modest income and limited time, phuot can satisfy our itch for travel," Sang said.

SINGAPORE Authentic Los Angeles Rams Jerseys , May 9 (Xinhua) -- Singapore shares closed 0.14 percent higher on Friday, buoyed by a tame inflation report from China, but investors remained cautious over tense situation in Ukraine.


China's consumer prices rose 1.8 percent in April from a year earlier, while producer prices fell 2.0 percent inflation in April. The latest data was broadly in line with market expectations.


But investors were wary on the Ukraine crisis. Pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine ignored Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to postpone a referendum on self-rule, declaring they would go ahead on Sunday with a vote that some fear could lead to war.


Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 4.44 points to 3, 252.13 points. Trading volume was 1.67 billion shares worth 1.11 billion Singapore dollars. But decliners outnumbered advancers 235 to 153, while 553 stocks did not move.


Voyage Research said "The Straits Times Index has been relatively quite over the last few trading days and we expect the market to remain range-bound with support at 3,220 points."


Phillip Securities Research said "price was negotiating a six month high resistance at 3,280 points. A successful break implies further short term upside."


Among top actives, Wilmar International lost 3.9 percent to 3. 21 Singapore dollars. Its first-quarter core net profit came in at 215 million U.S. dollars, down 31 percent on-year, and revenue at 10.27 billion U.S. dollars, flat on-year. Higher crude palm oil prices were offset by lower prices of sugar and consumer pack oils.


ST Engineering inched down 0.5 percent to 3.84 Singapore dollars. It reported first-quarter net profit up 2 percent on-year to 137.2 million Singapore dollars on the back of flat revenues of about 1.55 billion Singapore dollars. Order win momentum continued to impress in the first quarter, with more than 1 billion Singapore dollars worth of new contracts announced publicly, led by Aerospace and Electronics divisions. Order-book now stands at 13.4 billion Singapore.


Cosco Corporation inched up 0.7 percent to 73.5 Singapore cents. It has secured a 184 million U.S. dollar contract from Derwent Ocean, part of Foresight Group to build one unit Jack-up Drilling Rig. Foresight is a repeat customer of Cosco with an existing jack- up rig under construction at Dalian yard. The Rig is scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of 2016.


Among top gainers, UOB rose 2 percent to 22.45 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by falling 1.9 percent to 43.53 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.25 Singapore dollars)


HO CHI MINH CITY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Backpacking, a form of low-cost, leisurely travel usually practiced by young people from Western countries, is now catching up among the locals in Vietnam.


Backpacking was introduced to Vietnam more than 10 years ago but became popular only during the past five years. It has now acquired the Vietnamese name "phuot," which literally means "flash journey."


"I love phuot and spend most of my holidays and vacations on such kind of travel with my friends. It's low cost but more enjoyable than the regular tours," 25-year-old Bui Mai Lan, a marketing officer in southern Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City, told Xinhua.


Lan said she and her friends just returned after a one-day phuot trip to Ben Tre province, about 90 km south of this city.


Born in 1989 and a graduate of the University of Commerce in Hanoi, Lan moved to HCM City where she now works for a private trading company.


Still single and with a stable monthly income, she set up a team of six members, who shared with her a love for phuot and they make regular trips together.


"We all like travel, especially through backpacking either within the country or abroad depending on our budget and time," said Tran Hong Sang, Lan's team mate.


"We take on phuot on weekends or holidays by motorbikes. During our recent trip to Ben Tre, a land of coconut trees, we took a boat cruise along the canals and we watched local people harvesting coconuts and processing them into coconut oil and their fibers made into handicraft. We really enjoyed the trip," Sang said.


Both Lan and Sang said they love phuot since it is inexpensive compared to guided tours. They said that by backpacking they have more freedom to move around and learn more about the people and the places that they visit.


"Our country has lots of sites for sight-seeing. With our c

He said his group has already made plans for another phuot trip to Sa Pa mountain resort in northern Lao Cai province during the upcoming two national holidays, the Liberation Day and Labor Day, in late April.


For such a two-three-day phuot trip, it would cost each one of them only about 1.5 million VND (70 U.S. dollars), compared to a similar book tour of almost 3 million VND (150 U.S. dollars).


Bui Minh Quang, 21, a student of Saigon Tourism Training College in HCM City, makes regular out-of-town phuot trips on weekends or holidays along with his friends.


"My group loves photography so we travel by motorbikes to far- off localities to take photos of beautiful sceneries and wildlife and learn about the lives of people in the areas," Quang said.


According to Quang, many college students in HCM City just love to travel through phuot. They even set up a Facebook account about phuot, where they share with one another pictures of the people and sites they had visited.


Quang said that during the recent traditional lunar festival, which fell in late January and early February, he even volunteered to be a tour guide for a group of students who visited an island in Can Gio district of HCM City.


They went fishing with the local fishermen, cooked seafood dishes and enjoyed hobnobbing with the

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