Post:Lucia Nguyen.Image:Lucia Nguyen, Hoang Nam
The morning weather in the Southwest border is very pleasant. We started our tour of Tra Su forest in Tinh Bien district, An Giang province.
"Living with the flood"
The ship sailed upstream along Vinh Te canal to Chau Doc town and then into Tra Su. When the ship reached the flood center, the canal banks were submerged in water, making it impossible to see where the other side was. Along the canal were thatched houses precariously balanced in the water. During the dry season, the canal banks would be the local people’s transportation route. Now, the village roads, the rice fields… were all covered in white water and their only means of transportation was a sampan or motorboat.
If it weren’t for the rows of eucalyptus trees blocking my view, I would feel like I was walking on the sea. People here are used to “living with the flood”. Both Vietnamese and Khmer people do many jobs during this season such as fishing, catching fish, picking water lilies, and sesbania flowers… This is a typical way of making a living for people in flooded areas, and is also a unique cultural feature in An Giang. On the way, I saw many boats fishing, casting fishing nets… People in flooded areas were looking for food in the floodwaters.
And in the vastness, in the middle of that place where sky and water meet, there is a type of tree that blooms with clusters of bright yellow flowers under the sunlight, swaying in the wind as if adding to the rustic beauty of the countryside during the flood season with its simplicity: the wild cotton flower - a typical plant and also an ingredient to make traditional dishes of the people in the flooded areas of the Mekong Delta.
Tra Su Forest, a rendezvous of birds
The natural landscape in the flood season is a very unique ecological form of the Mekong Delta. This is the "common home" of birds, fish and aquatic plants. The water surface in the forest is always covered by a thick layer of duckweed like a green velvet carpet, above the cajuput trees are tens of thousands of "nests" of birds, storks... giving Tra Su a very unique feature that no other forest has. From afar, Tra Su forest looks like a green oasis in the middle of a sea of white water. Tra Su forest is about 10km from the Cambodian border. We had to go to Tra Su before sunset. This month is when the sun sets fastest in the year and is also the best time to admire the beauty of flocks of birds returning to their nests after a day of flying out to find food. Tra Su cajuput forest has a core area of up to 845 hectares, a buffer zone of 643 hectares. The only way into the forest is the dike that is not flooded. You can visit Tra Su forest in two ways: by road - by tandem bicycle and by water - by canoe or boat. We chose the canoe. When the canoe passed through the sparse forest into the place where many birds and storks live, we switched to the boat to avoid making noise that would affect them. The boat swam into the forest, I saw many bird nests on the cajuput branches, the baby birds in the nests stretched their necks to look at the boat we passed, and the big birds were "talking" to each other, it sounded very pleasant to the ear. Among thousands of similar nests in the forest, after a long day of traveling, they landed on their own nest.
While walking, we suddenly heard a rustling sound, a flock of birds suddenly appeared, covering the whole sky like a giant silver carpet stretching to the horizon. This was the time when the “guests” of the forest returned home, the flapping of their wings sounded like a small storm. I sat still, moved and speechless by this beautiful scene. After circling the forest by boat, to watch the wild birds to our heart’s content, we climbed up the watchtower of the guard station, overlooking the whole forest in the afternoon with white birds perched on the treetops, their cries echoing throughout the afternoon forest. After that, we enjoyed the specialties of the floating area: braised linh fish with tamarind, grilled snakehead fish, delicious lotus and sesban flower salad.
The flood season is a very typical “form” of the Southwestern region. The water rises and submerges the fields, houses, and the people in the area work hard to make a living on the vast sea of water. This special way of life has attracted many domestic and foreign tourists to visit and consider it a memorable experience in their lives.
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