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VVG ~ Photographic Essay

Copyright © 1998-2008  Vietnam Venture Group, Inc. All rights reserved.   January 1, 2005

Return to the Cua Lap Main  PagePeople Of Cua Lap

Cua Lap Homes

When we first visited the site in January 1996 we found fifteen families in residence.  When the fields dried allowing us to go deeper into the site, we found four other long time residents on the site.  There are currently twenty-eight homes as of January 2005.

The homes are all simple, many made of palm fronds and bamboo.  Only three homes had brick fronts in 1996. Today more than 12 have concrete or brick facades.

The people raised there since 1975, when the first families took up residence on this remote and undeveloped stretch of beach, work as hard as any one. Perhaps even harder than most.  It is not their fault that their living is at the bare subsistence level. 

Our intentions are well known to all the families. Our representatives visit many of them several times a year.  For each of the 15 family households that existed on the site before January 1, 1996 we intend to (i) offer each adult member full employment at the Cua Lap Resort to help them to achieve economic independence; (ii) help these workers to learn new skills that will give them and their families a stable income. 

For all residents at the time the project begins who have resided at the site for at least five years before the Resort is licensed, it is our intention (iii) employ as many adults who can be trained for jobs and learn the skills needed; and (iv) for the time at least one resident family member is employed at the Cua Lap Resort, provide a single cottage (no more than one cottage for each extended family of the first 25 households) in the Cua Lap Fishing Village for the time of their full time employment at the Cua Lap Resort.

For all residents, both long-timers and those more recent, provided they meet Vietnamese requirements, we will also provide full compensation for the house, out-buildings, and site they occupied. 

The cottages (one per extended family) provided to the long-time residents who are also employed at the Resort will, along with 175 other cottages, form a living diorama, an architecturally and culturally correct fishing village, on the Cua Lap Resort lands.

However, unlike their current homes, the new ones will provide better-built structures of a traditional design but with modern conveniences such as cement floors, running fresh water, indoor waste facilities, and electricity. [Note: each household will remain responsible for normal upkeep and the cost of utilities consumed.]

Each house may be constructed of bricks and concrete, but all cottages will be sided and roofed in traditional materials. The village will look similar to a traditional Vietnamese fishing village.

The work for current adult residents who are employed at the Cua Lap Resort will utilize and expand upon their current skills.  Farmers will be trained by skilled domestic and foreign horticulturists to care for the 150 ha of exotic and flowering plantings.  Fishermen will be trained to raise farm fish that will be grown to 5 kg (11 pounds) and stock the Exotic Fishing Lake.  They will also raise crab and tiger shrimp that will stock the Fishing Village ponds.

Those seeking new skills at other jobs will be encouraged to learn any of the new fields that will open up to them at the Cua Lap Resort.

We celebrate these fine people for who they are, for what they have achieved, and for what they may yet attain.   Please join us on this special journey they have allowed, as we visit their homes.

Driving down Cua Lap Lane in late 2004, the first beach exit off of Highway 51C, we saw and photographed  28 houses and one commercial sand operation.  Since 1996, several homes were raised and others built.  While we have not uploaded more recent images, this is the order of the lots on which they sit (or sat) on the dates noted.  Click on each photo below and take a closer look. We intend to retain many of these house styles in the Fishing Village.

dau-house.jpg (77305 bytes)  h_1a.jpg (22977 bytes) h1b.jpg (22110 bytes) tuu-house.jpg (64321 bytes)   h1c.jpg (18315 bytes)
1
Mr. Dau's House
April 10, 1999
2a
November 4, 1998
Nguyen Van Ky's House
2b
November 4, 1998
3
Tran Thanh Tu's house
April 10, 1999
4
November 4, 1998

 

 h2.jpg (15099 bytes) house2.jpg (35837 bytes) house3a.jpg (54872 bytes) house3b.jpg (56677 bytes) house3c.jpg (42074 bytes)
5
November 4, 1998
accessible from beach
6
November 18, 1997
7
December 18, 1998
Off footpath
8
December 18, 1998
Off footpath
9
December 18, 1998
Off footpath

 

house3d.jpg (31775 bytes) house3e.jpg (34539 bytes) house4a.jpg (41224 bytes) h4b.jpg (28596 bytes) house4.jpg (35793 bytes)
10
December 18, 1998
Off footpath
11
December 18, 1998
Off footpath
12a
November 18, 1997
12b
November 4, 1998
13a
October 7, 1998

   

house5a.jpg (25851 bytes) house9.jpg (42955 bytes) h7b.jpg (27323 bytes) house5.jpg (44173 bytes) h8a.jpg (27690 bytes)
13b
November 4, 1998
Only frame remains
14a
November 18, 1997
14b
November 4, 1998
14c
November 18, 1997
15
November 4, 1998

 

house8.jpg (34062 bytes)  h-9b.jpg (21458 bytes) h_10.jpg (25556 bytes) house7.jpg (39208 bytes) house3.jpg (44313 bytes)
16a
November 18, 1997
Nguyen Thi Nuong
16b
November 4, 1998
Nguyen Thi Nuong
17
November 4, 1998
Mrs. Le Thi Dap
18
November 18, 1998
Mr. Tran Van Chau
19a
November 4, 1998

    

to be loaded later h12b.jpg (28650 bytes) house11.jpg (42443 bytes) house10.jpg (34370 bytes) h_13b.jpg (25759 bytes)
19b
February 1999
House dismantled
20a
November 4, 1998
20b
November 18, 1997
21a
November 18, 1997
Khuong Thi Ho
21b
November 4, 1998
Khuong Thi Ho

    


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