VIETNAMESE BOAT TRADERS EARN DOLLARS FROM FOREIGN SHIPS

During the end of the Vietnam War in the 70’s a big number of people living in the south of the country fled to escape from the victorious Red Army of the late Ho Chi Minh of the North. The then intense and dangerous situation had prompted the southerners to leave their beloved country using boats made of wood which the fleeing men and women, young and old were later called as the “Vietnamese Boat People.”

The “Vietnamese Boat People” chose to leave the country not because the Americans were defeated, as confided to me by Mr. Treth Theat Hao, a shipping agent from Quy Nhon City. According to him, the “Vietnamese Boat People” fled because they anticipated reprisal and death from the conquering northern brothers.

The very long years of sufferings of the “Vietnamese Boat People” was one of the history’s worst kinds of human degradation or humiliation recorded in the 20th century. And after that humiliating part descended upon the “Vietnamese Boat People” in the “cold war era,” a new generation of “Vietnamese Boat People” resurfaced but not as refugees but they are the “Vietnamese Boat Traders.”

The so called “Vietnamese Boat Traders” hawks their merchandize to both locals and crews of foreign vessels calling port mostly in Saigon a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh and nearby cities. The floating market or boat traders sell different kinds of goods from fruits, vegetables, wine with preserved curled snake inside of the bottle, drinks, souvenir items, apparels, shoes or sneakers and many other which have prices lower than in the department stores.

The “Vietnamese Boat Traders” are usually smiling young women in their colorful dress and paddy hat. Every time foreign ships approached ports or jetties, they scramble to get alongside the ship and immediately offer their goods to excited crews and officers. These young women are beguile and attracts attention so easily that ship personnel buy more goods in DOLLARS of course.

The “Vietnamese Boat Traders” has become a burgeoning class of Vietnamese society considerably because they earn DOLLARS in their own backyard without going the usual route of working abroad.
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