Windsurfing race in Mui Ne on Friday

A windsurfer comes into the beach where the Surf4you Open Cup will be held on Friday - Photo: Michael Smith

A Russian windsurfing school in Mui Ne will hold a downwind slalom racing competition this Friday Dec. 7 with 30 international competitors.

Races for the second annual Surf4you Open Cup at Surf4you International Windsurfing School will start at 12 midday with registrations opening at 9 am. If the conditions aren’t suitable for racing the event may be changed to the day after.

“I want to invite spectators and competitors. Everyone is welcome to register no matter what the level,” the race organizer and kitesurfing school owner, Andrey Zabolotnyy, said.

Competitors will each race seven downwind slalom events over a four kilometer course.

The first prize is a Neil Pryde sail.

Zabolotnyy, 24, who first started windsurfing in Vladivostok when he was nine, said the event would test competitors’ fitness.

“Many people from Vladivostok are already training for the event and they will stay in Mui Ne until the Vietnam PWA Grand Slam that starts February 25,” said the Russian, who has been coaching windsurfing in the resort town for five years.

Dozens of competitors were making use of strong wind conditions on Sunday to train for the race. Many of the windsurfers from Vladivostok in Mui Ne windsurf all year round by coming to Vietnam during their hometown’s offseason.

The windy season in Mui Ne is a few months late this year.

A local freestyle windsurfer who will be racing, Chiga Somogyvari, from Hungary said he likes to race in downwind slalom events the best because they are so fast.

Surf4you is at 90 Huynh Thuc Khang St. in Mui Ne, tel:  1233397716, Website: www.surf4you.ru.

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Windsurfing race in Mui Ne on Friday

A windsurfer comes into the beach where the Surf4you Open Cup will be held on Friday - Photo: Michael Smith

A Russian windsurfing school in Mui Ne will hold a downwind slalom racing competition this Friday Dec. 7 with 30 international competitors.

Races for the second annual Surf4you Open Cup at Surf4you International Windsurfing School will start at 12 midday with registrations opening at 9 am. If the conditions aren’t suitable for racing the event may be changed to the day after.

“I want to invite spectators and competitors. Everyone is welcome to register no matter what the level,” the race organizer and kitesurfing school owner, Andrey Zabolotnyy, said.

Competitors will each race seven downwind slalom events over a four kilometer course.

The first prize is a Neil Pryde sail.

Zabolotnyy, 24, who first started windsurfing in Vladivostok when he was nine, said the event would test competitors’ fitness.

“Many people from Vladivostok are already training for the event and they will stay in Mui Ne until the Vietnam PWA Grand Slam that starts February 25,” said the Russian, who has been coaching windsurfing in the resort town for five years.

Dozens of competitors were making use of strong wind conditions on Sunday to train for the race. Many of the windsurfers from Vladivostok in Mui Ne windsurf all year round by coming to Vietnam during their hometown’s offseason.

The windy season in Mui Ne is a few months late this year.

A local freestyle windsurfer who will be racing, Chiga Somogyvari, from Hungary said he likes to race in downwind slalom events the best because they are so fast.

Surf4you is at 90 Huynh Thuc Khang St. in Mui Ne, tel:  1233397716, Website: www.surf4you.ru.

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Green film makers get 48 hours in contest

International eco film competition, 48 Go Green, is calling for registration in Vietnam. The competition is an avant-garde festival that gives film-makers the opportunity to express themselves and speak up against the ecological destruction taking place on the planet.

The competition will kick off online at 7 pm local time, February 18.  Entrants will then have 48 hours to make a narrative short film, including writing, shooting, and editing, to submit before 7.30 pm local time, February 20.

At the start each team will be assigned a random theme about the environment, potable water, forests, wildlife, the earth, the next generation, energy, the sea or the planet. The organizer will nominate a character, prop and a line which must appear in the film.

The winner will go to Cannes International Film Festival, accompanied by a US$5,000 cash prize. The 16 top films of 48 Go Green could be selected to screen at the NAB Show in Las Vegas from April 9-14, 2011.

48 Hour Film Project launched its first competition in Vietnam last October and November.

For more information, visit www.48gogreen.com.

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Green film makers get 48 hours in contest

International eco film competition, 48 Go Green, is calling for registration in Vietnam. The competition is an avant-garde festival that gives film-makers the opportunity to express themselves and speak up against the ecological destruction taking place on the planet.

The competition will kick off online at 7 pm local time, February 18.  Entrants will then have 48 hours to make a narrative short film, including writing, shooting, and editing, to submit before 7.30 pm local time, February 20.

At the start each team will be assigned a random theme about the environment, potable water, forests, wildlife, the earth, the next generation, energy, the sea or the planet. The organizer will nominate a character, prop and a line which must appear in the film.

The winner will go to Cannes International Film Festival, accompanied by a US$5,000 cash prize. The 16 top films of 48 Go Green could be selected to screen at the NAB Show in Las Vegas from April 9-14, 2011.

48 Hour Film Project launched its first competition in Vietnam last October and November.

For more information, visit www.48gogreen.com.

