When the sound of cicadas tinkling through the streets is when crocodiles begin to come into season. This is also the time when freelance workers flock together along the streets of the capital to climb and pick crocodiles to make a living. The job of ‘picking hundreds and millions of money’ on the tree top, but it has to be sacrificed with your life to cope with daily living.
Around mid-May, crocodiles have been sold on the streets. This year, around mid-May, the crocodile pickers have started working. These days, walking along the streets of Tran Hung Dao, Phan Dinh Phung, Hoang Dieu, Tran Phu, Ba Trieu… it is easy to see the image of sellers sitting on the sidewalk, next to a big bag of crocodiles to greet customers. Purchase. Crocodile season’s livelihood at the expense of life When the sound of the car horns became less and less, the quiet night fell, the crocodile picker with a simple tool of a hook and a sack began to climb the tree to pick crocodiles. Mr. Long, a crocodile-picker for many years on Phan Dinh Phung street, said: “The time to pick crocodiles usually starts from 3am to 5am – 6am, both to avoid the authorities and to keep the people in time. Stop by to go to work and buy groceries.” Crocodile-picking is a dangerous, seasonal job, the amount of money of several hundred thousand and millions earned is a gamble with life. Crocodile tree is inherently brittle, small crocodile branches are very easy to break; Moreover, the crocodile trees on the streets of Hanoi have mostly been grown for many years, some trees are up to 30-40 m tall, so it is very difficult for people to pick. The “crocodile workers” mainly rely on experience, climbing and picking without protective gear, so the risk of falling and being injured is very high. They chose the job of picking crocodiles that was both dangerous, “sneaky”, and uninsured, a job that in the old days people still called with an unfriendly attitude – “the tamarind, the crocodile climber”, also just because of only two words “for a living”. When we asked the crocodile sellers if they were afraid of danger, many just laughed. “It takes a long time to get used to climbing, you have to try and take advantage of it! Crocodile season only lasts about 2-3 months, so we have to try to pick as much as possible, take advantage of earning extra income and send it back to our family, “said Mr. Long. A customer buys crocodiles on Phan Dinh Phung street. On average, a crocodile-picker can pick 20-25kg of crocodiles per day, groups of 3-5 people can collect more crocodiles. Hoai’s family (from Thanh Hoa) will divide the work, at dawn her husband picks crocodiles, in the morning, he does other jobs such as driving motorbike taxis, collecting rice water, …; And she will sell alligators during the day, when will she return. Hoai said: “This year because of the epidemic, few people went out, so they sold less than every year, and the price of crocodiles also decreased. Like last year, my family sold 50-60 thousand/kg of crocodile, but this year the disease caused the price of crocodile at the beginning of the crop to be 40,000/kg, now it only fluctuates in the range of 30-35 thousand/kg.” Thus, the average daily income of people who pick crocodiles is from 500 to 600 thousand VND, at peak times can be up to millions of dollars. Crocodile pickers are poor laborers Although the work of picking crocodiles is hard, it brings a high income for poor workers like Mr. Long. Income from a crocodile crop is about several tens of millions of dong, which is a large amount of money to help them cover their daily lives. Mr. Long looked at the bags of crocodiles displayed on the sidewalk and said: “Doing this job is hard work but it is worth it, after doing it for a long time, I feel love and miss! But crocodiles do not have to bear fruit all year round, just take advantage of the beginning of May and June every year to earn a little more. The functional forces also remind us all the time, because they are afraid of climbing and falling, but if the crocodile stays on the tree forever, it will also grow old, it will be a waste to fall down.” Crocodile pickers are all self-employed. Most of the crocodile pickers are laborers from the provinces such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Hung Yen, Nam Dinh, etc. They are self-employed manual laborers in Hanoi. Some people work as assistants, some work as drivers, shine shoes, … only when the crocodile season comes, they pull together along the streets with crocodiles to make a living. At the end of the crocodile season, they resume their work in the year. Anh Hung (32 years old, from Thanh Hoa) works as a motorbike taxi driver, every time he takes a break from work to pick crocodiles with some brothers in the group. Thanks to harvesting crocodiles, he has money to cover his living expenses and send money back to his hometown for his children to study. Hung said that crocodiles can only be picked on sunny days, when it rains, the tree can’t be climbed. “Looks like it’s going to rain in a few days, we have to take advantage of the sunny day to pick up a little more to sell to make money”, Mr. Hung told us while selling. “This Hanoi crocodile is very popular with many people, not like the forest crocodile, its shell is thick, rough, the water is acrid, not as pure and domestic as the Hanoi crocodile. Look at this, this crocodile has just been picked, the stem is still full of plastic, the bite sounds crispy in the mouth, it’s been eaten!” – A salesman eagerly greets customers. Crocodile fruit – a typical gift of Ha Thanh. Phuong (25 years old, Ba Dinh) said: “I like crocodiles because they taste clean, not as harsh as lemons. Taking advantage of the crocodile season, I have to go to the tree to buy fresh crocodiles, but at the market, all crocodiles come from the provinces, the taste is not as good as my Hanoi crocodile. This season, I buy crocodiles to cook soup and make drinking water for the whole family.” Hanoi crocodile, a typical gift of the capital, is both a “fishing rod” of poor workers. That idyllic fruit is a gift from mother nature, also a sweat and hard work, which must be exchanged with the life of the crocodile-picker. Another season of crocodiles has returned, and the lives of people who make a living are busy again.
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