Loggers in Vietnam's Lush Jungle

In early March 2016, I travelled 2,500km (1,500 miles) by road from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh.  It was a memorable experience as I spent ample time with Vietnam's wondrous nature.

The most lush and unbounded jungle I've ever seen in-person was in a national park called Phong Nha Ke Bang, which is where King Kong Skull Island was being filmed at the time.

Being of the adventurous sort, I took the longer, bum-breaking, 3.5-hour, 150km mountainous ring route (see below) from my hotel in Dong Hoi city to the Paradise Cave and Dark Cave, located in the National Park.

https://goo.gl/maps/TSFSeRnXtUN2

On the way, I was rewarded with views that words alone cannot portray.  The shades of green were vibrant and more in number than military camouflage.  The magnificent depth of field created by the vast, jagged hills and valleys, carved out by crystal clear boulder-burdened streams, made me feel like an microbe in the company of elephants.  This place is spectacular!

However, as governed by the laws of supply and demand, this jungle is being scraped and scarred by logging (see the photo below).  Vietnam has earned the position of being one the largest furniture exporters in Asia, exporting high-end wood products to the US, the EU, and Australia, according to Deutsche Welle (DW).

I only saw one such vast clearing of an otherwise carpet-like forest from the road that I took

Vietnamese wood products accounted for 1.2% of the value of all Vietnamese exports (Observatory of Economic Complexity) and 0.7% of all global exports (World Bank) in 2013.  

--- Vietnam plug for business leaders ---

Vietnam is a primary commodity powerhouse, the 2nd largest exporter of coffee (mainly Robusta) in the world and 5th largest in rice in 2014.

In 2013, Vietnam ranked 3rd globally in footwear exports and 8th in terms of textile and clothing (World Bank).

A US Geological Survey report in 2015 notes that Vietnam had the world's 15th largest reserve of bauxite in 2014.

Vietnam came in 9th in terms of tourist arrivals (7.6 million) to East Asia in 2013, which grew at a remarkable 11% compared to 2012, making it the 2nd fastest growing tourist destination in East Asia after Thailand (Calculations based on World Bank data).  TripAdvisor has ranked Hanoi city as 8th in the Top 10 destinations in 2016 (4th in 2015), ahead on New York city.

Vietnam's even outperforming in the tertiary sector; FPT Group made it to 57th place in the IAOP Global Outsourcing ranking in 2014.

Livelihood story continued...

As I journeyed on, I found that the majority of the ring road was unpopulated until I came across remote, makeshift, roadside loggers camps.  The dwellings were primitive, made up of tarpaulin, wooden poles, and hammocks (like the one in the photo below).  

Two rather casually-dressed men inspect the logs (They did have hard-hats... They surely must be legit)

Logs being slid down channels cut into hillside, allowing road access

I saw several of such camps scattered along the route and should explicitly mention that all of the logging operations that I observed were outside Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, which is how it should be.

Around 30 people sleep in this particular dwelling

Unattended log stools and firewood outside the kitchen await loggers after a long days work

Time was pressing on and needing to complete the route safely, I wasn't able to stop and talk to any of the loggers themselves.

As I pressed on, I reached the low-point of my journey.  I climbed altitude and a thick and cold fog enveloped me.  Visibility dropped from several hundred metres to 15 metres in the space of a minute and I was quickly drenching wet.

It was then that I stumbled upon 3 loggers in the road who, having completed their work, were about to head back to Dong Hoi city in a flat-bed truck.  I asked them how far it was to the National Park and they said another 80km.

Well aware of the rather treacherous driving conditions, they offered to put my motorbike in the back of their truck and give me a ride back to civilisation.  However, determined to see the caves in the National Park, I thanked them and continued on my way.

I did eventually reach the caves, which were spectacular, a must-see for any nature-lover visiting Vietnam.

Are these logging activities legal?

