The hardships of the salt profession: Part III - The life of... selling salt!

"Who wants salt...!" The hoarse, sad cry echoed from the village entrance and the city block. Selling at the field was too low a price. Salt farmers had to carry salt on their old bicycles, traveling on windy, rainy, and scorching roads to make a living...

See article Lesson II -> The miserable fate of salt

The salt peddlers are most concentrated in the communes of Dien Ngoc, Dien Van, and Dien Bich (Dien Chau). As soon as it gets light, bicycles loaded with salt set off one after another. They travel from the lowlands to the mountains, sleep there at night, and only return to their villages after selling all the salt. Everyone in Dien Van commune knows about Sinh's family's situation.

His wife was sick, his four children were starving, and his wife's food, clothing, and medicine all depended on his salt cart trips. Then one hot afternoon, Sinh pushed his cart of salt halfway up Truong Ven (Tan Ky) slope, when he suddenly collapsed and died. Villagers said that due to "exhaustion of strength and power", he still struggled to carry salt up the slope, so he "ran out of breath". On the side of the road to Van Nam hamlet, there was a small hut, where Dang Thi Ly, a disabled woman without husband or children, was sitting like a stone.

Selling salt in Dien Van (Dien Chau)

Remembering her youth, tears welled up in her eyes: Working in the salt business since she was 13, a beautiful youth filled with the salty scent of the sea, in more than 7 years of carrying salt, she traveled all over Ke Dinh, Ke Gam, Ke Moi... Once, she fell off a salt cart, her legs gradually became numb and she became... lonely, living on the love and care of the villagers. Or recently, in the middle of a hot summer afternoon, at team 9 of Xuan Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), people saw a skinny young man lying in the middle of the road with a salt cart. The villagers carried him into their house and massaged him for a long time before he regained consciousness. The villagers felt sorry for him, some more, some less, they bought him a whole bag of salt.

Ms. Vu Thi Quyen in Van Nam hamlet - Dien Van, said: Many women in Dien Van were pregnant and still went to sell salt and gave birth on the road. Luckily, God showed mercy so that "mother and child were safe". She confided: Being a woman on a long journey selling salt is very hard. Carrying 2 bags of salt weighing over 100 kg at a time, cycling to Yen Thanh and then up to Anh Son, Thanh Chuong, to Vinh city. Her shirt was always soaked with sweat, shouting until her voice was hoarse and sometimes she couldn't sell all the salt. Many days she had to go to people's houses to ask for a place to stay, or sleep in warehouses so that she could sell all the salt the next day before returning to the village. In return for the heavy bags of salt when leaving, there was a bunch of change in her pocket, or even rice and corn that were "exchanged". For several days it rained heavily and there was no salt, Ms. Quyen had to go all the way to An Hoa - Quynh Luu to buy salt at the price of 100,000 VND/quintal. After two days of hard work, she earned 50,000 to 70,000 VND. "It's very low, but if I don't sell salt, how can I feed my children...", Ms. Quyen lamented.

In addition to using bicycles to sell salt around neighboring districts, in recent years, Dien Van salt farmers have been active in "fishing far from shore", 5-6 families collect salt and rent a car to transport salt to remote districts such as Con Cuong, Ky Son, Tuong Duong, then use motorbikes to transport it to villages to sell. Mr. Vu Hoang Hai, 30 years old in Van Nam hamlet, said: "My family alone rented a truck to transport 5-6 tons of salt to Tuong Duong, gathering at Ban Ve hydropower plant. The transportation cost was from 2.5-3 million VND".

From here, every day, Mr. Hai uses a motorbike to transport more than 100 kg of salt to remote communes such as Yen Hoa, Yen Tinh, Nga My, Xieng My to sell. Selling salt like this is extremely hard, transporting salt over steep slopes, many rainy days the road is slippery, falling off the motorbike is "a daily occurrence". Hai also carries salt on a boat along the lake to the most remote communes of Tuong Duong such as Nhon Mai, Mai Son... There is no motorbike road here, he has to use all his strength to carry, then carry a bag of salt weighing more than 50 kg to the Pieng Coc and Pha Khao villages of the Mong people. Hai said: "To bring salt to this "midst the earth" place, the people pay a high price - more than 3,000 VND/kg of salt. They are very affectionate, some families even cook for them and let them stay overnight". It took about a dozen days to sell out the truckload of salt, then Hai traveled to Ky Son district along the upper Nam Mo river to Muong Tip, Muong Ai, selling salt to the locals, then to the construction site of the border patrol road.

Mr. Minh Tuan - an agricultural extension officer of Dien Van commune said: The whole Dien Van commune has 370 households working in the salt industry, each household has a person who sells salt on the street, most of whom are women. Although this job is hard and arduous, for generations, people have been carrying salt on bicycles because they can only earn extra income by selling far away. When selling in the village, traders force the price down.

It was noon. The sun was scorching, but I could still hear the sound of salt vendors outside the alley. The voice echoed in the hot Lao wind. The life of a salt vendor was a journey of a thousand miles full of hardship.

Van Truong - Phu Huong