Cultural heritage travel helps

preserve traditions
Tours to various heritage sites across Vietnam are attracting an increasing
number of travelers, helping spread the spirit of cultural preservation.
A cultural heritage tour has recently been designed for participants of a
historic conservation course to explore the northern city of Hai Phong. Hai
Phong Opera House, historic and traditional spaces, along with local cuisine
are introduced in great detail. Heritage specialists and scholars have also
joined as course instructors.

"Each historic conservation course is a day tripper. It could be a journey to a

site of historical significance by way of instructor recommendation. We all
learn in practice to discover the hidden values in them and sometimes face the
reality that they are not anything like in the books," film director Nguyen
Hoang Diep, a course operator, said.

Course members are of all ages, from high school students to retirees. They
agree that those idyllic times were not only fun but allowed them to reflect on
their thoughts.

Another major event is a traditional music artist tour in the "Shape of Music"
program operated by Domdom, a center of experimental music. In Ngang Noi,
a "Quan Ho" folk singing village of northern Bac Ninh Province, the young get
to experience the traditional atmosphere at social gatherings with "Quan Ho"
singing. They do not only listen to the once-popular "calls and responses",
betel-inviting lyrics, but can meet and have a conversation with artists during
group meals.

Musician Kim Ngoc, creator of the tour, commented that there were always
room for traditional art. "In Bac Ninh Province, I saw some families still
preserve their folk melodies and lyric handed down from generation to
generation," said.

She hopes several partipants could actually "live that moment." "Even talking
to artists is an experience because they are culture bearers. Watching a
performance is different to engaging in a conversation with performers," she
explained.
Heritage travel comes in many shapes and forms. Friends of Vietnam
Heritage/FVH, a group consisting of Vietnamese and foreigners, frequently
offer mini-adventures to tourists and Vietnam heritage fans. They use
Facebook to make appointments and take part in nearby trips to Dong Ho folk
woodcut painting village in Bac Ninh, or to Van Phuc silk village in Hanoi.

Ngoc said: "The number of traditional artists is now almost nonexistent.

Traditional music is being neglected on a grand scale. We would want to act as
a bridge to connect the public to precious cultural and historic pursuits on the
verge of slipping into oblivion."

Such pilgrimages should not be about the act of travelling alone but
considered a necessary activity to raise awareness about cultural heritage.

"At first, I just wanted to equip myself with proper knowledge of heritage and
its conservation process but I got hooked later. This is really exciting," Diep
elaborated on the reasons why an outsider like her had decided to join the
heritage course.

"I learned to love and cultivate my love for heritage. Finally, we aim to spread
the knowledge, spread the love, spread the spirit of cultural heritage
preservation in various ways," she said.