The basket boat, and the coast that still uses it

The round bamboo boat is the most photographed object on the Vietnamese coast and one of the least understood. It is not a novelty and it is not an attraction. It is a tender: the thing that gets a fisherman from the sand to the boat moored offshore, and the catch back again.

Two versions of it run on this coast now, and they have almost nothing to do with each other.

What is it, and why is it round?

A thung chai, woven from split bamboo into a shallow bowl three to four metres across and sealed against the water. Traditionally the seal was coconut resin; today it is usually tar or a layer of fibreglass.

Round is what woven bamboo can do. It also happens to be excellent in surf, where a keel is a liability, and it is light enough that one person can drag it up a beach — as the photograph above shows, which is the whole design brief in one image.

You will hear that the shape exists to dodge a French colonial tax on boats. It is a good story that appears in every guidebook and nothing supports it. The construction explanation needs no legend.

Which beaches have working basket boats?

Working thung chai sit on almost every central-coast beach with a fishing fleet moored offshore, and dawn is the hour to catch them — by eight the boats are up on the sand and the crews have gone home to sleep.

The mornings guide explains why this is a five-thirty activity rather than a nine-o'clock one: by mid-morning the boats are ashore and the beach belongs to swimmers.

What about the Hoi An version?

A different product entirely. In the water coconut palms at Cam Thanh outside Hoi An, basket boats are paddled through the channels and then spun on the spot by a boatman standing up and rocking, usually to a speaker playing dance music.

The ride is genuinely entertaining, aimed squarely at visitors, and costs roughly 150,000 to 400,000 dong per boat. Families with children get their money's worth. Anyone hoping to see a fishing tradition will be looking at a fairground ride in a beautiful place.

The Hoi An ride is both of those things at once. The Hoi An things to do page sets the ride against the rest of a day there.

One practical note: the Cam Thanh boats run through the middle of the day, unlike the fishing version, which makes them one of the few water activities that survives a hot afternoon.

Can you go out in a working one?

Occasionally, by asking. On some beaches a fisherman will take a passenger for a small fee. It is a completely different experience: no music, no spinning, and a boat that sits low enough in the water to make anybody thoughtful.

Be clear-eyed about it. No life jackets, no insurance and no schedule, and the beach safety guide applies with more force than usual. With children, take the Hoi An version instead.

What should you know before photographing them?

Remember that somebody is working. A beach at six in the morning is a workplace, the boats are equipment, and the men hauling them have been out since two.

Buying fish is the version of this that everybody is comfortable with. The catch is sold on the sand within an hour of landing, at prices the seafood guide puts in context, and a purchase turns a photograph into an ordinary part of the morning.

Ask, buy something, or stand back — the photography guide covers the etiquette, and the street vendor guide makes the same point about the other most-photographed worker in the country. A nod is usually all it takes.