Many people said Tran Van Khoa in Hoi An City in the central province of Quang Nam was reckless when he took foreigners to work in rice fields. However, taking risk led him to success.

Khoa said that when he guided foreign tourists, a tourist asked Khoa that he wanted to catch fish with local fishermen. From that suggestion, in 2005 Khoa established a travel company which offered fishing tours at first and then farming tours.

Peter Rider, an English tourist, said he is also a farmer but he plants potato, not rice like in Vietnam. He felt excited when he joined such tour.

Khoa told Tien Phong newspaper about his special experience when he served a diplomatic delegation from the Republic of Finland three years ago. In the visit to Hoi An, President Tarja Halonen wanted to take a farming tour. Khoa had to guide her cutting grass, watering vegetables and working in rice field. Tarja Halonen was quite impressed. “This visit helps me deeply understand Vietnam, its people, especially the ancient town,” she said.

Khoa is now learning French and Spanish. “Tourists come from different countries. If we don’t have good command of their languages and cultures, we can’t introduce the differences between their countries and Vietnam,” Khoa said.

Blind man helps the poor

Although he lost his eyes in the war, over the past 30 years, this 69-year-old man has gone to to many places to help disadvantaged people. He is Thai Van Hop, a.k.a. Ut Hop, who lives in Soc Trang City.

Ut Hop says that he was blind when he was 28 years old. In his opinion, he could not see but he had good health so he went to many places to undertake acupuncture free of charge for the needy.

Some years later, when Ut Hop learnt that many places did not have clean water, he called for contributions from his friends in Saigon to dig wells for poor people in the Mekong Delta provinces of Soc Trang and Bac Lieu.

When Ut Hop’s friends told him that many poor patients in Soc Trang General Hospital did not have money to buy food, he suggested providing porridge free of charge. A “Charitable kitchen” was opened to supply porridge in the morning and rice at noon and in the afternoon. From his idea, other hospitals in Soc Trang also opened such kitchens. With the money raised from his friends at home and abroad, Ut Hop has also awarded scholarships to poor students.

A local woman tells vnexpress.net that Ut Hop and some other people often give old clothes to the poor. When someone asks for old clothes, he will ask his assistants to help choose clothes that are suitable for them. Ut Hop refuses to be featured on television many times because he wants to do charitable activities silently.

Primeval forest on sand dunes

When people visit Dong Duong Village, Hai Duong Commune, Hai Lang District in the central province of Quang Tri, they will be impressed by a thousand-year-old primeval forest on white sand dunes.

The forest covers some 15 hectares with a lot of perennial trees. It is also endowed with many valuable medicinal herbs. In the forest there are two lakes. Cajuput trees have been planted by the lakes, which attract various species of birds and animals such as storks, squirrels, foxes, rabbits and snakes.

To protect this forest, every year, Dong Duong Village holds a meeting to select forest protectors. If trees in the forest were chopped, these protectors would be fined and illegal loggers will be seriously punished. The violators have to bring offerings to the village’s communal house to confess their faults and apologize to local people.

Considering the forest their green lung, every year, villagers plant more trees to preserve it for the safety of their village, reported danviet.vn.

Source: SGT