Exploring Ban Ve Hydroelectric Reservoir - Part 2: Boatman's profession

(Baonghean) - Anyone who has never been to Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir cannot help but imagine the danger of stepping onto small boats in the middle of the vast water hundreds of meters deep. However, that imagination seems to gradually disappear when facing the calm, peaceful lake surface, with experienced, skilled boatmen...

Regarding the boatmanship profession on the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir, a colleague devoted several pages of her travel diary to these skilled boatmen. “January 1, 2015: The first day of the new year, we were at the upstream dock of the lake. I heard that the lake is nearly 5,000 hectares wide, immense but there was no feeling of fear or overwhelm because the water surface was very calm, without ripples. The important task to do right away was to split up and find a really good boatman with a pleasant personality to be the navigator for this long trip…”.

Mr. Vi Viet Tien took passengers into the lake.

The most important task that my friend had to emphasize was not easy to carry out. The group of four people spread out in all directions, groping all the water shops on the upstream wharf and asking around even the fleet of porters and passenger vans scattered on the roadside. Let me tell you right away, it took so much time and effort, not because boat drivers on this calm lake were rare and hard to find. But because there were countless people doing this job, but the selective criteria of "being really good and having a pleasant personality" that we set was also somewhat "expensive", especially during the New Year holidays, when the demand for transportation and trade across the lake increased. The three-leaf boats were parked tightly at the wharf, the boat owners were busy tying anchors, spreading tarps, filling up gas... while customers of all ages, outfits, and loads of belongings and goods stood waiting for the boat to have enough passengers for one departure. We could faintly hear voices asking about the boat price: "How much is a trip back to Huu Khuong per person? 50 thousand!". Boats are not short of customers during peak season, so we had to go around and around before we found a talkative boat owner willing to share some of his business stories.

The Cuu Long green raincoat was covered with dust and mud, rustling around his small figure, with dark skin and a face covered by a worn-out baseball cap, Mr. Vi Viet Tien - the boatman whom we were happy to "catch" while he was smoking his first pipe of tobacco in the morning. The young colleague skillfully brought up the common story of "love of pipe tobacco", then turned to the profession of boatman on the lake, that communication trick was actually very effective! With half-closed eyes looking out at the lake shining with the rays of the morning sun, he said that he had been involved in this profession for nearly ten years, from the time when the Nam Non River had not been dammed until today, the Ban Ve Hydroelectric Reservoir.

Like many other families, his family used to live in Huu Duong commune, but when there was a policy of migration to make way for the hydroelectric reservoir, the whole family moved to resettle in Dai Son village, Thanh Son commune, Thanh Chuong district. Migrating according to the government's policy, to provide electricity to the hometown grid, but when moving to the new place, his family had to face many difficulties. His wife and children were poor and had no land to produce, their lives largely depended on annual rice support. In 2011, some friends in the profession persuaded him, saying that if he was attached to the river profession, he had to endure hardship and hardship, so he returned to the drifting profession! Until now, he still silently thanks that invitation and encouragement, because the boat driving profession for the past few years has brought his family a fairly stable source of income, although not rich, but at least it has escaped the situation of depending on state subsidies.

Pointing to a wooden boat moored at the edge of the lake, he said the boat was built with compensation money from land clearance a few years ago. He bought the wood himself, then went all the way to My Ly commune (Ky Son) to hire skilled craftsmen to build the boat, and asked around to buy a boat engine, all for 50 million VND. His wife and children have settled in their new home, he lives alone in the lake, without a home, he built a temporary shack floating on the water's edge in Nhon Mai commune as a shelter at night. Every day, his job is to transport passengers from Nhon Mai wharf to the upstream wharf and vice versa.

His wooden boat is more than 11 meters long, with a cabin nearly 1.5 meters wide, and can carry 6-7 people per trip. From Nhon Mai to the upstream wharf, the boat trip takes nearly 2 hours, and Mr. Tien collects 70,000 VND per passenger. If there are enough passengers, each trip, after deducting the cost of fuel, will yield a profit of about 300,000 VND. However, this is not the case every day. “On holidays, Tet or weekends, many students and civil servants come and go, and on normal days, there are very few people.” – Mr. Vi Viet Tien explained. We asked him to join us on a proper trip, to travel to the end of the lake to enjoy the new year. Unfortunately, the trip was too long, and he had some family matters to attend to and needed to return home soon.

