Two junior tourists enjoy riding a buffalo in Tra Que Village. (Photo courtesy of Jack Tran Tours) QuangNam (VNS/VNA) - Buffaloes have been considered close companionsand among the most valuable property of farmers.
Formany farmers in Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam, buffaloes are alsothe highlights of eco-tours hosted by the Jack Tran Tours company.
So in the Year of the Buffalo, they have more tales about the animals to tellthan ever.
Tran Van Khoa, sales manager and owner of the company, said that the idea forthe tour came to him on a field trip he took a group of foreigners tovisit Tra Que vegetable village on the outskirts of ancient Hoi An town 10years ago.
“The foreign tourists seemed to be interested in buffaloes eating grass,” hesaid. “They asked the owners to take photos with the cattle. They often tippedthe farmers one or two US dollars for each photographing session. Ithought the buffalo might be a special tourism product that will bring moreincome to farmers.”
Over the time, the company has gathered nearly 20 farmer families who ownsome 100 buffaloes for wet rice tours, which offer tourists the chance towork in the field with buffaloes. Before the pandemic, each year the companyreceived 2,000-3,000 guests, bringing each family 10-15 million VND (434-651USD) a year.
Such a tour lasts for five hours when tourists try various farming tasks.
At first local farmers were not willing to join the service,” Khoa recalled.“They thought foreigners would never like dirty work in the field. I spent lotsof time to persuade them.”
Now the tour attracts mostly group tours and families at a ticket cost of 1.3million VND each including lunch at homestays.
Local farmer Le Nhien, in his mid-50s, who has raised buffaloes since hischildhood, is among the farmers who have worked the longest with thecompany.
“We often choose strong male buffaloes for the job,” he said. “They are gentle,good-looking with twisted hair in the middle of their heads, stubbed noses, bigears, square forehead and bent back, which shows that the buffaloes arevery hard-working. The buffaloes with red eyes should not be chosen to servevisitors as they are aggressive.”
“We teach them to stand up following oral orders and be friendly tovisitors. The buffaloes should also have at least two years of experienceworking in the field as they will be more agile and hard-working,” he said.
“I let them sniff perfume and sun cream to be familiar to tourists’ smell,” herevealed.
The trainers should control their buffaloes by short and sharp orders like di means “walk to the left”; ha means “walk to the right”; do means“stop”, and dun means “walk backwards”.
He now owns in total 20 buffaloes and the five best work on the tours. Thebuffaloes bring home 10-15 million VND per month, double the income from growingrice, he said.
He even names his buffaloes like humans with names such as Gio, Si, Tuong andPhao.
The buffaloes are given young rice to be stronger and can work in thefield from the ages of three to 20.
Beside stable income from tourism, each female buffalo may give birth to a babyeach year, Nhien said.
Nhien said each peak month before the pandemic, his family could get 20 millionVND per month including tips from tourists.
“I have enough money to raise three children,” he said. “My eldest son helps mewith the tours.”Khoa said most of the tourists like his eco-tours with the wetrice planting experience, which also helps create more jobs for locals, and theJack Tran Tours page is filled with good reviews on Tripadvisor.
Khoa said in 2020, the pandemic has seriously affected tourism in Hoi An,including buffalo tours.
“Iwas shocked and very sad to tell my staff of 30 people and dozens ofinvolved farmer families to stay off from work as there have been notourists,” he said. “I gave them each 5 million VND for three months at thebeginning of the pandemic.
"Before the pandemic, we received 20-100 tourists per day. Now, there areonly 1-2 tourists per day or even no tourists in the past year.”
“The farmers and buffaloes now focus only on their farming work,” he said. “Isometimes support them some money to care of the buffaloes.”
“I just hope the disease will soon be controlled with vaccines so that touristswill return to us,” he said.
This year, the company will aim focus on domestic guests with 50 per centdiscounts for the tours.
He said a group of tourists has just booked a tour of 45 minutes at VNĐ500,000per person.
Some customers have also booked the tour for this summer, he said.
“We always compare the buffaloes to the BMWs of the field: strong andvaluable,” he said.
“They do not only resemble the familiar image of Vietnamese village andtraditional culture but also of the patience and resilience of Vietnamesepeople to overcome obstacles.”/.
VNA