Life on the river

The Mekong River and its nine branches provide the Mekong Delta and cities such as Can Tho with a distinctive image. Running from the Tibetan Plateau through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the Mekong River represents one of the longest rivers in the world. Within the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, it extends its reach of influence through nine separate branches.

One of the most popular attractions in Can Tho is the floating market, and we set out at 0-dark Thirty to experience it first hand.

The market represents an opportunity for wholesale exchange of fruits and it is populated by boats of all shapes and sizes. But I get ahead of myself in the story.









First, a few observations about the river. Then, more on the market

In the United States, riverfront property would be, in almost all cases, prime real estate, and developers would be scrambling to seize such opportunities for both commercial and residential markets.

Some of this is going on in Vietnam but what remains remarkable about observing the riverfront is that it is generally not the location for million dollar homes. 

 In general, families living along the river use the river for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and washing clothes.

Houses are often on stilts because of the rising and falling tides, and the variable changes in the level of the river.

These homes are often interspersed with more commercial venues, such as loading and unloading sand and gravel, gas stations for the boats on the river, lumber for building, and so on.

Life seems hard for much of the population in Vietnam, especially in the rural areas. But here in the thick of the city, the river illuminates yet another segment of the population working hard to get through each day.

Another feature of river life is the threatening prospects of climate change. Rising sea levels will have disastrous effects for much of the Mekong Dela, as the salinity from the sea water will raise havoc with plant and fish life that cannot tolerate these conditions.

In addition, urban areas like Can Tho will be inundated with waters from surrounding rivers and canals. To combat such effects, government is building this retaining wall to help keep such rising levels at bay.


So, back to the floating market. We are excited to be up this early to take part in this neat experience.

We learned that the pilots of these tour boats play games with the local authority, slowing down at points of monitoring and telling everyone to sleep on their life jackets, and then a little layer saying it is okay now to take them off. 

This is a "real" floating market, as opposed to more tourist oriented floating markets that have sprung up in other parts of Southeast Asia, such as in Thailand.

Here, wholesalers who have purchased large quantities of fruit from farmers (often their entire crop) transport the products by boats to the floating market, where they then sell in bulk to retailers and other wholesalers.


There seems like an implicit level of cooperation among those driving these watercraft, as boats bump into and use each other to propel and navigate their way through this maize.


As you approach the market it seems like a river channel clogged with boat traffic and no one going anywhere. In fact, it resembles more of a busy beehive, with the larger boats remaining stationary but smaller boats running in and out and circling around about.

The market also seems to be divided into sections, such as pineapple, watermelon, durian, etc. Our tour guide said that, at times these markets can stretch for one to two kilometers up river.

As I suggested, the floating market is a wholesaler, bulk operation. But there are spaces in and along the market where consumers (read, "tourists" can sample the fruits made available through the market.

We were approached at one point by a cafe boat offering to make a number of different coffee drinks. 

Missing breakfast because we got up so early, a number of our delegation decided to partake of the variety of fruits available - somebody forgot the wet whipes :-)