I suspect that the logging activities are legal for 2 reasons.  The first is that the government has established several manned checkpoints (such as the one below) along the entire route that I took.  Okay, so maybe that's not sufficient proof...

A remote checkpoint in the hills

The second reason that I think that these logging operations are likely to be legit is because of strict import restrictions in the key export markets (e.g. US Lacey Act).  Vietnam has also been negotiating a timber trade agreement with the EU to mitigate against illegal logging.  These build on the 1991 Forest Protection and Development decisions issued by the Prime Minister of Vietnam.

In addition, research by Chatham House suggests that there's a high-level of on-the-ground awareness of the international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation among private firms in Vietnam.  Furthermore, certifications have increased significantly over the past decade.  

However, efforts to mitigate illegally-sourced timber continue to be tainted by sketchy 3rd party-verification of timber.

I did see several dirt tracks heading away from the paved roads that I was on, which could possibly be used to bypass the checkpoints or smuggle illegal timber over land into Vietnam from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, as highlighted by UKaid-funded DFID project, the Illegal Logging Portal.

Illegal timber imports happen despite agreements having been signed between Laos and Cambodia.  The Chatham House report also suggests that Vietnamese customs authorities are not yet responsible for checking the legality of timber imports and exports.  

Positively, the same report noted that the Vietnamese government is working towards setting up a reporting mechanism to communicate sending and receiving enforcement alerts about illegal shipments en route to their destinations.

In other words, progress is being made but is calling for patience.

Yangon Slum-nomics 101

One blistering hot Saturday afternoon in June 2013, I was cycling around Yangon, Myanmar and crossed over Pazundaung Creek via the the Industrial Road bridge.  I saw an teenage boy helping a younger boy to walk across the bridge.  With time on my hands, I decided to stop and have a chat with the 2 of them.

[I used to cycle everywhere in Yangon because motorbikes [and apparently bicycles too... Myanmar people need a permit] are banned in the inner parts of Yangon city.  Various rumours have circulated to explain this such as the one about a General's daughter who died in a motorbike accident or the one about the General that got shot in a drive-by by someone on a motorbike... My view is that two-wheelers were banned [and universities also physically moved to the outskirts of Yangon] in an attempt to prevent dissidence.  I digress.]

I was immediately impressed by the proficiency of English of Aung Naing Thay, the elder of the 2 boys, who was 17 years old.  He explained to me that the younger boy was his 6-year old brother, Aung Naing Htwe.

[FYI, Myanmar people tend not to have surnames so their names are usually comprised of 3 first names to allow for differentiation.  First and/or second parts of the name are passed on through paternal lineage]

The slum is located 5km East of Yangon International Airport,
on the East side of Pazundaung Creek and in the gully of the
North side of the Industrial Road, North Dagon Township

Aung Naing Thay pointed to the gully by the road and told me that that's where he, his brother, and mother - Tin Tin Thi lived (see the photo on the right).  This family of 3 lived in a small, densely-packed slum in a small flood catchment area by the creek.  Aung Naing Thay offered to show me around.

As I descended about 10m from the road level with my bicycle, I was struck by the pleasant sound of children playing, which had been drowned out by the sound of road traffic.  There was rubbish strewn everywhere and wafts of the stagnant water nearby hung in the air... but regardless, the kids were having a great time.

Aung Naing Thay, very excitedly asked me if I'd like to see his family home.  The 3 of us traversed about 10m into the stagnant waters, hopping across on sand bags and tree stumps before arriving at the first home on the left.  Their humble home was a 2m x 2m shack with an interior height of about 1.5m.

Left to Right: Aun Naing Thay, Sister of Tin Tin Thi, Aung Naing Htwe & Tin Tin Thi

The house was made with a strong and flexible bamboo pole frame, it sat on stilts perched about 1m from the stagnant water surface, and was sheltered by a roof made up of 1 layer of tarpaulin and palm leaves.  The walls were made from beautifully woven bamboo and the floor from halved bamboo poles, reinforced by a wire gauze underneath and softened somewhat by a plastic mat on top.  Even still, I had to particularly careful not to break through the floor!  There was no space for a toilet, which I never went to but it must have been an outdoor affair, heading straight into the river.  What other options does the slum have?

