TRAVEL IN BRIEF 4/9

Locals to enjoy cheap luxury stays
Six of HCM City’s 12 five-star hotels will for the first time offer a discount of 50 per cent for local guests between September 1 to October 31, under the promotion "One Day to Stay in 5-Star Hotels".
La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: "The travel demand of Vietnamese people is increasing. We want to make the people familiar with luxury facilities and woo them to stay there."
Motorbike convoy heads to Thailand
The HCM City-based Viking Travel and Media Company on Wednesday kicked off a motorcycle tour of 17 Harley motorbikes for local and foreign tourists from HCM City to Thailand. A group of 21 Vietnamese in HCM City and five foreigners living and working in Thailand joined the six-day tour. The travellers are scheduled to go to Bangkok and Pattaya and meet with representatives of the Harley Club there. Their itinerary will also take in destinations in Thailand.
The travellers are also surveying destinations in Viet Nam to prepare for another motorcycle tour which is expected to take travellers to Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Thailand in October this year. The company will also receive another group of riders from Cambodia to Viet Nam in December.
Peace Boat visits Da Nang
The Peace Boat brought 770 crew members and passengers from 16 countries, including 462 from Japan, to Tien Sa Port for a one-day visit to Da Nang on Tuesday, marking its 67th trip around the world. In Da Nang, the tourists took part in a cultural exchange programme organised by the city’s Youth Union. They were introduced to Vietnamese cuisine and traditional dress-making, and visited Ha Market, Champa Museum, My Son Cham Tower Complex and Hoi An.
Explore Ha Noi by tramcar
Hoan Kiem District has asked permission from the Ha Noi municipal authority to provide tours of Ha Noi’s old quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake by tramcar. The project by the Dong Xuan Joint Stock Company would put 12 tramcars into operation later this year. The battery-powered cars will have from 5-12 seats priced VND10,000 to 30,000 each, depending on the tour.
Dong Xuan will supply two tours by tramcar. The first tour will include historic commercial streets in the Old Quarter and the old Dong Xuan market. The tour will start from Dinh Tien Hoang Street and travel down Hang Dao, Hang Ngang and Hang Khoai streets toward Dong Xuan market.
The second tour will bring visitors to other old streets like Ma May, Hang Bac, Hang Bo, Hang Hom, Hang Trong, and to historic structures like the Ngoc Son Temple, Kim Ngan communal house and the Temple of Le Kings. If everything goes smoothly, the company will put 20 more tramcars into use in 2010.
Cruise ship visits southern region
Saigontourist Travel service welcomed on September 2 around 1,250 tourists on board the cruise ship Costa Allegra. The cruise tourists then took a city tour of HCM City and visited the Mekong Delta city of My Tho. Costa Allegra, which made port calls to the northern province of Quang Ninh and the Central coastal city of Da Nang on August 30, left HCM City on Wednesday afternoon. Saigontourist said Costa Allegra was scheduled to visit Viet Nam again next Monday and on September 21, bringing some 3,000 passengers to HCM City and Da Nang.