Journey to find rare species of bitter fish in Hoang Lien Son range

During the crossing of Hoang Lien Son range, with the army and the Sin Suoi Ho commune (Phong Tho and Lai Chau districts) patrolling the border, in addition to the admiration for the officers and soldiers of the Border Guard Station, the militia, In Sin Suoi Ho commune, admiring the many interesting things of the great green abyss , we also know about an extremely rare species of fish that according to the people in this place only in Hoang Lien Son range.

Upstream of Phang Phung stream - where bitter fish live.

This fish is not only especially inhabited but also considered by a relative to be a bitter taste of bitterness, but only the fish that are favored by nature.

Hoang Lien Son - the mountain range dubbed the "Indochina roof" , soaring and dangerous is always a challenge for anyone who wants to conquer. In that wilderness, there are always secrets that when exploring anyone, they must admire and admire their hat with the wonderful creation of nature.

Mr. Ly Van Xien - Chairman of People's Council of Sin Suoi Ho - explained: "There are many ways to explain the name of Hoang Lien Son but according to the judgment of our people because this mountain range has many celandine trees (a kind of tree Precious drugs) so from the name of a mountain that people call the whole mountain range is Hoang Lien ".

Today, due to the purchase of traders in and out of the country, the Hoang Lien tree 'bleeds' a lot, so the mountains before the thousands of royal tombs are now scattered. The old people said that in the past, there were ravines flowing through the plains of celandine trees, so the slot water, stone moss also tasted bitter and especially there was a kind of fish eating moss and stone, so the meat also tasted bitter.

Ancient road between the thousand.

Determined to witness the Hoang Lien Son bitter fish , we returned to Sin Suoi Ho commune on a beautiful sunny day. Sin Suoi Ho today is much more prosperous, with the investment of the State, the unanimous consensus of people in building a new countryside in general and building a strong border area in particular, from the water pipe. , electric line, to the road, health station . all are built solidly and superficially.

Here, I have heard the 'miracle' of Sin Suối Hồ villagers when they unanimously agreed to contribute more than ten thousand days of work to pave the way, to exploit materials and to make a inter-village route so that today, Sin Suoi Ho had a beautiful and clean concrete road, winding through the traditional houses of the Mong people, running through orchids embracing a sprawling smile like taking tourists into the royal garden.

The ancient version of Sàng Và Pho.

Pick us up at the newly opened market, the head of the Golden A village, set off to talk about the people here doing tourism, about the origin of the orchid that made up the name of this place, or the happy things about the Heart Falls of the village became a provincial relic (scenic relics), then how people here changed their life when the State supported new rice varieties, new corn .

When asked about the bitter fish, the Hmong village head was like a 'stabbed'. It turns out that this fish has only the old people here and only people here know how to catch this type of fish and it is also very interesting that the people here agree to take the journalist to find the fish that she This place is considered a treasure.

Early in the morning, the domain is bright, the sunlight cannot dispel the thick fog. In this "gentle" and dreamy cold place, people just want to pull the blanket over their heads and lie down until midday, but outside the door we hear a murmur of exchanges between the village chief and some young voices.

So the head of the village arranged three young men of filling force to take us to find bitter fish. According to Ly Van Xien, this bitter fish only lives in two streams, Hoang Chu Van and Chao Phang. Wanting to get there, we had to ride a motorbike to take the forest for hours, wrestling with the sleeves, potholes and deep pools, but when we reached the foot of Chao Phang suspension bridge, the young man who led the way was called Gold A. continue to revise the engine, go up the slope.

'Bitter fish must be in a place with bitter water, bitter water must go to the deep forest' - A's explanation when the roadside trees are whirling around our insurance helmet, backpack. The whole group of 'customers' stopped the car at Sang That Pho village. This is an ancient village, the people have lived here for a long time, even though the village is near the border, but the people here always tell each other to stick to the ground, cling to the village to keep the incense of his father's fire and also keep preserving the national frontier.

This ancient version is very beautiful with the style of the Hmong people lurking between the peaches, the old trees and the big but poetic rocks . The village leader Ly A Dieu welcomed us with a real smile. He was even more honest when our district should not go to find bitter winter fish because of the long distance, cold water, but the fish was more and more rare.

Through the story, we learned that the people here perceive this type of fish as a relative of ginseng, medicinal fish, but not many years ago, traders in China went to the commune and bought the order. Then there are also those who cross the border to Vietnam to catch fish. So far, finding a bitter fish is an arduous task, but it is unlikely that anyone will meet .

Leaving the ancient village of Sang That Pho, we went on an ancient road up the mountain to find a place with rare 'ginseng' species. Saying that ancient road because this road was paved from Nam Xe commune (Phong Tho district) to the end of Sang Ma Sao commune (Bat Tham - Lao Cai). This is the way that the French colonialists caught our masters cutting stones across the Hoang Lien Son mountain range so that they could transfer troops and procure opium.

