Still there is the old Vinh...

(Baonghean.vn) -Vinh market “on the wharf and under the boat”, since childhood we always wished to go to Vinh market to freely admire the colorful goods on sale here. The market has now been rebuilt in a grand and spacious manner, but behind the communal house, there are still old spaces with rows of baskets, crab baskets, rows of nets, rows of drums, rows of hats... The sellers are still sitting but there are few customers...

Rows of baskets, trays, trays, baskets, crab baskets... are hidden behind the D1 communal house. Here, I saw again the items that are attached to every roof of the Nghe An farmers' house: baskets for rice cookers, trays, winnowing baskets, crab baskets, baskets, fish traps, eel traps... "How much is a basket for rice cookers?" "500 dong, my dear" - the old man selling the goods replied. It's so cheap, I thought to myself, the round basket was woven very skillfully, in the past, at the dinner table in my hometown, my grandmother often put the pots with black bottoms in there to save the house from being dirty when the whole family gathered around to "borrow" rice, also woven from bamboo.

Vendor Pham Van Truc, a native of Nghi Phong village, Vinh city, rides his bicycle to Vinh market every day to sell his goods. His goods are very beautiful and sturdy, the thick, brown-colored rice baskets are meticulously woven by experienced craftsmen, each one costs 70,000 VND, he said they can be used for 8 years before breaking. He said: Nghi Phong village has now finished weaving handicrafts, but the old people who have no job but still remember the craft still weave these goods, I buy them and sell them to people to make a little profit, it looks like that, but to weave one basket, one person can only weave one in two days.



Welding baskets behind the deserted market, Mr. Truc looked at each crab basket.

Puffing on his pipe of tobacco, he said: It's been decades since the market was built, I've been selling goods everywhere, carrying my bulky bicycle, and then people arranged a place for me to sit here...

In his memory, baskets and tubs "reigned" during the subsidy period, when food stores, state-owned enterprises, and cooperatives bought a lot of them to store food, and plastic goods were very rare at that time. But now, plastic goods have dominated the market and are cheaper, so this woven product is difficult to sell, only people from the countryside buy them, very few people from the city come, and there are only a few restaurants and coffee shops that come to buy some display items. But every day, like every day, the old man comes to open a shop to sell. The whole market, which used to have 17 households selling these goods, now has only 2 stalls, Mr. Truc and Mrs. Van next to it. Mrs. Van (also in Nghi Phong) said: Only during the harvest season, people from the countryside come to buy a lot, and on normal days there are very few customers.

It was harvest time, I saw some farmers from Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan coming in to buy baskets to store rice and incubate seeds. They fondled and turned the baskets and trays over and over, looking very pleased. The baskets had been "steamed" through smoke many times to prevent termites, and were carefully woven, but the price was too expensive. A female farmer left, but later I saw her come back to buy a pair of baskets. She said that in her hometown there were no beautiful woven products like this. Mr. Truc was thoughtful: "I might quit next year, the goods are not selling well", and Mrs. Van said: for several years now the city has not collected tax on her goods because they are too "dated".



Fishing nets at Vinh market.



The only empty stall in Vinh market but still few customers.

Next to the baskets and tubs are drums, nets, etc. - items serving fishermen in coastal areas. The sellers are mainly from Dien Chau, familiar with all kinds of nets and fishing nets. The market is empty, the owners sit weaving nets and winding ropes. Mr. Ngo Thi from Dien Chau - who has been selling nets for more than 20 years confided: There are quite a lot of fishing tools sold at Vinh market, but fishermen have little money, the profit is not worth much, so they have to sell more types of nets for growing vegetables, or other types of ropes to earn more income. A drum seller named Nguyet also sells walking sticks for the elderly. Her stall only has a few drums on display, she said that sometimes she can't sell any for a whole week, but sometimes she can sell a few to churches and children's teams. She is the only one in the market who sells drums, so she doesn't want to stop, the drums are made in craft villages in the province such as Nghi Duc, Do Luong, etc. The profit is not much, but the job has "eaten" into her, so she won't switch to selling other products - Ms. Nguyet said.

At the hat stall, the old man warmly invited customers to pass by but no one bought. Remembering the old days when we were students, we excitedly went to Vinh market to choose hats to give to teachers on November 20th. The teachers also gave hats and the teachers also respectfully gave... hats! At that time, there were many hat shops in Vinh market, we seemed to be lost in a colorful world, the thin straps of pink, purple, light blue... remained forever in our memories, then when we grew up a little bit, we shyly hid in the brim of the conical hat to go to school. Now when riding a motorbike or a car, the hats are no longer suitable, we can only look back in nostalgia.

Still sparkling as before were the curtains, the colorful diamond-shaped blinds, the ones printed with landscapes I had seen for decades in Vinh city. Nowadays, many families have made curtains from expensive fabrics, these curtains are probably bought as souvenirs. The old man selling the goods had pure white skin, the delicate lines on his face reminded him of a time when he was a beautiful girl. He didn't seem to care much about selling, he sat there like a nostalgia for the old market.

The old Vinh market was bustling and crowded with all kinds of goods. Behind the market was the Vinh River, bustling with boats. In front of the market, you could still occasionally see Muong and Thai people dressed in brocade skirts carrying goods down to sell highland specialties. Now, Vinh market has been rebuilt in a spacious and majestic manner, with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters, including 3 floors above ground and a basement. The stalls in the main hall mostly belonged to wealthy merchants. The agricultural and fishing goods behind the secondary hall are like a nostalgic image of Vinh that remains forever in the memories of many people...