Fortunately, Yangon's climates generally remain hot/warm all year round so cold temperatures wasn't an issue.  However, storms like Cyclone Nargis that ravished Myanmar in May 2008 are huge threats for such slum-dwelling families.  On subsequent visits to the family home, I was presented with water-damaged ID cards of Aung Naing Thay, which were damaged during Nargis.

The family were incredibly welcoming.  I was served drinking water from a plastic barrel water dispenser (not the rain water canisters in the family picture above, which were used for dish washing).  However, there was no running water and no connection to the electricity grid.

Indoor lighting was powered by candle light and interestingly, battery packs that lasted 12 hours with a 20 watt energy saver light bulb on and a basic phone charger hooked up.  Every morning, at 9am, the battery pack man would come to replace recharged with spent battery packs for a fee of 100 Myanmar Kyat (GBP 0.07 or USD 0.10).

This implies that if you use a battery pack every day, bearing in mind the natural light within the home was just from the 1m x 0.75m front door opening, a slum-dwelling family would spend MMK 3,000 per month (GBP 2.50 or USD 3).  Not a huge expense I hear you say...


Family possessions were few and limited to essentials (see the photos below).  The family's monthly income was around MMK 90,000 (GBP 60 or USD 90), which means that they live just above the World Bank's USD 1.90 (GBP 1.35 or MMK 2,000) per day poverty line.

UNICEF had reached out to the family through North Okkalapa Poe Kayin Baptist Church, which the family attended.  I didn't know of any other support that UNICEF were providing other than simple gift packs of stationary and food supplements for kids (see the photo below).

I used to visit with simple gifts (I was taught never to arrive at a home empty handed) like fruit and snacks but the Aung Naing Thay (the elder son) asked me to be careful with gifts because the slum neighbourhood was small and they wouldn't want to spark jealousy.  Slum politics!  Wise kid for 17 years old.

Whilst 1% of their salary was spent on electricity, it was by far their greatest expense, rent, which was paid to the slum landlady, Daw [polite title for a respected lady] Thaung.  Daw Thaung had a much bigger house (5x bigger in fact) beside the slum that had a corrugated tin roof, was connected to the grid, and sat at road-level.

Daw Thaung used to charge each of the 35 slum dwellings MMK 15,000 (GBP 10 or USD 15) per month in rent.  However, Aung Naing Thay told me that from September 2013, Daw Thaung was to double the rent to MMK 30,000 per month!  This meant that rent would now account for a third of their monthly income, leaving USD 2 (GBP 1.50 or MMK 2,000) per day on average for non-rent living costs.

Meanwhile, Daw Thaung accumulated over USD 1,000 (GBP 700 or MMK 1,000,000) per month in rent on land that probably wasn't even be hers.  How she maintained her power over the slum-dwellers was predatory and exploitative.

These slum-dwellers were distressed, poor, and broken families, most of whom had probably emigrated from different levels of conflict and insecurity to the city in search of refuge and betterment of their lives.  This injustice made me angry.  However, I was calmed and in constant awe of the Aung Naing Thay and Tin Tin Thi who continued to make reference to their landlady with the respectful title and didn't utter a complaint.

So what's the Family's story?  Where was the Father?  How did Aung Naing Htwe get the scars on his face?

The family were of Karen ethnicity, originating from Kayin State, which is just 300km East of Yangon and has borders with Thailand.  As is the case with many other states on the fringes of Myanmar, parts of Kayin State are currently plagued by conflict between armed factions seeking independence from Myanmar and the Myanmar military requiring unity.

