef and Japanese abalone, he uses mostly local produce.

“I buy vegetables and spices at Ben Thanh Market. There are two stands that sell fresh vegetables from Hoc Mon District. Seafood can be found in Cu Market on Ham Nghi Street. Their prawns, crabs and squid are fresher than those in any other market.”

When asked who is willing to pay such a high price for a party, especially in these troubling economic times, Quoc said, “I cannot reveal clients’ information. What I can say is that they are high-class and very gastronomic.”

7. Dining like an emperor, paying like a millionaire

Long Dinh restaurant (Hanoi) is renowned for its “golden room,” an unabashedly decadent place that gives its customers the impression of dining in a royal palace. Its gold inlaid tableware sparkle on a perfect white table.

But to dine like an emperor does not come cheap – it could cost a person US$1,000, the same as Vietnam’s per capita income. An appetizer like a bird’s nest and crab-roe soup costs $46, bird’s nest and chicken soup is $65, while South African abalone soup comes at $96.

“We have 300 dishes here for the equivalent of a few quintals of rice,” a waitress says.

Even a small pack of cashew costs VND800,000 ($40).

Considering the high prices, you would think few people go there, right? Wrong. Long Dinh is always packed, and one needs to book in advance to get a table.

Hai Phong police shot dead during chase

A 23-year-old private first class was shot death and a sergeant major was seriously injured while chasing two suspicious men in Hai Phong City this morning.

At 1:35 am Monday, while patrolling in Thuong Ly Ward, Hong Bang District, private first class Do Dang Long and sergeant major Nguyen Phu Kien, found two suspicious young men speeding up on their motorbike. The officers signaled the men to stop but they sped on.

The officers chased after them and when they were crossing the Binh Bridge, the man on the back seat turned round and fired back. Both Long and Kien were injured and taken to Viet Tiep Hospital.

Long died soon later due while Kien is still being treated.

The city police launched an urgent hunt for the killers and at 4:30 am they arrested 26-year-old Hoang Van Nam, who shot the officers, and Do Van Son, 28, who was driving at the time.

Son, from Thuy Nguyen District, had been on the wanted list of the Quang Ninh Province police for murder, while Nam had two previous convictions.

The police seized a K59 gun, a shotgun, 6 bullets and several other tools hidden in the criminals' motorbike.

Private first class Long was admitted to the police in February 2011. The Hai Phong Police Department has decided to posthumously promote Long to sergeant to honor his death in action.

The Ministry of Public Security’s Policy Department has sent VND30 million (US$ 1,430) to support Long’s family.

Apricot farmers worried about early blossoming

Apricot tree farmers in HCMC are being worried as their flowers have started to bloom well before the Lunar New Year because of heavy rain and unfavorable weather. As the Lunar New Year, or Tet, is still 3 weeks away, it is too early for apricot flowers to blossom now.  At Ut Cao apricot flower garden, the flowers on half of the trees have been blossoming. “The weather this year is awful,” Ut Cao, the garden’s owner, said with a sigh. He said rain was unexpectedly occurred at this time of the year, causing apricot flowers to blossom untimely. “Customers wouldn’t like full-bloom flowers for Tet,” he said.

Vietnamese want their Tet flowers to remain for a while after Tet ends so before Tet, they prefer to buy trees and stalks with more buds rather than less. Artisan Nam Dong, owner of an apricot flower garden in Thu Duc District, said unfavorable weather had caused 70% of his trees to blossom early. Among his total 1,000 flowerpots, only 300 are in saleable conditions now. But Nam Dong said he wouldn’t raise prices even though he has spent a lot on pesticide and workers’ wages.  “I’ll only plant 200 apricot trees next year,” he said.

Several horticulturists have gathered apricot trees in some locations along Kha Van Can Street in Thu Duc District for sale. Tran Ngoc Vuong, owner of Hanh apricot tree garden in Lon Dong Ward, Thu Duc District, said he had been displayed 200 apricot trees at the above site. According to Hanh, clients often buy apricot trees in the first year and then ask farmers to help take care of their plants every year after that.

Pham Anh Dung, chairman of the Ornamental Creatures Association in Cu Chi District, predicted that prices of apricot trees wouldn’t increase much because many people have switched to orchids. “There are different types of orchids – different colors and species. Orchids are also easier to care for,” Dung said. According to the Cu Chi Ornamental Creatures Association, the total area of orchid farming in the district has increased by 30 hectares and the prices of orchids will increase by 10% compared to last year.