Day 4 - Mekong Delta

8th March 2011
On the second day of the tour, our guide took us to the Cai Rang floating market which is the largest floating market in the delta. All the guide books recommend getting there early in the morning (around 5-6am) when the market is at its busiest. But because I was in a tour group, I had no choice. We got there at around 9:30 am when the market was kinda winding down. To be honest, it wasn't really impressive. I expected it to be bigger with more boats.

The floating market was mainly selling fruit and produce. Boats piled high with coconuts, jackfruit, pineapples, bananas, watermelon, cabbages,etc floated past as people called out to each other. It was still interesting to visit because the market was totally different from the way we buy produce, it was very much a wholesale event and the local people took little notice of the tourists who were around.

Identifying which boat sells what was easy. As the tour guide pointed out, the seller hang a sample of what they have on a long pole on its bow so that buyers can see their wares from a distance. 

Of course there was also sellers catering to the tourist selling fruits like bananas and pineapples. I saw boats carrying local snacks such as banh mi (Vietnamese baguette), sticky rice cakes and pho (rice noodles). There were also boats offering hot coffee and drinks.

Because we were in a larger boat, it was harder for the captain to navigate around the crowded floating market. So we got transferred to a smaller row boat to get closer to the action. It was fun weaving in and out of the maze of boats - good opportunity to take photos. There were a lot of tourist boats so trying to avoid them was challenging. No one wants pictures of tourists in an authentic Vietnamese market!

After the floating markets, we went to factories and workshops in local villages to see how rice, rice noodle and rice paper were produced. It was alright...nah actually, it was shit.

We did some more sailing and visited a local town market before disembarking in Can Tho for lunch. Then we got on the bus and headed back to Saigon where the tour finished.

Mekong Delta was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was a much slower pace of life and very interesting to see the locals and their daily life on the river. Next stop was Hanoi - the nation's capital.