Farewell Halong

Many families have now lived in these floating villages for several generations. They live in wooden houses built on rafts and make ends meet through a combination of fish farming and services aimed at the local tourism industry. Awareness of the impending resettlement brings back memories, as the locals recall tales of poverty, community, strokes of fate and ultimately the building of independent livelihoods. Despite the government’s promises of financial compensation and housing, these individuals view the prospect of a future on the mainland with both mistrust and sorrow. Yet how will they fare far from home and the waters with which their livelihoods have hitherto been so intimately connected? Does life on the mainland really bring greater prosperity and security? The huge economic advances witnessed in socialist Vietnam over recent decades raise the spectre of an uncertain future for the inhabitants of the floating islands. DD