A: Thank you very much for spending your time listening to both Japanese and English broadcasts on VOV. Besides the similar news bulletin, we have different stories from the Japanese section including the Business report, the Sunday Show, and the Weekend music. I hope you will continue listening to VOV’s Japanese and English broadcasts to get a deeper understanding of Vietnam’s current affairs, society, and culture. 

B: Another Japanese listener, Satoshi Nishito, tuned in to VOV on June 3. He commented that the frequency of 12020 khz had some noise but the general reception condition was good with SINPO rating at 45343.Listening to VOV was an interesting time and he could listen to the names of Japanese, Fumito Hokamura and Yoshikazu Suzuki, in the Letter Box. It’s an honor to be named on VOV, Nishito said.

A: We’ll verify your reports and issue QSL cards to confirm them soon. It’s our great honor to have many listeners from Japan, who often listen to programs in Japanese, Chinese, and English. We’ll verify your receptions of the English program and forward the reception of other languages to the specific sections.

B: Here I have a similar case. This is a reception report of VOV’s French broadcast from Jordan Heyburn of Northern Ireland. We’ll forward it to the French section to verify. We’re looking toward to your feedback on the English program soon. From Australia, Jack and Sue Wachtershauser told us that his nephew and his wife have just returned from a visit to Vietnam. They showed them a lot of photos of beautiful Vietnam where they had a wonderful vacation.

A: It’s great to know that they enjoyed their summer holiday in Vietnam. I think there is neither the best nor less interesting time to visit Vietnam as during most months of the year there is both sunshine and rain across the country with over 3,200 km of coastline and three different weather systems.

B: I like the summer the most because we have variable options for summer vacation. If you prefer trekking mountains and forests and adventure tours, you can travel to the northern mountain region to visit Sapa township in Lao Cai province and Dong Van Stone Plateau in Ha Giang province.

Sapa township

A: Around Sapa, there are several interesting places to visit such as climbing the Ham Rong mountain to have a panoramic view of Sapa and visiting Cat Cat village of the Mong ethnic, Ta Phin village of the Red Dao, Muong Hoa valley and stone sculptures engraved with mysterious ancient graphics. A more adventurous tour in Lao Cai is trekking Fansipan mountain, dubbed as “the roof of Indochina”.

B: Fansipan tour is totally different from other tours in Sapa because it takes a long and strenuous trek in 2 or 3 days to reach the summit of Fanxipan Mountain. Yet you will earn a chance to savor breathtaking views over Sapa villages peacefully nestled in deep valleys and hills soaked in clouds.

A: A noteworthy place to visit is Dong Van karst Plateau in the northernmost of Vietnam with majority of the terrain at 1,400-1.600m above sea level and over 80% of the surface covered by just rocks. The rock of Dong Van is said to contain fossils of 400million-600million years ago. The plateau was recognized by the UNESCO as one of the 77 geological parks in the world and the second in Southeast.

Dong Van Karst Plateau

B: Beaches are usually Vietnamese people’s first option for summer holidays. From the northern central region towards the south, there are hundreds of beaches. In our latest Saturday report on June 6, we introduced some popular beaches in central provinces and interesting activities such as swimming, diving, kayaking, seaside games.

A: The narrow, flat coastal lowlands extend from the northern Red River Delta to the Mekong River basin. On the landward side, the Truong Son rises precipitously above the coast, its spurs projecting into the sea at several places. One side is rock, one side is the beach! 

Son Tra peninsula in Danang

A: The nature generates ideal conditions for various kinds of tourist activities. On one side is a very vast sea, on the other side is the mighty Truong Son mountain range with upright rocky limestone mounts. Getting deep into the area are tropical jungles, where so many kinds of rare and precious animals live.

B: That’s a brief discussion of summer holiday destinations in Vietnam. Let’s continue to read letters from our listeners worldwide. Juan Carlos Gil from Spain wrote: “I am very happy because I have received your answer to my most recent letter. Your programs to Europe can be listened very well. I found the program about the use of the lunar solar calendar in Vietnam. I specially enjoy your programs on society, tradition, and culture. Thank you for the stamps on the envelope, too. I love them!”

A: We have correspondence with Arjun Sharma of India lately. He wrote: “You can say that I am a new listener of VOV as I was not on world band receiver earlier and I was unable to hear VOV reception clear enough to submit reception report. I didn’t want to submit a fake reception report just for a QSL. My new Degen de 1103 has proved to be a good receiver to explore all shortwave stations which were not clear on my previous simple 3 band receiver.”

B: Welcome Arjun to join VOV’s community of shortwave listeners. We hope to receive more feedback from you. Our contest “What do you know about Vietnam?” will end in a couple of weeks. We continue receiving entries and comments from listeners worldwide. We confirm that we’ve already got an entry from Kanchan Chatterjee of India.

A: Debaki Ranjan Biswas of India told us: “At first let me congratulate you on the 70th Anniversary of Voice of Vietnam .The year 2015 also marks the 125th birth Anniversary of the great world leader Ho Chi Minh. Most humbly I would like to add that in this year I have entered into the 40th year of my relationship with Voice of Vietnam. Because I got my first QSL card from VOV in 1975. I thank you very much for organizing the "What do you know about Vietnam?" contest 2015. Hope to participate in this contest and send my entry soon.

B: Vicentiu Gheorghe of Romania wrote on our website: “This contest is a very interesting way to find out more and more about your wonderful country and about your successful world radio service. Hope to be one of the winners!”

A: We will continue to receive entries postmarked no later than June 30. Thank you all for listening. We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. Good bye until next time.