travel-Basket boats intertwined with Ngan Ha village’s history

Ngan Ha villagers, both male and female, have got used to rowing the thuyen thung very early since childhood. Many still remember clearly the first day of learning how to row out from the shore without spinning around and around in a circle.

Basket boats, locally called thuyen thung, dot the more than two-kilometre-long beach of Ngan Ha Village in Ninh Thuy district, south central Khanh Hoa province.

The small, round bamboo boats put out to dry in the sun look like mushrooms growing on the sand. If you travel there for the first time, you may wonder why such a small fishing village has so many basket boats.

To satisfy your curiosity, you should backtrack in the history of Ngan Ha, now located along the road from Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard to Doc Let, one of the most famous tourist parks along Khanh Hoa’s coastline.

You can find the tale about the history of thuyen thung in many documents and books. Hundreds of years ago groups of people from across the country moved to settle down around Ngan Ha and make a living by catching fish, oysters and shrimp.

When the French ruled Vietnam, they levied taxes on many things, including boats. Many poor villagers could not pay the tax imposed on their small boats so they invented a new type of boat called thuyen thung to evade taxes because the thung (round basket) was not considered a boat.

Since then, the thuyen thung has been intertwined with the history of not only Ngan Ha and its people, but also many other fishing villages on the central coast.

Nguyen Thi Dau, a 66-year-old Ngan Ha resident, says many of the current thuyen thung in the village are older than her.

She says each of the more than 200 households in Ngan Ha has one thuyen thung, which is their property and tool to earn a living.

A thuyen thung costs some VND1 million. Many households make thuyen thung by themselves, while some buy a boat from others.

The villagers make thuyen thung from bamboo and cover it with chai (a waterproof material made from a plant).

First, people select quality bamboo plants and split them into thin strips before drying them in the sun. Then they skilfully bent and knit the strips into a round shape. After knitting, they coat the boat with many layers of chai to make the boat waterproof.

Ms Dau says Ngan Ha villagers, both male and female, have got used to rowing the thuyen thung very early since childhood. Many still remember clearly the first day of learning how to row out from the shore without spinning around and around in a circle.

When bigger fishing boats return after a long journey on the sea and anchor in Ninh Thuy commune, the experienced Ngan Ha villagers row their thuyen thung to the ships to buy fish, shrimp and squid for sale on the mainland.

In that, Ngan Ha differs from many other fishing villages because its residents do not make nuoc mam (fish sauce) and weave fishing nets, which are considered traditional occupations of a fishing village.

Without the pungent smell of the fish sauce, visitors to Ngan Ha are at ease to observe the villagers bob out to sea in the basket boats and return, carrying back baskets of fish and shrimp to the shore for sale.