Tin Tin Thi and her 2 sons had emigrated to Yangon following the death of her husband and father of the 2 boys.  I didn't question the family further how he died but Aung Naing Thay (the elder son) told me that the family didn't have ID cards other than his, which he obtained whilst attending school for a short period in Yangon.  I can only speculate on why this might be.  However, I think that the family may have originated from an area of Kayin State that was governed by one of the armed factions because they wouldn't have been issued with official national ID cards.

When they arrived in Yangon, Aung Naing Thay (the elder son) tried to balance school with work while his mum stayed at home to care for his younger brother.  Aung Naing Thay managed to get a job at Right Track Bowling Centre, which I had ironically visited before meeting the family.

Aung Naing Htwe made a 1-hour, 10km cycle ride one-way to work and worked 13-hour days (9am to 10pm), every day including Sundays.  He must have been 15 or 16 years old at the time and was pulling a 15-hour day door-to-door.  I don't know how he fit in his studies; perhaps that's why he told me that he didn't attend school very long.  He earned a salary of just MMK 25,000 (GBP 18 or USD 25) per month, meaning that the family officially lived in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank definition.  However, that job did help him to learn basic conversational English.

Of to a tough start living in Yangon, things got more difficult.  An unfortunate accident at home one day left Aung Naing Htwe (the younger son) scarred and unable to speak and walk.  Hot liquid had accidentally fallen all over him as a child and he suffered severe burns.

He was operated on and the doctors did their best to minimise scarring but for some reason they fused the skin between the lower and upper halves of his right arm together, meaning that he would not be able to straighten his arm (see the picture on the right below).  Somehow, he lost the ability to speak and walk but his loving brother patiently and carefully nursed him at home while his mother took over the role of breadwinner work.  Remarkable, Aung Naing Thay's persistence got his younger brother back on his feet, building his muscles slowly (as I mentioned, the first time I saw the 2 boys, they were walking across the bridge next to the slum).

Aung Naing Thay told me that he was responsible for cooking while his mother went to work.  He told me that their typical diet was rice and fish.  Fish is most often the cheapest non-veg option available, as is the case in Vietnam (where I currently live).

The pictures above were taken by me while Aung Naing Htwe was playing with my white and red bicycle lights one afternoon.  Despite his ailments and traumatic experience, he was full of joy with the simplicities of life.  In the photos below, the boys show me how to apply thanaka, a natural cosmetic used by women and kids.  I think that in the case of Aung Naing Htwe, it was used to mask the burns on his face.  I am very blessed to have befriend this remarkable family, I learnt so much from them.

After her son's accident, Tin Tin Thi managed to get a job nearby, working as a cashier at a clothing shop.  Tin Tin Thi worked 6 days per week (Sundays were for attending church) and earned MMK 90,000 (GBP 60 or USD 90) per month.  Thankfully, this salary lifted the family out of World Bank-defined poverty.  Aung Naing Thay told me that he wanted to start working again in August 2013, especially given the approaching rent hike in September.

I visited the family every 3-4 weeks or so due to busy spells at work and travel.  On my fourth visit, I was devastated to find out that Aung Naing Htwe (the younger son) had passed away. I was asked to wait in their home and after 10 minutes, Pastor Samuel from North Okkalapa Poe Kayin Baptist Church arrived to explain the situation to me.

Pst. Samuel told me that Aung Naing Htwe had had a severe head injury and had started suffering from headaches and vomiting.  On the 24th October, Aung Naing Htwe was admitted to hospital and on the morning of the 25th October, he died as a result of a brain tumour.

Knowing that Aung Naing Htwe had been a dear friend to me, Pst. Samuel and the family took me to the Ecumenical Garden to pay respects to Aung Naing Htwe.  It was a peaceful and beautiful place.

We also visited North Okkalapa Poe Kayin Baptist Church, where I saw where Aung Naing Htwe had frequently attended Sunday School.  The church was a crucial part of the well-being of this wonderful family.

