PEOPLE - Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu was one of most elegant women of the 20th century.In the 1950s and 1960s,she was first lady of South Vietnam. In fact, she was compared with ladies such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (former first lady of the United States), Dewi Sukarno (ex-first lady of Indonesia), Grace Kelly ( former princess of Monaco) and Eva Duarte de Peron (former first lady of Argentina). - Hieu Ngan Tran is one of the Vietnam´s best known and well-loved athletes. She is a taekwondo athlete who competed in the women´s featherweight category at the 2000 Olympic Games and won the silver medal. The silver - medal for Vietnam was the first ever won by that country in Olympic competition. - Madame Nguyen Thi Binh became the first female vice president of Vietnam in 1992. - Pham Tuan was the first Vietnamese astronaut and the first Asian in space. He flew aboard the shuttle Soyuz-37 in July 1980. He was in space for more than 7 days. Pham Tuan was given a hero´s welcome when he returned to country after completing its historic orbital space flight.
HISTORICAL - Vietnam is the home to Historic City of Hue-one of the ancient wonders of the world. - OTHER INTERESTING FACTS - Vietnam is famous for its hospitality, and the average visitor will have no difficulty in adapting to local traditions. - Vietnam has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Third World. - Hanoi is well known for its famous restaurants. Some of the restaurants are built along the Red river to provide diners with a riverside view of Hanoi´s sunset. - Vietnam is one of the best-watered areas in Southeast Asia. Five main rivers flow eastward across the country. They are Mekong, Red Can, Srepok and Black.
ACHIEVEMENTS - The Vietnamese film industry has been honoured at film festival and award ceremonies around the world. The prizes attained include the Golden Lion for best film awarded by the Venice International Film to Anh Hung Tran´s Cyclo (1995) ; the Jury Prize awarded by the Sundance Film Festival to Tony Bui´s Three Seasons (1999); and the Grand Jury Prize awarded by the Pusan International Film Festival to Luu Hynh´s The White Silk Dress Press (1999). - The Scent of Green Papaya was the first great Vietnamese movie of the 20th century. This film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Category at the 1993 Academy Awards. The movie enjoyed the highest-grossing opening in Vietnam film history. - More than 20 million people in Vietnam ride a bicycle. - President George W.Bush became the first U.S. president to visit Vietnam in the 21st century.
CULTURAL - Like its Thai cousin, Vietnam is world-famous for its traditional cuisine. Even at Paris´s top restaurants, visitors can savor the true taste of Vietnamese cuisine. - Takraw, or kick volleyball, is a traditional sport in Vietnam. In this sport, a ball is passed from player to player by hitting it with the head and feet. Takraw also is widely played in Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. - The "ao dai" is the most popular national costume in Vietnam. GEOGRAPHICAL/ENVIRONMENTAL - Vietnam has long been famous for its magnificent temples and palaces. - Vietnam has six world´s biosphere reserves: Can Gio Mangrove Forest, Cat Ba, Cat Tien, Kien Giang, Red River Delta, and Western Nghe An. - Vietnam is world-famous for its animal wildlife. This wildlife -which includes elephants, buffaloes, tigers, monkeys, rhinoceroses, snakes and turtles- attracts thousands of tourists to Vietnam each year. - Ha Long Bay is generally considered to be the most beautiful scenery in the whole of Vietnam. It consist of 1,969 islands and islets situated in the Gulf of Tonkin. This zone is known for its spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. It is one of the most popular spots in Asia. Ha Long Bay has been recognized as a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO. - Vietnam has rich mineral deposits (oil, coal, gas, manganese, bauxite and phosphates), large forests, and good farm. - Vietnam has an area about 1 per cent as large as that of the United States. - Vietnam is about 8 times the size of Switzerland. - Vietnam is famous for its beautiful beaches along the Pacific Ocean: Bai Chay, Tran Phu, Nha Trang,China Beach,Mui Ne Beach,Hon Chong Beach and Bai Tam. - The best-known Vietnamese works of art the thousands of pagodas found throughout the country. POLITICAL - Vietnam maintains diplomatic relations with 140 countries in the world, including France, China, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Canada, South Korea, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Russia and Malaysia. - Vietnam joined the United Nations in 1977. - Vietnam is one of the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
IMPORTANT EVENTS HOSTED IN VIETNAM - Vietnam hosted delegates from 21 contries at the 2006 APEC Summit. - The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is a World Heritage Site in Vietnam. - Vietnam competed at the modern Olympic Games for the first time at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. - The 11th Taekwondo World Championship was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in June 2001. - Hanoi hosted the Fifth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM) in 2004. - Vietnam has eight idols:Anh Hung Tran (film director), Pham Tuan (astronaut), Thuy Tran (modeling agent), Nguyen Thi Phoung (ecologist), Hieu Ngan Tan (sportswoman), Madame Ngo Dinh Nho (former first lady of Vietnam), Tony Bui (film maker) and Nguyen Thi Binh (vice president of Vietnam). - Vietnam was chosen to host the 2008 Miss Universe. Vietnam won the right to host the 2008 Miss Universe by one vote over Japan. - The 7th Summit of the Francophonie was held in Hanoi,Vietnam
Credits: Thanks Joelle for the info. Though you were lousy with the touch pad.
