Lauded as the most third beautiful grotto in the country by Nguyen Dynasty King Minh Mang (1791-1841), Dich Long in the northern province of Ninh Binh has fascinated visitors for more than two centuries.

The story goes that a woodcutter stumbled upon the grotto in 1739 as he was climbing a mountain to look for juicy trees to lop.

Standing at the entrance, he felt a breeze blowing into the cave and heard a sound like a flute from within, so he named it “Dich Long” (wind flute).

Inside he saw many beautiful stalactites, including one that resembled the Buddha. In homage, he set up a Buddhist altar on the spot. A pagoda dating back to 1740 now occupies the first of the three linked caverns that form Dich Long Grotto.

At the bottom of the more than 100 stone steps that lead up to the cave’s mouth is a communal house built to honor Ly Quoc Su, a Buddhist monk of the Ly Dynasty (1009-1225).

The monk from Ninh Binh was well-known for successfully treating King Ly Than Tong and many locals of a variety of ailments.

All 16 pillars of the communal house are made of stone. Eight are four meters tall and depict big dragons flying in the clouds and carp swimming in the water. The other pillars are three meters tall and inscribed with parallel sentences in the Han script.

Over the grotto’s arching entrance hangs a bell made during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). The first of the three caverns contains Dich Long Pagoda, also known as Co Am Pagoda, along with a crowded of stalactites and stalagmites in the shape of elephants, tigers and lions guarding the entrance and the Buddha statues inside

Over on the right in Dich Long Pagoda there are gold-plated statues of the Tam The Phat (the three Buddhas of the Past, Present, and Future), and stone statues of Guan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, and Amitabha Buddha.

The next cave is called Toi (dark) and contains a huge stalagmite resembling a woman’s breast. The locals call it “Nature’s Breast.” Its many companions resemble an elephant drinking, a monkey carrying her baby on her back, an old woman selling cigarettes, and other forms of life.

Yet another world of stalactites comes into view at the entrance to the third cavern, which is called Sang (light) Cave. Each crevice and corner of the walls and ceiling is a sculptural masterpiece of nature, and the stalagmites resemble a kneeling elephant, a horse, or a lion making the cave look like a zoo.

A special feature of the second and third caverns is the musical notes formed when the limestone formations are lightly struck with a small rock; they sound like a bell ringing. Their colors are interesting too, and change according to the amount of natural light reaching them at the time.

Dich Long has been celebrated in many poems. King Minh Mang called itNam thien de tam dong (the third most beautiful grotto in the country), outclassed only by Huong Tich in what is now Hanoi and Bich Dong in Ninh Binh’s Hoa Lu District.

The cave was used as a hospital of sorts during the war and many wounded Vietnamese soldiers were treated beneath the glistening stalactites.

As with all such places, there is an annual festival at Dich Long. It’s observed on the sixth and tenth of the first lunar month and includes an important ritual where a thurible is carried in great solemnity. For entertainment, there are unicorn and dragon dances, a chess contest, and plenty else for visitors to enjoy.

When night comes, silence descends on Phu Quoc Island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

But out on the water, hundreds of fishing boats turn on their lights to lure the fish and transform the sea into a bustling town.

Being out there among them has become popular with tourists in recent years and marks a change from the pristine beaches and untouched woodlands for which Vietnam’s largest island is famous for.

We went to the passenger quay in Duong Dong Town at seven in the evening to join a guided fishing expedition. As our boat cut a swath through the waves, far away we could see the lights of the fishing boats twinkling in the water, looking like stars in the sky.

Phu Quoc’s main fishing ground was half an hour’s travel from the wharf. When our boat arrived there, the captain cut the engine and turned on nearly twenty lamps to attract the fish.

Thanks to the lights, we could see scads, cuttlefish and jellyfish swimming around in the clear water.

We were supplied with fishing rods. Those who wanted to catch fish used earthworms as bait but we were after cuttlefish so we attached artificial luminous shrimp to our lines.

At odd intervals a shriek would pierce the still night air when one of our fellow passengers felt a tug on the line.

It was a thrill to feel the line become taut and the rod heavy. It meant a cuttlefish had taken our bait, so we slowly reeled in the prized catch and pulled it from the water.

