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Local people bathing in the Perfume River
One day in the middle of this summer, I hired a boat to take a group of my friends to go along the Perfume River. While the boat was passing by Kim Long village, it took the guests from Ho Chi Minh City by surprise when they saw a crowded group of local people enjoying a refreshing swim in the Perfume River.
The Saigon girl was wide-eyed, asked such a naïve but pitiful question: "Can they really swim in the river?". It was because all the rivers in Saigon were so heavily polluted that shrimp and fish could not even survive, making the girl implicitly think that "there’s no way people could bathe in river".
That harsh question was enough to show us the value of the Perfume River’s water, a river that was so rare and lucky, flowing through the middle of the city but still remaining green and clean. The question of the visitor also made me startled to realize that bathing in the Perfume River has become a familiar routine of Hue people for a long time.
At that time, at the beginning of the morning or at the end of the afternoon every summer, most of the river wharves were always full of local people swimming. Everybody enjoyed swimming and diving a lot. Then that delightful scenery became sparse, as the interest of society changed. Almost every household had a bathroom equipped with water heater, well-running and clean tap water whereas modern swimming pools were opened.
However, in the past few years, the river wharves have been crowded with people bathing and swimming again. These summer days, early morning or late afternoon, if you come back to Me wharf, Da Vien park station, or the river wharf in Kim Long on Nguyen Phuc Nguyen street, there would be a lot of people swimming and diving pleasantly in the water of the Perfume River.
Tourists on the dragon boats seeing this scene were extremely excited as they took a lot of photos continuously. On the weekends, in the Perfume River, there are also some energetic young men and women going surfing, kayaking, then jumping into the water and having so much fun together… This image is worth more than a thousand words to describe the purity and cleanliness of the water of the Perfume River!
"I see that the water of the Perfume River is clean enough for us to swim freely, especially from Kim Long upwards." said Mr. Truong Dinh Ngo, the owner of Ben Xuan theater in Huong Ho district. Mr. Ngo's house was located on the bank of the Perfume River. Every morning, he and his wife swim in the Perfume River.
After days of swimming in the Huong River, Mr. Ngo thought: “Why don’t we rebuild the wharves of Hue people in the past? And why don’t we build it green and safe?”
Mr. Ngo has set up a detailed project, asking the architect to design three wharves decorated with plants and flowers at the beginning of Nguyen Phuc Nguyen Street, where many people are having their bath in an unfavorable condition. The water has to be clean that people can bathe in. The more people bathe, the more this river would be protected, becoming greener and cleaner!
Mr. Ngo wanted to bring back that old wharf for Hue people with the once-hobby of bathing in the Perfume River; especially for children to go there to swim or to dive safely.
But I don’t think that was enough. Such bathing wharf would be suitable for visitors. If travel agencies bring "the Perfume River bath" as a specialty of the tour, it will be a unique experience for visitors coming to Hue city.
By Minh Dang