The travel diary of my colleague would have been longer with lines of emotional exclamation, if that morning, we had not been lucky enough to find a young boatman. Luong Van Tum, 22 years old, had a wife and children. “Highland people usually get married early. If you don’t go to school far away, don’t work as a cadre, then just get married!” Tum sincerely answered our question. His name Tum sounded quite strange, his colleague, a Thai ethnic, explained: Tum means more, fuller. So, Luong Van Tum was the youngest child in the family, that name was an addition to make it fuller and warmer. Looking at his appearance, it seemed like there was no name that could suit Tum better. Tum was plump, if not chubby, with shiny black and curly hair. His way of talking exuded simplicity and neatness. The story of the vast river, seemingly with no horizon in sight, was told by this young driver so concisely as if nothing had happened! “I was already in 9th grade and had driven before, so I wasn’t afraid of anything. But back then, the Nam Non River had many rapids and waterfalls, not a calm lake like this.”- Tum said in a monotone.

And Tum told the truth. After nearly a week of drifting on the lake, the 13-horsepower three-leaf boat in Tum's hands was like a well-behaved horse. Tum sat at the foot of the boat, leaning his butt against a small wooden bar, one hand firmly holding the steering wheel to steer. The wind blew fiercely, the engine pounded the calm lake, stirring up turbulent waves, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes turning sideways, sometimes stopping at the request of the picky group of tourists who were hunting for "doubles", the majestic beauty of the lake. Normally, he was "guilty" of not talking much, but if asked skillfully, Tum suddenly became a tour guide who was no less than anyone, with an accurate way of introducing place names, adding mysterious legends of the people.

Here are Xop Lam, Cha Coong, Nhan Ninh, Nhan Pa villages...; and Tham Nam cave... Luong Van Tum shared unforgettable memories of his boat driving job on the Nam Non river, with rolling waterfalls, rapids that make even the most skilled boatman's hands shake. He said that every job requires knowing the rules, and each boatman has his own different experience. Driving a 24 horsepower boat is different from a 13 horsepower boat, sometimes you need to row by hand, sometimes you need to tilt the rudder... Now, driving a boat on Ban Ve lake is no longer as dangerous as on the Nam Non river, instead it is a feeling of floating, calm, freely letting your soul admire the wild, mysterious beauty of a river culture.

The small sampan on the vast river, as far as the eye can see is a vast expanse of wild flowers blooming white, occasionally passing through the calm bends, looking down at the clear lake surface, one can see schools of fish jumping around. The journey on the lake opens up interesting things, we do not feel lonely because we constantly meet other boats cutting through the waves nearby. Remembering the statistics of the Industry and Trade Department of Tuong Duong district, that currently in Ban Ve lake there are nearly 70 passenger boats and about 60 civilian boats.

All of these boats are built by the people themselves, however, the safety is relatively high. Almost all the boat drivers here are locals, have had experience driving boats on the Nam Non River before and most of them have been granted boat driving certificates by the authorities, all boats are provided with full life jackets. Previously, every time the district cadres went to work in Mai Son commune, they had to spend up to 1 day on a boat on the Nam Non River, up and down the rapids, which contained many dangers. Now, starting from the upstream wharf to Mai Son, it only takes about 3 hours on a smooth boat. Traveling by boat on the Ban Ve Hydroelectric Reservoir is considered safe by many people, because since the hydroelectric reservoir has been filled with water for 4 years, there has not been any boat accident on the reservoir...

The water surface, the hills and the passenger boats gliding gently on the lake surface blend together, appearing under the morning sun, creating a feeling of cool air in the summer, and freezing cold in the winter filling the body. A vast space, hazy in the mist makes us feel small in front of the "lake sea" like a masterpiece of landscape created by humans in this wild West. Under the skillful hands of boatman Luong Van Tum, many beautiful natural scenes and the simplicity, the sadness as well as the aspirations of human life on the lake gradually appear, "attracting" our group to immerse themselves in an exciting journey!

PV Group