The Northeast is pristine, untouched by human hands, with high rocky mountains, clear blue sea and low-rise forests interspersed with beautiful rocks. In the southwest of the island, there are long rocky cliffs connecting the white sand beaches creating an interesting landscape.
In recent years, Phu Yen has promoted tourism development, so the island has also become a place where many young people come to experience.
On this very island, under old shacks during the tourist season, he and his wife still welcome guests to the island to have fun and eat. Or fishing associations move to the island to stay overnight, grandparents help guests set up tents to stay overnight and make campfires.
“My wife and I don’t sell food and drinks here, all of them are brought by their guests and asked by the kitchen to cook and then we clean up for them. At that time they gave us as much as they gave. Doing such tourism has more money to pay for life. The couple is old and lives alone in the middle of the island, so it’s always fun to have guests come and play like this“, said Mrs. Lan, her eyes darting to her “partner” who was fishing right next to the beach.
Mr. Thinh pulled the net and quickly picked up each sea fish put in a plastic container, quickly walked towards the hut, asked his wife: “”Now what do you want to eat, I cook? Anyway, let me cook a piece of sour soup to eat”, he added, as if understanding Lan’s answer. She sat in the hammock, looking at her husband nodding.
“Old but love! More than husband and wife“, I looked at Mr. Thinh smiling, Mrs. Lan also smiled.
Mr. Thinh said, the day he and his wife moved to the island to live, many locals said that they were “crazy”, but he and his wife were still determined for a completely new life. Thinh and his wife are still proud of this “huge property” that they have built.
Mr. Thinh himself dug wells on the island, only allowed to dig 4 meters because deeper will be contaminated with salt. The time of April and May is two months when the well is “loose”, the water source is unusable. In the following months, the water will gradually become sweeter. At that time, the grandparents used this water to serve tourists, and the grandparents stored rain water and spring water for use gradually.
Living in the middle of the island lacking in amenities, he and his wife used kerosene lamps at first, then used batteries and then only had solar power for 3 years. With the money that tourists save, they can also buy a small solar panel that is enough for the TV they watch in the evening, and the rest of the day, they maintain the chili lights and speakers. small chanting inside Dinh Ong, Dinh Ba.
The source of food for grandparents only stored at the end of August and continued until the end of November, because that season was stormy season, so they could not hunt and gather at those times.
“My children often call this “lonely island”, not lonely. Life is still me, what about him, lonely“, said Mrs. Lan, when she could no longer see her husband’s back. The life of more than 40 years of living together is like a slow-motion movie in Mrs. Lan’s memory when it comes to her husband.
Due to the unlucky fate, none of her sisters had a husband, only she was lucky to meet him. The elders have a saying: “First girl is better than two, second is better than one”, probably true for Mrs. Lan and her husband, since coming to the same house, he has never raised his voice to her, and she has never been angry. he is more than half a day.
“There are two couples around, who are angry at each other but still know who to talk to‘, said Mrs. Lan, smiling.
The daily meal of grandparents is very simple, a bowl of sour soup made from fish that Mr. Thinh caught, a plate of forest vegetables that Mrs. Loan picked up from the mountainside and brought it home to boil and dip it with fish paste from the ocean.
They have 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls, but they are all on the mainland, looking forward to welcoming their parents back to the city to take care of them, but they are used to the silence and the winds of the island. decided to stick with the island.
Grandparents’ children will come to visit on the weekend.
Mr. Thinh said that in the past, his ancestors were also here, so for him and his wife, the island is the homeland, the home, the flesh and blood. Every day, grandparents still regularly maintain smoke incense for Dinh Ong and Dinh Ba on this island.
When the New Year comes to spring, ask your grandparents if they want to go to the mainland? Both grandparents shook their heads and said that this place is home, wherever we are next to each other, that place is home. Going back to the mainland is only to burn incense and visit family and descendants for proper etiquette.
Every 30th Tet and 1st lunar month, he runs a boat to take her to the mainland to visit his children and incense his ancestors. Once the ceremony is over, the grandparents will go to the island again
Only Mrs. Lan, who stayed on the mainland for the longest time was when she gave birth to two daughters later, and the entire time her grandparents lived on the island.
“I’m used to living out here, so I don’t want to go to the mainland, go to the shore and then just miss the soul” Mr. Thinh said with a smile.
It has been 25 years since the day they set foot on the island, the old couple is calmly together.
“I don’t know how long Thinh and I will live, but I just hope we live and die together. Now that I’m old, I love him more than that. He lived with me for the rest of his life, bearing all the hard parts. My children have grown up, I don’t have to worry anymore. Lying at night thinking, I’m just afraid that I’ll go first, leave him alone, I’m so sorry now. I’ve walked almost all the way, when I open my eyes to see him, I’m happier than Tet.” Mrs. Lan looked at Mr. Thinh with loving eyes.
When Tet comes to spring, the island “only two people, two old people love each other” becomes warm because of the beautiful fairy-like love of Mr. Thinh and Mrs. Lan.
Leaving the “desolate island” when it was dark, I suddenly thought: When the stress and chaos in life causes the divorce rate to increase in modern society, somewhere in the world. In this world, there is still true, deep and simple love. Like Mr and Mrs. Thinh and Mrs. Lan, they put them together to form a well-fitted, intact block.