People who
travel to Viet Nam's Phu Quoc Island often visit Huynh Phuc Hue's showroom,
which houses a collection of more than 300 books, catalogues and objects
marking Phu Quoc's history and culture.
Located in Phu
Quoc Island District, about 120km front Kien Giang Province's Rach Gia Township,
the lOsq.m showroom is often praised by tourism companies for its unique
characteristics. About 80 per cent of tourist groups come to see the collection
and Hue and his family sometimes welcome 200 tourists a day.
Hue began seriously gathering artefacts and documents in the early 1990's, when
he realised it was important for him to introduce guests to the island and help
them understand and appreciate its qualities. In 1992, after he had a sizeable
collection and had done a considerable amount of research about Phu Quoc, left
his hometown for HCM City to study enterprise management.
After graduating
from university in 1997, with 300 Vietnamese and foreign language books and
documents about Phu Quoc, Hue began working as a tour guide for Kien Giang
Tourism Company. While working there, he compiled a small book that briefly
introduced Phu Quoc's history, its tourism development and potential and
the products specific to the island. The book was printed by the Youth
Publishing House.
In 2001, Hue
focused on expanding his collection beyond books, to include significant
objects. He began visiting construction sites to collect the core of gỗ trai,
a rare kind of timber grown on Phu Quoc. He also looked for other
island-specific pieces, like mountain apricots, bamboo, rang and
mountain guava, which he carved into Buddhist statues. He was interested
convince a family to sell, by sea eagles and stormpetrels, two bird species
that have lived on Phu Quo'c for a long time and are wellknown to every
fisherman. Hue augmented his collection with various aquatic objects like
snail shells and'coral. One of Hue's hardest won artefacts was a part of a boat
used by national hero, Nguyen Trung Truc (1837-1868), that he managed to
convince a family to sell.
Acquisitions
Hue, in seeking to further diversify his collection, has spent time and money
buying dugong bones and fossils. The dugong, an endangered marine mammal, is
a herbivorous creature that is related to the manatee, that lives in costal
areas like Phu Quoc.
When Hue found a family in Bai Thorn that had a 500kg dugong bone, he quickly
bought it for VNB13-million (US$828).
"I was happy
to find the bone because they are so rare," Hue said, noting that the dugong
has lived in Phu Quoc for ages. Hue's luck turned even better when he discovered
the dugong bone is highly valued for its medicinal purposes. "Scientists are
trying to find out how to preserve the bones from disintegrating," Hug said.
Tourism
development
Hue quit his job
as deputy director of Kien Giang Tourism Company to start his own business in
2002.
"I carefully
read all of the books and documents I have about Phu Quo'c and learned how to
present the information to my visitors", Hue explained.
He employed a
few workers to make souvenirs to sell to visitors and his family showroom has
become so popular that Hue decided to build seven small rooms to welcome
tourists, looking out at his 4ha garden that faces the sea and is close to Duong
Dong Township.
"I love to share
my collection, but I will never sell it at any price" Hue said firmly. He said
he was once offered VNB5 billion ($318,000) but declined, saying "It is sinful
if I sell these things that belong to Phu Quoc". However, Hue said he would
build a museum to open his collection.
Deputy chairman
of Kien Giang People's Committee, Van Ha Phong, on his visit to Hue's showroom,
conceded that he was impressed by Hue's collection saying it made Phu Quoc's
tourism more interesting and varied.
Phong also proposed that the local advised that culture agencies should help Hue
continue to enrich his collection because "it will make the province's tourism
stronger and more attractive to visitors".
Hoàng Vân (VNS)
