18 April 2010 - Floating market!!

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I am up early as I am setting off on a floating market boat trip at 7.00. There are about twenty of us on the boat and everyone apart from me is part of a tour group from Ho Chi Minh.

On the way to the floating market we see little villages along the riverside, with people going about their daily activities. We reach Cia Rang floating market and the guide explains that it is a wholesale market. The larger boats stay in one location (people live on them and the children do not go to school). Suppliers come every morning and sell their stock. Smaller boats then come along to buy the stock and they take their boats along the river, selling it on to people.

After the floating market we walk through a village and visit a family that makes rice paper. After that, it is a one-hour trip on the boat to visit the second floating market, Phong Dien, which is a retail market. The guide had warned us that everyone leaves this market by 8 and true enough, there are only a few boats left. It was still worth it though, just for the trip along the river.

We get back around lunchtime. I go back to the restaurant by the river for a nice long lunch. A couple of italian travel journalists (what a great job!) are doing some photography for their company and as they leave we have a quick chat. Turns out they are also going to be in Phu Quoc island so we wonder if we will meet again.

After that, I’m off to bed as I am exhausted (early start and all that). I wake up at 6.30, get ready and go out for a meal at the riverside. I have decided to stay here a few more days, rather than the two-night stopover it was supposed to be. I can’t figure out exactly why, but I have fallen for the place. I guess it’s a great combination: a relaxed, charming city centre with rural areas nearby, a beautiful riverside and lots of friendly people. As the locals would say (sorry for any mistakes):

"Cần Thơ gạo trắng nước trong
Ai đi tới đó lòng không muốn về"

"Cần Thơ, white rice, clear waters,
All who come wish never to leave"

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Comments

[anonymous]

A lovely blog! It seems you enjoy the time there. How did you learn some Vietnamese poems? The translation fits very well. Happy travel!

[Big Adventure]

Thank you, anonymous! (Who is this, by the way?) Re the poetry, it's all thanks to the good old internet! Can Tho was wonderful, but that's generally been the case wherever I have visited in Vietnam. That's probably why I have been in Vietnam for two months, travelling up from the South, and just made it into the North yesterday! Glad you're enjoying the blog - I'm trying to get it up to date ... :)

[shabana khan]

wow
glad youy are having good time....