Now, the ancient road is only a relic, many parts were collapsed, drifted, buried but the traces of the evil, the suffering is still intact on every groove of rock. The ancient road leads us into the immense valley, through the fruit trees of the aromatic people, through the roads where there is a beautiful bell-dug forest. Here, Mr. Xien showed them places where he used to be a poppy, but now the forest has grown green and instead, it is a vastly fruited orchid .

Our team kept going into the wilderness of Hoang Lien mountain forest. The higher the mountain, the more spectacular the mountain forest, the scenery is interesting. This forest has many beautiful and precious orchids. Royal drumsticks of chicken thighs, cranes, kites, multi-valves . and especially on ancient trees still have a few clusters of royal horns - orchids are about to become extinct in nature and only Lai Chau mountain forest is still but being exploited at the end.

Going in the old forest, sometimes we still meet the small royal palace. The guide of A gold said: In the past, the royal tree in this mountain is very much, but now, the merchant has come to scavenge, so this tree also complains and therefore wants to find a bitter fish is also very successful.

At an altitude of about 2,300m, the whole group stopped by the stream. This is the upper stream of the Phung Phang stream. At this altitude even though it was noon, the water was as cold as it had just been taken from the refrigerator. Bang also has a 'professional' eye. Golden A's affirms that there are bitter fish here. So he set up a tent, a person who smashed people into the forest to get bark.

Gold A's explained: "Bitter fish are very wise, so it is hard to catch, and nowadays, the number of these fishes is reduced so the bite is very small. If you use the net, you can catch it but you have to scare the fish from stone caves and caverns with a dangerous stream like this place are almost impossible.To catch the bitter fish, it is necessary to follow the way of the Mong people . ".

The youthful statement of the young man made us curious, but when he asked, he just smiled and told the guys to keep looking. There is no other way we have to sit and watch these young people beat, batter, change the direction of the stream. By extraordinary health, the Hmong boys rhyme, kick off the stream, make the stream change direction to another branch.

The stream here is quite steep, so when the stream has been rectified, the main stream of the stream is quickly dried up, only a rather small stream of gutter. Watching the beating of us, we suddenly heard a rumble on the other side of the stream. It turns out that young people go to the forest to get their bark back and are using stone to crush a kind of crimson bark.

After pounding, the bark of the bark was mixed into the stream which was dry due to the streamline from the headwaters. The bark merged into the water forming a dark red color as blood quickly spread through the murmuring stream of the downstream stream. Just a few minutes after the bark of water barked all over the stream of the water surface, it started to quiver, and the first was the salmon stale out of the water first. It turns out that the way of the Mong people is to make fish drunk with this resin.

'This type of resin is easy to find, easy to do, toxicity is not high, so it is not an eradication, it does not affect the health of people who eat fish, when the water in the back of the fish will recover' - Gold A of the tournament prefer. Every raised fish is caught by the young men holding the rackets to catch them. We caught quite a lot of these fish but bitter fish still haven't seen.

The people who gave the way said: "This fish, she eats the ginseng juice, so she is very strong. It will take a long time to get drunk, wait patiently for the fish to absorb the medicine before it can catch it. About 15 minutes later, there is the first bitter fish. In contrast to my vision, this fish is only as big as a finger, at first glance resembles goby but is a fish that has a flutter and looks like a small drifting fish, but especially its fins red stripe, white belly to yellow and black back ".

After the last night, we also caught more than a dozen of these small fishes and of course, enjoying the specialties of Hoang Lien range right on the Hoang Lien mountain range is nothing. With the resourcefulness of the guide, a pot of wild vegetables and more than a dozen bettas were brought to the kitchen. The firewood, big fire, soon the field meal was served.

Looking at the way in which the Hmong boys are solemn, carefully scooping each fish into the bowl of the guests, we also guessed it must be very precious that they invited each other like that. And it is true that bitter fish, when eating fish, I feel the bitter taste in the fish (completely not the fish part because the intestines of fish have been removed).

The soft bitter taste mixed with the taste of wild vegetables created a very special and very difficult taste. Mr. Ly Van Xien said: If there is any bitter fish in the fish, but the bitter fish is only in Hoang Lien Son.

The first bitter fish caught by our crew.

Enjoy grilled bitter fish in the middle of Hoang Lien Son thousands.

The journey of two days of eating forest and sleeping mountains only to enjoy the special fish of Hoang Lien Son Au is also interesting. Special fish, special use, special fishing and special enjoyment. Nature is very interesting and must be in the Hoang Lien Son range, there are many unexpected things waiting to be discovered. Come to Lai Chau to experience such special things once.