Ba Be Lake is beautiful and poetic. |
The sun slowly set, shining its last rays of the day on the blue surface of Ba Be Lake (Ba Be District, Bac Kan Province), making it shimmer as if someone had plated it with gold and silver. It was also the time when our group boarded the boat to leave this "beautiful place". In my luggage, there was a bunch of shrimp, a kilo of dried catfish bought from fishermen as gifts, proof of having been there. As for journalist and director Dang Tien Son - who slipped and fell into Dau Dang waterfall while filming but miraculously escaped death, after 17 years, he clasped his hands and muttered thanks to the water god for his protection. I would like to tell everyone: Journalism is a cruel profession, except for those who work in air-conditioned rooms and salons, it is no joke!
The young man from the Tay ethnic group, Nong Van Thoai, was born and raised in Nam Mau commune on the lakeside. He grew up loving Ba Be Lake but could not escape. He stayed in his hometown to work as a tourist guide and a motorboat driver. He started the engine and the boat glided smoothly... Someone exclaimed: Oh! What a "lovely landscape". And I suddenly remembered the verses in the poem "On Ba Be Lake" by poet Hoang Trung Thong that our generation knew by heart when we were in primary school: "Our boat slowly enters Ba Be / The mountains are steep, the lake is silent / The leaves of the forest sing softly in the wind / Painting the sound of our hearts with the sound of birds / Our boat glides smoothly over Ba Be / Above the clouds, above the green mountains / White clouds float silently / The oars stir the mountain's shadow" ...
Thoai, while steering the boat, briefly introduced: Ba Be is a natural lake, located in the center of Ba Be National Park, in Nam Mau commune, Ba Be district, and is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Vietnam. In 1995, in the US, Ba Be Lake was recognized as one of the 20 special freshwater lakes in the world that need to be protected. The geology and geomorphology of the lake area create spectacular landscapes. The lake is fed by two rivers, the Cho Leng River and the Nam Cuong River, which then flow into the Nang River and down to Dau Dang waterfall...
Dau Dang Waterfall. |
While listening to the story, admiring the scenery and filming, our boat soon left the lake, following the Nang River to Dau Dang waterfall, the destination of the journey and the lucky story of 17 years ago (19 years this year) at the foot of the waterfall. Then the boat steering was transferred to young man Nong Van Thuan, a technical officer of Ba Be Hydrological Station, who knew the rapids and streams here by heart, to take us closer to the waterfall.
Thuan said: Nang River, for tens of thousands of years, has been tirelessly providing water and alluvium, after flowing under Lung Nham limestone mountain to form Puong Cave, like a fairyland, when flowing to Hua Tang village area, it is blocked by hundreds of large rocks stacked on top of each other, combined with a large slope, creating the majestic and always boiling Dau Dang waterfall with a length of more than 1,000 meters, forming three levels, the upper level is 3 to 4 meters different from the lower level in length. In the Dau Dang waterfall area, there is also a type of catfish with some weighing over 10kg, this is a rare type of fish nowadays. People can sit and watch the waterfall on large rocks or on the wooden and iron balcony built high above...
Back in time. Formerly from Bac Thai province, the reporters of Thai Nguyen Radio and Television Station have always maintained close relationships with localities and units in Bac Kan province, including Ba Be National Park. In June 2006, at the request of Ba Be National Park Director Nong Van Dinh, the reporters from Thai Nguyen Radio and Television Station helped make a music video with the songs Then, Sly, and Luon praising the nature and people of this place, also with the intention of calling on the community to work together to preserve this precious gem in the mountains and forests of Viet Bac.
The filming was basically a box set, but for the young director Dang Tien Son at that time, there needed to be some more spectacular scenes. The crew went to Ba Be with journalists Ta Dinh Kiem, Nguyen Bao Lam, Nguyen Thanh Binh and Dang Tien Son... After the rain in the forest the night before, the mountains and forests of Ba Be were green and cool. The Nang River was flooded, and the water at Dau Dang waterfall was rushing. Director Nong Van Dinh assigned an officer from Ba Be National Park named Duong to go with the crew to the waterfall.
At that time, Dang Tien Son had just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in film directing in Hanoi and was assigned to participate in many difficult and elaborate works. The fire of the profession had just been ignited, combined with his passion that was always burning, Son carried the heavy Beta-cam camera, excitedly panning the camera far and close very skillfully. The rain the night before had tilted many trees in the forest, causing the filming of the waterfall with white foam to be partially obscured. The rock in front of him was dry and covered with white dust but underneath was full of slippery moss, a trap that Son stepped on and slid down the waterfall for hundreds of meters.
Son recalled: The camera flew away, the water drowned him into the abyss, then rose, drowned him again four or five times. In a panic and hopelessness, he suddenly saw a hanging vine and tried to hold on. Oh my God! The rain in the forest the night before had caused an oak tree to tilt and the vine to hang down... Seeing Son being swept into the abyss, Duong kept running through the forest screaming, suddenly saw a head emerging from the raging water, he was so happy that he covered his face and cried...
Journalist and director Dang Tien Son - who escaped 19 years ago - returned to visit Dau Dang waterfall (July 2023). |
Old man Ma Van Hieu opened a restaurant selling rice at the edge of the waterfall, welcomed Son and his brothers into the restaurant, and loudly said: Oh my! No one has ever fallen into the waterfall and found a dead body. I have been here for decades, I know. Here is Bang Phuc wine, let's drink to celebrate our escape! The staff, reporters, editors, and workers of Thai Nguyen Radio and Television that year happily welcomed Son's return from death. The managers were busy calculating the depreciation of the camera that fell into the abyss. Dau Dang Waterfall still roared its epic song, making everyone forget...
On July 1, 2023, meeting again in Bac Kan, Mr. Hoang Duc Chi, Director of Bac Kan Radio and Television Station, said: After the incident of the Thai Nguyen journalist falling into Dau Dang waterfall, Bac Kan province directed the construction of barriers, welded a viewing platform for the waterfall, filmed, took photos, and installed many warning signs to prevent many accidents. As for Ms. Tran Thi Loan, who set up a tent to sell water right at the top of the waterfall, said: There were warnings, no one dared to go down...
That year (2006), I was the Permanent Vice President of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Journalists Association. I attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Journalists Association in Hanoi and reported the above story. President of the Vietnam Journalists Association Nguyen Hong Vinh suggested that a fund should be established to assist journalists in the event of accidents...
Back to the story of the recent trip to Ba Be Lake. That day, the Permanent Vice President of the Journalists Association of Bac Kan Province, Luu Thi Ha, suggested Thoai take the boat to famous places: Ba Goa Island, An Ma Island; see the stilt houses of the Tay people; listen to the story of Ba Be Lake with the legend of Ba Goa Island, dugout canoes... Then listen to journalist Nguyen Xuan Hai (Thai Nguyen Newspaper) read the next part of the poem "On Ba Be Lake" by poet Hoang Trung Thong: "Boat, please wait slowly for me/Birds chirping above my head, listening/Once you've arrived, oh Ba Be/Want to stay here, don't want to go back" , and also the story of the lucky journalist Dang Tien Son.
Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/xa-hoi/202506/ho-ba-be-va-chuyen-may-man-hy-huu-duoi-chan-thac-dau-dang-a0032fe/
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