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In spite of being called “island”, the land of salanganes is actually located in Phuong Mai peninsula. Trieu Chau range of mountains projects about 15km out the sea, forming many blocks of stretching, up and down mountains with various strange names like Hon Mai (Mai mountain), Hon Chop Vung (Top Lid mountain), Cot Co (Flag Pole mountain), Nui Den (Black mountain), of which the southern mountain is called Hon Yen (Salangane mount). As the spring comes and the weather is warm, flocks of the salanganes gather to build their nests.
Hence, the southernmost point of the peninsula is also called the Salangane Cape. Phuong Mai peninsula looks like a giant dinosaur protecting Quy Nhon city from strong waves and winds.
Its natural landscape is as beautiful as a wonderful water-colour painting and endows this land with a unique treasure: the salangane nests – kind of high quality specialties which has been favourite with people all over the world.
The Salangane island used to be located at two hamlets of Xuong Ly and Huong Mai. At the south of the hamlet of Xuong Ly seated Nha Phien lagoon and at the north was Hung Luong hamlet, which both belong to Nhon Ly commune.
The early settlers of Xuong Ly hamlet were from a Nguyen family whose homeland was originally in Nghe An Province. The Nguyen family have been now living there for 10 generations.
The Huong Mai hamlet is now divided into 4 hamlets of Hai Giang, Hai Dong, Hai Nam and Hai Minh at Nhon Hai village. Before 1975, Nhon Ly and Nhon Hai had administratively belonged to Trung An town, Phu Cat district. After 1975, they were in Tuy Phuoc district. They are now parts of Quy Nhon City.
The Salangane island is a picturesque landscape with many natural thousand-year-old caves where stone blocks in hundreds of metre in high. The caves’ bed is full of obstacles and difficult for accessing. It, hence, becomes the best place for the salangane to make their nests.
There remain 30 small and large caves, mainly located in the Nhon Hai and Nhon Ly, on the island. People may annually collect from 100 to 300 salangane nests in small caves and fourteen or fifteen thousand nests from the large caves, particularly those having eastward or southeast-ward gates, with cool and airy spaces and the fresh water remaining on the ceiling and the fluctuating sea waves beneath.
If you visit the Salangane island in spring, you’ll see flocks of the salanganes overshadowing the sky and twittering together. Inspite of gathering in flocks, the salanganes actually live in uninterchangeable couples, staying with the same mate for life.
There are two main species of swallow on the Salangane Island, namely yen co (Apus Affinis) and yen sao (swiflet which is scientifically classified as Collocalia Fuciphaga Germani Oustalet.) The first has a bigger body and build its nest with grass and litter collected from mountain cliffs. It’s the later that is a kind of precious bird.
Yen sao is as small as a sparrow but it could enduringly fly for ten hours without stopping. It searches for food and takes the prey while flying across the sea.
The swiflet makes its nest by its own saliva rather than by grass. Day by day, it secrets saliva from the two glands in their mouths, stretching the saliva into silk-like yarns and rolling it to form the nest. For a time, the nest becomes dry and sticks strongly on the ceilings o the cliffs. As the nest is large enough for the body, the swiftlet starts reproducing.
The salangane nest has been discovered as one of rare and precious resources by the local residents. According to historical books, collecting the salangane nest was started a long time ago.
By the 19th century, Dai Nam nhat thong chi (the history of the unification of Great Vietnam), in a section introducing about Binh Dinh’s specialties, writes that the local residents in Binh Dinh had to pay tax with salangane nests (10kg/person).
There is a variety of the nests. The red or pink nests are the most expensive and precious ones, following are ivory nests (8-10g/nest), smaller and thinner nests (6-8g/nest), and the nests with 3-5g/nest in weigh are the lowest quality products.
Collecting salangane nest is typically a traditional hard and dangerous task. It was a hereditarily know-how in the past. Today, it is under the government’s management.
The collectors must be trained carefully. A skillful collector must be not only experienced and knowledgeable but also courageous, calm and clever enough to grope every step or get suspended on ropes to brave dangers so as to collect the salangane nest.
To take the nests on the cliff and the cave ceiling, bamboo-made scaffolds are often used. People can travel in the scaffold as in a bridge. Some caves are in very high; thus, people have to use up to 300 bamboo trees to make the scaffolds. The pillars are made of four or five trees to reach the ceiling.
The way to take the nest is very meticulous. Any nest is far from the reach, people use a stick with a dog-nail on the top to take the nest. In the dry weather, water is injected into the nests, making them soften before they are collected.
The breeding season of the salangane falls on the first two lunar months. The first crop begins one month later and people start the second one when the birdies become strong enough to fly for food. The third crop often bring low output for it’s time for the salanganes to grow.
The province’s yearly output of salanganes nest is estimated to reach 700 kg, becoming one of the highly profitable businesses in Binh Dinh.
Coming to the Salangane Island, visitors will have opportunity to see the spectacular scenery outside the caves. And upon arrival at the caves, visitors will be surprised at the imposing and gigantic space. In the cliff, amongst water drops there remain the white dots like sparkling stars in the summer sky, they are salangane nests which are inserted one another into long chains. The parent birds are spreading their wings to keep their birdies warm. You sometimes can hear the sound “chuck chuck” by the birdies to ask their parents for food. The sound from wave, water-dropping, wing-flapping, bird-sound are all mixed together to create a strange sound, making visitors feel they are lost in paradise.
The Salangane Island is not only a beautiful sightseeing but also a historical and cultural vestige, remarking many events from the Champa and Tay Son Dynasties to the Nguyen Dynasty. Visiting the island, the visitors shouldn’t forget visit Loi Buddist Pagoda which having a mysterious Champa statue and Tam Toa (3 mount) mountain with relics related to Tay Son fighters in the 17th century. The visitors will also see Ho Ky bastion with loopholes for cannons, which are the evidences of a coast guardian work set up by the founders.
The Salangane Island – a landscape where visitors cannot ignore once upon visiting Quy Nhon -Binh Dinh.
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