Of course, we would all be served fresh seafood for supper whether we’d caught any fish or not. Yet it seemed that every member of our party wanted the challenge of catching their own food for the evening and patiently held their lines waiting for that exciting tug.

Whatever was caught was promptly gutted, cleaned, spiced up and steamed, boiled or grilled. The aroma from the cooking was intoxicating.

When the food was ready, we clustered around to enjoy our meal of delicious seafood and wine mixed with pleasant conversation.

Sea urchins

The next day, we went to the house of Thanh Tung, an experienced sea urchin catcher in Bai Thom Hamlet, Bai Thom Commune

Tung mostly sells his sea urchins to local merchants and restaurants.

He also takes tour parties out on the water to catch his specialty and bring the sea urchins back to shore for cooking and feasting on.

Tung steered his vessel to a spot a little way from the shore, dropped anchor, donned a face mask and dropped into the water with metal tongs and basket in hand.

Ten minutes later, he was back with nearly two dozen large specimens that he promptly dumped into the boat from his basket.

Tung explained that the tongs were essential for catching sea urchins as their spines could easily injure anyone foolish enough to handle them with bare hands.

He then removed the spines, cut the sea urchins in half and grilled them. Their flesh and roe were delicious.

Sweet snail

Later on we ventured into Duong Dao, a hamlet in Duong Dong’s Duong To Commune, to see how they farm the marine creature called oc huong (sweet snail)

Oc huong catches the eye with its light yellow shell spotted in brown and makes for delicious seafood.

As its Vietnamese name suggests, oc huong has a unique and captivating fragrance.

Dang Van Nhan, who pioneered oc huong farming on Phu Quoc, said he began in 2007 and found it very profitable almost from the start since the sea snails went down well with Vietnamese and foreigners alike.

Seeing Nhan’s success at close hand, many of the islanders followed suit. Now they raise and breed oc huong for local sale and export to China, Korea and many other countries.

Nhan told us he began breeding oc huong last year to supply his fellow farmers with stock as his cost far less than snails from Nha Trang Town of Khanh Hoa Province on the central coast.

Oc huong can be steamed with onion and ginger, grilled, fried with tamarind or garlic, and otherwise cooked to produce the array of tempting dishes found and eaten at Dinh Cau Night Market on Bach Dang Street in Duong Dong Town.

Unsurprisingly, the crowded market with dozens of food stalls has plenty of other seafood to offer like squid, crab, and shrimp.

The State Bank of Vietnam has asked commercial banks to restrict lending to importers of luxury products in an attempt to narrow the country’s trade gap.

Banks have to report on the amount of foreign money they sell and lend to importers every week, the central bank said.

Lenders should only provide foreign currency loans to exporters who are capable of repaying the loans later, and they must keep their foreign currency loans below their total deposit levels to prevent liquidity risks, it said.

Many experts have warned against the fast expansion of dollar loans in recent months. They said the trend could put pressure on the dollar supply later this year when businesses begin repaying their loans.

Loans rose 1.86 percent from April in May alone, during which period dollar loans rose 3.16 percent, according to the State Bank of Vietnam. Dollar loans had already expanded 14.07 percent in the first quarter.

Vietnam’s trade deficit in the first five months of 2010 was $5.38 billion, according to official statistics.

iPhone sales in Vietnam have been hit by the launch of the new iPhone 4 as local consumers have shifted their attention to the upcoming phone, local retailers say.

Tran Ngoc Dinh, director of iShop, an Apple authorized retailer in Hanoi, said his store had to cut prices by around VND500,000 per phone immediately after the iPhone 4 was unveiled in the US.

PhonGee, a store in Ho Chi Minh City, told local news website VnExpress that after the announcement its iPhone sales dropped 40 percent while many customers placed order for the new version of the popular phone.

Other phone sellers said few customers bought previous models of the iPhone over the past week as they wanted to wait for the iPhone 4 to arrive before making a decision.

But they also noted that an unlocked iPhone 4 would not cost less than VND20 million, which means sales of older and cheaper iPhones could recover later on.

The iPhone 4 was unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in the US last week. The phone is expected to go on sale in several countries later this month at expected retail prices of US$199-299.

