travel-Cham island’s beauty attracts growing numbers of tourists

Cham Island, a group of eight islets off central Quang Nam province, is a romantic tourist spot. One of the islets is home to salanganes - the bird whose nests are nutritious and expensive. Of the seven other islets, two have residents and are named after Lang and Huong villages.

Three generations of old man Tam, an offspring of the Le family, have been living on Lang Islet for a long time. Le’s family has a large graveyard on a hill facing the west. Tam lives alone in a thatched hut on the hill, next to the graveyard. He has a house in Lang Village but he likes to live on the hill because, he says, it is more tranquil.

The owners of Dan Tri Restaurant have been in Lang Village for about 15 years. From the ancient town of Hoi An, Tri and his wife, Dan, bought land in the village, intending to make their living by fishing.

Their land is now at the front of the village and welcomes visitors arriving every day by hydrofoil.

This has turned Tri from a fisherman into a tour operator. He provides guests with sightseeing tours by boat around the islets, fishing and diving gear, and lobsters meals at reasonable prices.

The Cham Island group was bustling last summer when a travel company in Da Nang City put the hydrofoil - Greenlines 5 - into operation to transport guests from the central city. A trip to the island group takes about an hour. Every weekend, the hydrofoil carries 150 passengers to the island, not to mention the same number arriving by speedboat from Hoi An.

Lang Village seems to be crowded. After a short visit to the exhibition room featuring artifacts found on sunken ships off Cham lsland, guests flock to the small fishing village. Almost all villagers can catch cua da, the crab that lives in springs and is tastier than marine crabs. Crabs are for sale in iron baskets in front of every house, together with dried and spiced fish, dried squid and banh it, a local specialty that is made of sticky rice flour and green beans.

lslanders have learned how to provide hospitality services rapidly. Tour guides often take guests to the large coral reef located off the eastern part of the island. They show them how to dive to see coral, catch lobsters, spear groupers, and look for rare shellfish and small, colourful fishes. It costs just VND50,000 and an adventurous guest can be taught how to dive to catch lobsters.

However, on the eastern beach of Lang Village lie some pieces of coral that were left by tourists. In the afternoon when the sun is about to set, tourists go back to their boats with plastic bags of the fish that they have caught around the coral reefs. The Cham Island Natural Reserve Authority has had to tell islanders that picking coral, catching lobsters during the reproduction season, and hunting ornamental fish, rare shellfish and groupers is strictly prohibited.

Tan, an amateur tour guide on the islet, recalls that he has not found big seashells for a long time. It is because such big, beautiful seashells have been sold to tourists for years. Tan says vu nang and vu sao, two kinds of shellfish that are Cham lsland's specialty, are on the verge of extinction. Big crabs have become scarcer and scarcer because they are caught when they are and can be sold for VND15,000-50.000/kg. Holothurian and abalone, two more of Cham Island's specialties, are also on the brink of extinction.

A big guesthouse is under construction on a narrow beach on Chong Strip. Palm-roofed huts have been built on the other beautiful beaches, where mountains run closer to the sea. As mountains and forests cover most of the area of Cham Island, and residents have built their houses on every available piece of land, a big guesthouse seems to make the village narrower, and the number of visitors to the island at the weekend makes it crowded. This is why travel companies have to build hotels or guesthouses on deserted islets, such as Chong beach, and on Hon Dai in the near future.