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Falling into the city deeps

A violin and piano performance at Roi Café - Photo: Thanh Hang

The violinist seemed to recognize the little girl at once and smiled faintly at her as she came into the room. A brief moment later, he was lost again in the Ave Maria. The girl of about six or seven sat next to her brother and told him to shush, then made room for her grandfather.  Once settled, the family sat in silence to listen to the live classical music which is a regular weekly event at Roi Café.

Roi Café is in a fine house which also has a flower shop. Opening only two hours a night from Wednesday to Sunday night, Roi is purely for music lovers. The way that sonatas for violin and piano are played in the private sitting room resembles how chamber music used to be enjoyed in European salons in the 18th Century. It’s the intimate nature that makes people call chamber music the “music of friends”. In Roi cafe, although its not a string quartet there is an intimacy that is a vital aspect of chamber music.

And it’s not just classical music at Roi. A few instrumental versions of old covers are rolled out. As the musician played the much-loved Russian song “One million roses”, all the visitors at Roi Cafe seemed to fall into reveries. An old man closed his eyes and tapped his fingers gently on the table. In the easy flow of music, the tiny space created an illusion of drowning in the deepest ocean, with all the trees waving in the dark outside.

Roi Café serves drinks for a very reasonable price from VND30,000, compared to other live music café lounge in Saigon. Doors open at 8pm from Wednesday to Sunday and close at 10pm. Roi Café is at 92 Dinh Tien Hoang, Binh Thanh District, HCMC.

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Conference to mull ways to revive southern amateur music

HCM CITY – More than 120 Vietnamese and foreign cultural experts will gather in HCM City on Sunday for a three-day conference to discuss ways to revive don ca tai tu, or southern amateur music.

The organisers said researchers, educators, cultural administrators, and musicians from Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and other countries will attend the conference at the Rex Hotel.

Don ca tai tu artists from 21 provinces and cities and four professors representing the International Traditional Music Association will also attend.

There will be 33 reports tabled at the event, seven of them by foreign experts.

Prof Yamaguti Osamu of Japan's Osaka University, who helped get UNESCO recognition for Hue royal music as a world intangible heritage, will deliver a speech.

Prof Le Van Toan, head of the Viet Nam Institute of Musicology, described the conference as being very important.

There are 2019 don ca tai tu clubs in the country having 22,643 members. The number will be increased by the time an application is made for UNESCO recognition as a world heritage, he said.

Prof Tran Van Khe, a master of Vietnamese traditional music, said don ca tai tu was born at the end of the 19th century and has become popular in several countries.

"Don ca tai tu is not just for entertainment but is a communal cultural activity," he said. – VNS

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• Flower growers hope to reap Tet rewards

Flower growers hope to reap Tet rewards

Business blooms: Gardeners throughout the country are ready to meet customer demand for flowers and bonsai trees for the up-coming Tet (lunar new year) festival. — VNA/VNS Photos Minh Quang & Van Khanh

HCM CITY — Gardeners from southern provinces and HCM City's suburban districts of Hoc Mon and Thu Duc are hoping that their hard work to meet customers' demands for the coming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival will pay off in handsome profits.

Foreign hybrids seem to be increasingly favoured over traditional flowers, said Tran Van Tiep, owner of a farm in Dong Thap Province's Sa Dec Town.

"This year Sa Dec expects to sell 4 million flowers and plants of different kinds, many of them foreign hybrids from Australia, the Netherlands and the US."

"For the foreign hybrids, we hope to attract vendors from HCM City and northern provinces who prefer quality and exotic flowers, even if they are expensive," he said.

For Tet, Tiep and his colleagues have invested several millions of dong in new foreign hybrids as well as the more traditional flowers.

Traditional Vietnamese flowers like daisies, carnations and roses are selling at VND 20,000 – 40,000 (US$1-2) a bush/pot, around 15 per cent higher than last year.

Dealers from HCM City and Ha Noi have shown greater interest in buying foreign hybrids such as tulips and lilies at prices ranging from VND10,000 per flower and VND50,000 per pot.

Florist Nam Tien of An Giang Province's Hoa Binh Town said:"This year Hoa Binh's 40 farmer households are offering 350,000 different traditional flower plants and pots.

"We hope urban customers change their minds and that we can sell the more traditional flowers as the festival draws nearer."

Local farmers in Thu Duc and Hoc Mon said ochna flower prices will increase about 20 per cent compared to last year.

Truong Van Du, who owns a farm in Thu Duc, said he has cultivated more than 2,000 ochna trees and expects to sell them at about VND500,000 – VND2 million a tree, VND100,00 to 400,000 higher than last year.

"Because of good weather, the ochna flowers would open in time for Tet. I hope God will bless our farmers," he said.

In Ha Noi, people prefer peach blossoms, typically grown in the famous flower village of Nhat Tan, and will pay about VND1 million for a big branch, while a peach bonsai may sell for VND20 million or thereabouts.

Gardener Vu Van Lan of Tay Ho District, who plans to sell 400 mandarin trees in Ha Noi, hopes he can get VND1 million for a quality tree and that prices would go up further during the last few days of the holiday.

Traditional flower fairs in HCM City and Ha Noi are expected to attract the participation of hundreds of local and provincial florists and hundreds of thousands of residents.

As in previous years, HCM City has designated Nguyen Hue Street as the "Flower Street," where millions of flowers from all over the country will be assembled to depict an overall theme chosen every year. — VNS

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