Those ubiquitous little boats

Last month we had some beautiful mornings which found me down at the beach by 7am. This is about the time some of the in-shore fishermen bring in their tiny catches of silver fish.

They use coracles made out of bamboo, woven with palm leaves and coated with tar.  Just like the coracles used in Wales and on the River Severn, they are steered with a single oar.


In Vietnam, they can be seen in almost every river, estuary and on most beaches. They use them as tenders to the larger fishing boats and also to set nets and collect  catches.  Vietnamese fishermen go out in all kinds of seas and are highly skilled at riding the surf back to shore. I can watch them for hours.

The painting at the top of this article shows the young fishermen picking up the boats with poles and carry them back up the beach until they go out again at dawn the next day.

These scenes were captured in December at the end of the rainy season.  Mornings are chilly and the seas are rough. The fishermen wear balaclavas to protect their faces from the harsh weather and then roll them up into beanies at the end of each trip. 














Once ashore, the women arrive with bowls metal dishes to collect the catch and take it straight to market where they will clean the little fish, gut and fillet them for customers. There can hardly be fresher fish than those available at seaside markets  along the long, Vietnam coastline.


These fibreglass blue and green boats are from Phan Thiet  where I went last November. There are larger than the Hoi An boats and have metal rods on one side to take a small outboard motor.

  The coracle has, very much,  become a symbol of Vietnam and is central to a cultural show that's is staged regularly at the Opera house in Saigon. 'The Ao Show' encapsulates, in about one hour, the culture, history and street life of Vietnam that has a lot in common with the stage show Stomp with its rhythms, energy and athletic dance. Don't miss it if your are in Saigon.