Hot development, the tea island 'most beautiful in Vietnam' is unsold

(Baonghean.vn)- The number of visitors to Thanh Chuong tea island - considered the 'most beautiful tea island in Vietnam' - increased dramatically on holidays, causing people to rush to build motorboats to serve them. However, on normal days, the motorboats are 'covered and waiting' because there are few visitors.

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Cau Cau Tea Island, Thanh An Commune, Thanh Chuong District is an emerging destination for tourism in Nghe An. Photo by Nguyen Sach

Taking a tour around Thanh Chuong tea island (also known as Cau Cau tea island) on a weekday, it is easy to see the situation of "unoccupied" boats at the docks. At Tam Trung boat dock, hamlet 15, Thanh An commune, where there is a long and beautiful boat route to the center of the tea island, Mr. Tran Dinh Quang (26 years old), a boat driver, said that the dock currently has 4 boats owned by 4 families, operating since September 2016. Like many other docks, the number of tourists taking boats at the dock is quite erratic, too crowded on holidays, and free on weekdays, with nothing to do.

During the holidays, especially the recent Dinh Dau Tet, there were tens of thousands of tourists coming to the tea island, the number of dozens of boats met the transportation needs of the tourists. But after Tet, everything returned to normal, on low days there were a few dozen tourists, on high days there were more than a hundred tourists, dozens of boats were anchored, along with dozens of workers falling into "waiting state".

During holidays and Tet, the tea island attracts visitors, and the boat docks operate at full capacity. Photo: Huy Thu.

Mr. Nguyen Danh Son (63 years old), the first boatman to carry passengers at Cau Cau Lake, said that at his Dap wharf, there are currently 13 boats forming a team. On holidays, all of these boats are mobilized, but on normal days, only a few are used. Previously, the boats here had coordinated their transport, so when there were no passengers, they had to "take the profit and take the loss".

According to Mr. Son's calculation, there are currently about 40 passenger boats on Cau Cau Lake, concentrated at 3 main piers and 5-6 secondary piers. Along Ho Chi Minh Road, there are dozens of signs indicating how to visit the tea island. Since the Dinh Dau Tet holiday until now, only over a month, but there have been nearly 10 more motorboats on the lake, which means every few days there is another boat, that is a "dizzying" speed and this number of boats will certainly increase in the coming time.

With no passengers, boats drop anchor and wait. Photo: Huy Thu.

Seeing that earning money by transporting passengers on the tea island is quite easy, many households in Thanh An, Thanh Thinh, Thanh Thuy communes around Cau Cau lake are also buying boats to change jobs. As for households that already have boats on the lake, they are actively opening docks and buying boats to increase the intensity of transportation.

Mr. Tran Dinh Hung's house in village 15, Thanh An commune, has had 2 passenger boats since before Tet. Now, he is hiring an excavator to connect his pond with Cau Cau lake to open a private wharf for his family, completely abandoning fish farming and focusing on tourism services. Khanh Huyen restaurant in Thanh Thuy town specializes in food and beverage, and the motel is also building a new boat 18m long, 3.6m wide, with a budget of several hundred million VND, expected to serve tourists at the tea island in March...

A household in Thanh Thuy commune is building a large boat to serve tea island tourism.

According to Mr. Trinh Van Nha, Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, there are currently 20 boats on Cau Cau Lake that have been inspected. The district does not encourage the construction of new boats by local people that have not been inspected because when the big project is implemented, only rowing boats will be used. Moreover, too many motorboats operating here also pollute the water source, negatively affecting the main function of the lake.

Huy Thu