12:43 AM
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Here's an article regarding Malaysia's need to 'safeguard their food heritage before other countries capitalize on it':
Local food is very important to a country. So important, that countries sometimes fight over it. Their signature dishes are like their identity. Something to be strongly guarded. There are countries that fiercely guard the originality of their local delicacies.
Many of us know how important food is to us. Essentially, it sustains us and keeps us going (alive, in other words). Food connoisseurs see food as an enjoyment. Most of us do too: New creative delicacies or simple convetional or traditional ones do work up the taste buds in your tongue and give you satisfaction, don't they. All the more a reason for governments to protect their delicious heritage - and to them, signature dishes mean a lot more than mere pleasure and self-indulgence. It's their identity. Something uniquely theirs. It is what makes them stand apart from other nations. Some food for thought, ain't it.
Still can't figure out how important food serves as an identity to a nation? Watch 'Food Fight'. It depicts the many different wars that occured over the years. The countries are represented by their 'national foods'. See if you can identify them. Ask yourself: why are you able to?
And indeed, there is a lesson about international harmony to be learnt from this too.
6:53 AM
One of our RSP assignments required each of us to search for a recipe belonging to any SEA country. Here's a fried carrot cake (Singapore) recipe I found from the Tourism Board website:
Fried Carrot Cake
Ingredients 4 radish flour cakes4 tbs vegetable oil or lard1 tbs chopped garlic1 tbs red chilli paste1 tbs chopped chye poh (salted radish)2 eggs1 tbs fish sauce1 stalk fresh spring onion, chopped5 tbs oil
Method 1) Heat two tablespoons of oil or lard in a wok. 2) When smoking hot, brown the radish flour cakes, cutting it into small pieces with the spatula as you fry. 3) Push aside the pieces. 4) Heat another table spoon of oil in the wok. 5) Sauté garlic and chye poh till browned. 6) Toss with the radish cake pieces. 7) Make a space in the middle, add the last of the oil and break eggs into the space. 8) Leave to set for a few minutes and then push the radish cake on top. 9) Drizzle with fish sauce, add chilli paste and toss some more to ensure an even mix. 10) Serve hot garnished with spring onion.
Hey all, just in case you need a little help with the UMPCs, cuz I've been approached a few times with regards to its connectivity to wireless networks.
Actually you can connect your UMPCs to wireless networks. Press Fn-F11 to activate and taadaa, internet access for you.
Hope that helps (=
Evan
6:12 AM
Saturday, October 25, 2008
I know many of my fellow rsp mates shared similar sentiments as I when we received our UNPCs (Ultra Mobile Personal Computers) yesterday. Sheer excitement. The UMPCs were on loan to us and for a period of twelve months (and thereafter renewable), we were responsible for them. I opened up my package as soon as I brought it home to have a better feel of it. So mobile, so handy. Good for bringing it around (=
It's great to be able to use laptops for study purposes, and I'm glad we are given the opportunity to enhance our rsp learning experience with these new tools. It increases our learning interest (as we tech buffs unanimously agree :D), providing us with internet access and mobile computing during rsp lessons, field trips and overseas immersion trips, as well as enable us to work on and maintain an online portfolio to record our experiences and reflections on Southeast Asia. Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing now. This is a simple blog, with not much fanciful furnishings, so I'll do my best to provide insightful reflections on my experiences and SEA. Do leave your comments in the tagboard and tell me what you think, share your own experiences, or simply pop in to say hi.
