Mai's Travel Journal: Chapter 22 - Bac Lieu

Saturday – Sunday – Monday (November 13-15, 2004)

West Long Dien

I arrived in Long Dien in the morning, just in time to recognize the Bac Lieu markets, ancient houses along the Bac Lieu River. The road to West Long Dien, Dong Hai district passed by Gia Rai, the district that used to be famous for rich fields and for poor farmers getting plundered by the rich landowners.

Dong Hai used to belong in old Gia Rai, but the area was too wide and the population was too crowded so it was split into two. Long Dien is also a large and crowded area, with 12 boroughs in all. The most crowded and richest of all is the borough of Diem Dien.

The area office is located on the other side of the Kinh Tu River. On the other side is Kinh Tu market, where the boats busily come and go. This is the centre of Diem Dien, and also the centre of the whole area, a place that trades with everywhere, from Can Tho, Vinh Long to Tra Vinh, Soc Trang. This place is crowded and busy just like some markets at other capital towns.

Along the two sides of the road, houses stand beside each other. It seemed like everyone makes use of the location to do business, if not goods then some kind of service. Therefore, Diem Dien seems even livelier and is the place where people from surrounding areas would ask about as “have you visited Kinh Tu yet?” or “I just came back from Kinh Tu” with excitement.

West Long Dien is also near the sea, with Ganh Hao port on the South China Sea, which is famous for its traditional salt making business. Bac Lieu salt is very valuable but only very few houses manage to be rich from it.

Now, West Long Dien is also known for raising “cá sú” and “cá kèo” [two breeds of commercial fishes]. From the road, the two sides are covered with salt fields in the resting period, where soil and water inter-weave making it hard to recognize. Far away is the greenery of rows of mangroves.

I asked to stay at Aunt Ba Lua’s in the Danh Dien area of West Long Dien. Her family has a tradition of salt making reaching back almost 30 years. I have so many unknown facts about this occupation. I can only imagine how salt raking must look from pictures or on television but I did not come during the salt season.

Aunt Ba Lua is the secretary of West Long Dien area. She works at the office from 7am then in the afternoon she works as the mail delivery person for the post office. Careful and hard working, running from place to place like a bee at an age where she needs some rest, she delivers the mail to the correct house quickly and safely. I became a member of her family. Other aunts, brothers and sisters take care of me and the children love me.

Everyone jokes with me that coming here in this season I am lucky but must be very bored because there is nothing to do. And that is true; there was nothing to do.

To make salt, the water from the field must all drain away; the soil must be dried to become white, then unearthed to make the foundation; new water must be led into the fields; we wait until the salt crystallizes then we can rake the salt (harvest time). Of course, this must be done in a sunny season, with lots and lots of sun and that’s why nobody is making salt now.

The road to Aunt Ba Lua’s house follows the salt fields, with big and small edges of the fields and lots of canals and bridges but I was most afraid of the little bamboo bridges to her house. I gave up midway and settled for wading across the canal. The water was low, just past my knees. It would be better than falling off.

Gradually, I had to learn how to walk across the little bamboo bridges, trembling each time I raised and put down my foot. I was scared when I looked down at the current, so close by, and I felt like I was flying in the air. I stopped and stood there, shaking, in the middle of the bridge, I could not go back so I had to continue. Then I could touch my foot on to the other side. The happy feeling was immediately replaced by the dread of having to go back. Oh, I did not hear anyone say anything, I could only think about one thing: how I would return.

I also had to learn to walk on the little rows of earth marking the edges of the salt fields, only wide enough for one foot, especially when it was getting dark or when it was early in the morning, trying to make sure that I did not get mud on me. But I was learning so slowly and poorly that I always got muddy.

At Long Dien, the water rose and fell in a clear pattern. The water rose from the evening until night and in the morning it fell, until noon when it is at its lowest. Therefore, people catch fish and other seafood like sandworms and shrimp in the morning, and field crabs in the afternoon. Life is easy, people just need to go around the house to drop a net and they can find food, but they are still poor.

The money for two or three mornings of fish catching is just enough for tuition for the children once. This does not include clothing, books and supplies for them. There is such a gap between lives outside and inside the road.

Because it was not the salt season, a mother and a wife’s work for a day is just to fetch breakfast, lunch and dinner. If any family has a motorcycle, then the man can go out and work as a motorcycle-taxi to find extra money. Outside on the road, you just need to go a few hundred meters and there will be people asking whether you want a taxi or not. Therefore, if you don’t want to walk, just be patient a little and wait.

Out on the road, the woman usually fried bananas and sold a few treats for students around the school area or snacks for youths on the street.

The in-laws of Aunt Ba Lua from Co Do district, Can Tho, came here to visit. The wife stayed for a while, so she made sweet ball cakes and rings to sell in front of the school in the morning. It was a way to be active and to get some income to help the children.

To make a batch of about 150 cakes, she had to grind the water-flour the night before, and wait for it to dry for half a day. Besides that, she had to prepare other ingredients like mung beans, coconut, banana, oil, and sugar. Each element was selected so carefully, if anything was not good or not enough then the cakes would be poorer quality.

The real work of making the cakes started at midnight. When the whole family just started to be sound sleep, she woke up, started the fire and kneaded the flour. I had tried to wake up early but she already finished the kneading part. I sat with her in the flickering light of the stove and unsteady light from a small lamp, trying to remember each step and learning how to make the cakes.

I got rewarded for staying up for a bit with the first batch of cakes. It was so delicious, spongy, and crunchy! I don’t know when I will be able to make these cakes as good as these to offer to people.

The job continued in an orderly way like that until the morning when all the cakes were piled on the tray. Then, the wife would carry the tray and go selling them. Each cake cost 500 đồng, so 150 cakes would make about 75,000 đồng; this was how they profited from their labor.

Each night that they made cakes together, the two in-laws stayed up and chatted while working, until all the cakes are done then the sun has risen. A new day has started, and aunt Ba Lua is preparing to go to the office.

I followed the youth volunteers from Diem Dien to collect the garbage money from all the families along the road. That was a long distance but it was not as lengthy as convincing and explaining to people about the environment and about garbage collection.

They were my last hours at West Long Dien. It’s about time I realized I am preparing to finish up my journey.

Chapter 22 - Bac Lieu - Photo Gallery

Photos: Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai
(select image to enlarge)

1. salt fields and the canal to Aunt Ba Lua's house
2. Bac Lieu river is across Bac Lieu town

3. houses along Bac Lieu river
4. The shrimp market along Bac Lieu river

5. Chi Linh and Quyen is siting in parthouse
6. Dì Ba Lúa đi trên bờ ruộng muối về nhà
6. Aunt Ba Lua walking on the little rows of the salt fields to go home

7. Tu's sister is preparing fish
8. Aunt Ba Lua and Aunt Ba Lua's in-laws are behind salt pile which is covered carefully.