CAN THO
LIFE ON A RIVER
November 9-10, 2015
Earlier this week I visited Can Tho, a town which lies in the Mekong Delta region- the agriculture heart and soul of Vietnam. I wanted to see the floating markets: hundreds of wooden boats that merge in organized chaos selling fish, rice, fruits, vegetables, clothing, handicrafts, housing material, and more. The sellers, usually just men but sometimes entire families, live on the boats up to weeks at a time until they’ve sold their supply. The buyers are local traders who stock up to resell in local markets or sell to wholesale dealers from bigger cities. The best way to see the markets is by boat, so at 5:30am I planted myself in a motorized canoe with two other travelers and we began our journey down the Can Tho river, weaving our way past determined traders and protruding propellers.
Along the way, we stopped at a small farm that gave us a glimpse at the rice noodle making process.
Eventually, we drifted down quiet waterways that snaked through farmland and under hand-built monkey bridges, witnessing snippets of life in rural Vietnam.