Only hours after the announcement, local wireless carrier Vinaphone said it would distribute the new iPhone in July. Vinaphone, together with military-run telecom Viettel, has sold previous versions of the iPhone since March, but sales have been sluggish.

The price of the cheapest iPhone 3GS in the US has been cut to as low as $97, and Vinaphone Deputy Sales Manager Pham Ngoc Tu said if discounted iPhones are brought into Vietnam in huge volumes, prices will fall on the local market. The company, however, has not decided to cut its prices.

Another large wireless provider, MobiFone, announced plans to sell the iPhone in April in Vietnam but has yet to do so. The company confirmed withThanh Nien that it remained intent on selling the phone but it could not say when it will actually be able to retail the product.

News website VnExpress cited a source last Saturday as saying that MobiFone had not even closed its deal with Apple. “Moreover, Apple doesn’t see Vietnam as a potential market, so it won’t really matter whether or not there is a third distributor.”

Former Miss Vietnam, Nguyen Thu Thuy, has started a writing career with a collection of stories titled Chuyen cai to kien (The story of the ant hive) or “My Obsessions.”

Nguyen Thu Thuy was crowned Miss Vietnam 1994 at the age of 19, when she was a first year student at the Hanoi Institute for International Relations. She seemed to have it all and in the 1994 Miss Vietnam Contest, she also won the award for “Best answer” in the Q&A final round.

Born into an intelligentsia family with parents who were officials at the Vietnam Institute of Linguistics, everybody thought Thuy had a comfortable, trouble-free upbringing with early success.

But her life has been anything but easy.

After being crowned Miss Vietnam, Thuy quit her studies in Vietnam to study business in the US.

Unlike most beauty queens in Vietnam, who usually enter the entertainment or fashion industry, Thuy stayed away from showbiz and started her own business. She married at age 26 and had two children. As well as being a full-time mother, she managed her own beauty salons and studio in Hanoi.

The 1.72m-tall-beauty became a single mother when she divorced her husband. Strangely enough, she had her second baby with her ex-husband after the divorce.

Then, earlier this year, at the age of 35, Thuy was involved in a scandal that saw a photograph of her smoking a cigarette in a bar leaked on the Internet. Thuy’s photo caused a ruckus among the general public and sullied her reputation.

In the midst of public censure, Thuy explained that the photo was taken four years ago and it was just one moment at a party with some friends. In an interview with Thanh Nien, Thuy said that going to bars and smoking cigarettes are just parts, not all, of her life.

“Having some wine and a cigarette was not that big of a deal. Stars are human beings after all and their personal lives need to be respected. The principle myself and my kids follow is that you should do whatever you want, within reason. This doesn’t include breaking the law, doing anything immoral, harming others or losing self-control. A real man is a person who stops in time, not a coward who fears everything,” said Thuy.

Writing to prove herself

“Vanity. Always vanity. Absolute vanity” is how Thuy describes her personality on her Facebook account. But read her entries and you will realize she is not just a beauty queen, but a normal woman and mother, she says.

Now Facebook is the bridge that connects Thuy’s writing with the public. Thuy said that she has learned a lot from doing business, and one lesson in particular that doing things by halves is suicide.

“Like doing business, I set plans for every step of my life. I aim to release my first novel in the next three years.”

But for now, people read her extracts on Facebook.

“I do not want to reveal my writing too soon. People will read it for one reason: to figure out if and how a beauty queen writes. I need time for my writing to mature and gain a certain depth. I was very surprised to see that such a huge amount of bloggers read and love my stories.”

Ten years ago, Thuy’s writing would have been seen as an attack on the thought that beautiful girls have no brain. This line of thinking is not so prevalent now and people can appreciate the struggles of a beauty queen and intelligent business woman.

“There is no value in doing something that is not a result of hard work complete with sweat and tears. After writing, I felt completely exhausted and empty. Some people will laugh at this, but for me, it’s very real.”

Dinh Ha, a blogger on Thuy’s friend list, said that Thuy’s writing, with its humor and intelligence, is different to that of other local queens.

“Reading Chuyen cai to kien, you can see that Thuy has a sensitive soul and considerable savvy. Her writing really draws a distinction between Thuy and other celebrities that are involved in the current ‘writing frenzy’” said Ha.