Singing on the hill

The homestay is located halfway up the hill. Above is the hilltop covered with dense forest trees. At the foot of the stilt house is a durian garden separated from the homestay by a wire mesh fence. Below is To Hap town, with asphalt roads looming in the forest trees and morning and evening mist. In the evening, looking down from the homestay to a corner of the town, you can only see a karaoke bar bustling with people, more than the restaurants and cafes. The loud sound echoes all the way up the hill.

However, the mountain town goes to bed too early, just after 8pm and it already feels like it’s very late at night. When all the shops have closed, the singing has stopped, and there are no more people or vehicles on the street, I suddenly hear what sounds like frogs? Not just one, but many voices of many species of their relatives playing together. Some croak, some croak in bursts, some croak, some croak. A concert right downstairs.

It sounded like a bustling noise, but it was still a frog's sound. Only when the town had gone to sleep and everything was quiet could you hear it. It wasn't raining, so were there really frogs in this high mountain, dense forest, and dry rocky ground?

The next morning, I went downstairs to find out if there was a frog sound or if it was just a clip from someone in the houses below. There was a red brick courtyard. Around it were banana trees, papaya trees, durian trees and some water tanks with lotus flowers. In one corner of the yard was a tent serving hot water, inside the tent were a table and chairs, a hammock for guests to rest, drink water and talk. I searched everywhere but couldn’t find the frogs, even in the water tanks with purple lotus flowers.

Here it was. It turned out to be a long, narrow lake built on the hill below the yard. The lake was abandoned, probably built to grow water lilies but it seemed like there had been no flowers for a long time, only a few plants with small, stunted leaves. The lake wall was low, grass and wild plants grew over it, making it hard to see if you didn't pay attention. The lake water was only about waist-deep even though the lake bed was shallow, perhaps rainwater had stagnated long enough for frogs to live there. We all know frogs are amphibians, but they only live near ponds and fields. But here the forest land was dry and thirsty...

During the day, the frogs swam back and forth happily. Occasionally, they chased each other from one corner of the pond to the other, holding the edge of a leaf with both hands, stretching their long hind legs and swinging underwater, sticking their small heads with bulging round eyes out of the water to look at life or at the sky. It was impossible to tell which frogs were weakly squeaking, which ones were loudly croaking, and which ones were squeaking all night.

Where do the frogs come from? No one knows. Do they know how fragile their habitat is? The sun shines, the water evaporates, or suddenly a rock rolls down from above and hits the pond…

It has been raining for the past few days. When the first short rains of the season began to fall, I don’t know why I immediately thought of the frogs on the hillside of the homestay. As long as they survive the dry months, as long as the lake is still there, there will continue to be frogs croaking on the hill.

VAN HA

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/sang-tac/202506/tieng-hat-tren-doi-d1f0801/