After this, we went to Pastor Samuel's house, where Tin Tin Thi pleaded with me to take her now only son away to train him up and make a life for him.  I wasn't financially secure and regretfully, wasn't able to commit to supporting the family immediately but I promised to do something to help.

I reached out to a friend that worked for World Vision because I had read that they have programmes running in Yangon for youth from slums but unfortunately, this slum wasn't within their coverage.

Timing wasn't in favour and I moved back to Vietnam for work.  Ever since then, I have thought about the family and they've been in my prayers.  One reason that I would like to return to live and work in Myanmar is to fulfil my promise to the family.  When I return, I want to find them but I hope, not in that slum.

A long day in the life of an ethnic minority sugar cane plantation labourer

The gentleman in the middle of the picture above is Chuong, a 32-year-old chap belonging to the Vietnamese ethnic minority group, Cham H'Roi.

I met him and some of his family members while travelling on a bus from Quy Nhon city (Binh Dinh Province) to Tuy Hoa city (Phu Yen Province) in March '16.  Chuong was returning home from a day's work on one of Binh Dinh's sugar cane plantations.

He and his family were making their daily 3-hour 100km return bus journey to his home in the hills of Phu Yen Province, to a small district called Son Hoa.  He was joined by his wife and some other family members (one of which is to the right in the photo above).

Chuong is the youngest of 8 brothers and sisters and there's a massive 22-year gap between Chuong and the eldest sibling, 54 years old, who was also on the bus and smoking like a chimney.

With 6 hours travel time to get to and from work each day, Chuong and his family had a long 14-hour day.  Chuong told me that his people didn't have many options for work where they lived and hence, he and his family members need their job.


---Foody plug---

As we talked, I shared some "nem chua", a delicious soured-pork sausage, wrapped delicately in banana leaf.  It's the perfect travel snack and typical of Northern Vietnamese cuisine (though I had actually bought them in Da Nang).  At VND 6,000 (GBP 0.20 or USD 0.30) per piece, it's a bargain.

Chuong and his family were trying it for the first time and I was overjoyed to see the smiles of contentment on their faces after taking their first bite.

I had also picked up some small and crispy, spiced crabs, which serve as a great beer snack (sorry, I didn't take a pic).  Chuong tried it and said that it would be great with rice wine, which in his town, they drink in the traditional way, from big clay pots and through straws made from fine cane.  So I gave the box of them to him to take on their way.

Livelihood story continued...

Chuong told me that he and other members of his family worked for an Indian company called KCP that's into sugar cane manufacturing (biofuels) and on-shore oil extraction.

Chuong shared that he and his family worked an 8-hour day cutting sugar cane (7-11am and 1-5pm) and for that, he received VND 100,000 (approx. GBP 3 or USD 5) per day.

If he worked every day of the week on that wage - I wouldn't be surprised if that were true - then that equates to a monthly salary of around VND 3 million (GBP 100 or USD 150).

As such, Chuong earns roughly 10% under the average annual income (GDP per capita) of a Vietnamese citizen, which stands at around USD 2,000 per annum (World Bank).

One might be shocked at the insignificance of this salary however, Chuong combines this salary with that of his wife to provide for them and their 2 kids (11 and 5 years old), who both attend school.

It's worth bearing in mind that a good number of Vietnamese families, especially those from rural areas, still own entitlements to land and therefore, rent/mortgage payments aren't such of a burden.

Such ownership will most often comprise of a humble 40-50m squared family house and around 1ha of land, generally used for subsistence paddy farming.  Though, in Phu Yen Province, corn is commonly grown.

I didn't have enough time with Chuong to validate his families land and property holdings but I assume that something similar to the above is the case.  Chuong and his family appeared in good health and were definitely not under-fed!, as you can see from his rounded face!

Chuong's family are doing well and with his kids in school, they make an exemplary rural working-class Vietnamese family.  I wished them well as I hopped off the bus.

I hope to visit them one day in their hometown and will update you as and when I do on their progress.