Mekong floating markets

Cai Be Floating Market

Cai  Be, one of the many well-known floating markets in the western region of southern Vietnam was formed in the Nguyen Dynasty in the 19th century. The Cai Be Floating Market is always busy, bearing all the characteristics of the locals’ life in the western region.

the goods are transported to the market by rafts and boats. The floating market lies in the Tien River, adjacent to three provinces of Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Ben Tre.

The market is divided into two parts: buying and selling places. Rafts and boats are anchored along the two sides of the river for kilometres. From the floating market, goods are shifted for selling at inland markets or small boats take them for delivery along canals in the Plain of Reeds.

From three 3am in the early morning, rafts and boats are crowded because Cai Be is one of the biggest wholesale markets in the region. Traders live on the river and some link their lives with boats like their mobile house for generations. Cai Be seems to be an inseparable part of their daily lives.

On each boat, goods are hung on poles that are called dialectically “cay beo”. Hundreds of such poles point the sky wards. Boats also operate like “taxis,” very convenient for tourists around the region.

Along the criss crossing canals, people in the Plain of Reeds take not only goods of each countryside to the Cai Be Floating Market but also their unique cultural characteristics, creating such a beautiful river painting.

Cai Rang Floating Market

The market was dated from many years ago, after the local people’s habit of travelling and doing business by boat. Boats and junks in the southwestern region were important means of transportation, like motorbikes and cars in other regions. In the southwestern provinces, people mainly travel on rivers. In the past, people living on the river had to go to the land to buy goods. Today they can buy everything on the river. All trading activities are carried out along the river.

Cai Rang is a famous floating market in the country’s southwestern region. Like Long. It is a wholesale market selling fruit and vegetables. However, the unique of the market is that it resides on the river.

In the Mekong Delta region, there are many floating markets, such as Cai Rang, Nga Bay, Binh Dien, Phong Dien, Cai Be, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc. Cai Rang, however, is the most famous as it has the most specific trading activities.

The Cai Rang floating market is on the Cai Rang River. It is 6 kilometers from Can Tho City by road and it takes about four hours from Ho Chi Minh to get to the market.

The market is a destination for consumer agricultural products from 12 provinces in the Mekong Delta region. Aside from selling fruit and vegetables from Can Tho Province, the market also sells special agricultural products from neighbouring provinces.

The market opens everyday from 4am to 9am. In the early morning, hundreds of boats and junks come to the 1km-long floating market, all carrying a variety of fruit and vegetables.

Small and large junks travel on the river like motorbikes and cars on land. And everyone is busy trading. Being a wholesale market, the trading activities are carried out quickly; there’s no bargaining here. Traders come to the market to buy fruit and vegetables and then bring them to other smaller markets or to export them to China and Cambodia.

It’s difficult to hear people’s voices because of the loud sounds from the boat engines and the rolling of the river. That’s why each boat has one large stick, called cay beo, from which the sellers hang their products, called treo beo. Everything here hangs from the sticks. For instance, if people sell bananas and durian, they will hang bananas and durian on the stick so that buyers can see them from a distance. On many of the boats and junks, there are paintings and decorations. Looking at these, one can guess that they come from Vinh Long, Tien Giang or Dong Thap provinces.

Recently, to meet the demands of traders throughout the market, many new services have been created. Going to the market now, one can see many boats and junks selling breakfast and coffee. These boats are often small, so they can move through crowded areas to serve people.

This specific feature of Cai Rang floating market has attracted not only Vietnamese people but also foreign tourists. Tourists often purchase a tour or hire small boats to visit the market. And, they never forget to bring their cameras.

The people at Cai Rang market are getting used to the visitors and their cameras, so they are very friendly and ready to answer what questions they can.

At 9 am, the traders exit the market and move to bring fruit and vegetables to other retail markets. After the scene on Cai Rang river ends, the boats and junks leave, and the river returns to its relaxed state to wait for the next busy morning.

Visiting the market, tourists have a chance to buy some of the fruit they’ve seen, ripe on the poles. However, the most treasured possessions are the pictures they take and their memories of the local people at Cai Rang market.

It is advised that one can’t come to Can Tho Province and not visit Cai Rang floating market.

Phong Dien Floating Market

Phong Dien Floating Market is about 20 kilometres southwest of Can Tho, the best floating market in the Mekong Delta.Boats loaded with produce from nearby orchards of the Mekong Delta converge to the floating market. They carry mostly fruits but also coconuts, vegetables and fishes. Phong Dien Floating Market is famous for one of the largest fruit markets in Mekong Delta.

Visitors coming here can enjoy all kinds of fruit such as oranges, tangerines, mangos, rambutans, mangosteens, longans, coconuts, durians, gauvas, bananas, just to name a few.

The market just meets in the early morning and finishes in the midmorning. Similar to other floating markets in the Mekong Delta, it is hard to hear market goers’ voices because of the loud sounds arising from the boat engines and the rolling of the river. Therefore, in order to attract others, each boat has a large stick called “beo stick” from which the sellers hang their products called “beo hanging”. All products hang from the ticks so that others can see from a distance. Buyers are local traders with bigger boats snapping everything by the bushels and resell at local markets or to wholesale dealers from big cities, often for a handsome profit.

Large floating markets are not complete without their floating restaurants selling all essential things for the local people, floating gas stations and an occasional tour boat filled with tourists. Some boats offer food similar to floating restaurants. For sellers and buyers in the floating market, the boats used to carry products are also automobile homes. All activities of buying and selling are undertaken right on the boats due to the narrow space, but it is enough for arrange necessary things for their every life.

Perhaps the best floating market in the Mekong Delta, Phong Dien has fewer motorised craft and more stand-up rowing boats. It's less crowded than Cai Rang and there are far fewer tourists. The market is at its bustling best between 6am and 8am. Today, even though roads link to all parts of Can Tho in particular and in the Mekong Delta in general, floating markets still exist, continuously meet in accordance with the river water rise high – a unique cultural characteristic of people living in the water area.

It is theoretically possible to do a whirl- wind boat trip here, visiting the small canals on the way and finishing back at the Cai Rang floating market. This journey should take approximately five hours return from Can Tho.

Phung Hiep Floating Market

To Phung Hiep, visitors will see thousands of small boats full of agricultural products from Western corners to form 1km long floating market. It's said to be a fruit-market of the Southern part and the market is cultural identity of the Mekong Delta. The market meets all day long, but most noisy and busy in the morning. The precious evening, from far-and-wide, boats full of seasonal vegetables and fruits: mangoes, durians, bananas, oranges, coconuts... left their villages to head for the sunrise market.

Every boat is full of fruits. Some boats are covered with roofs, some are not. On boats without roofs, the sellers have to hold high a stick hanging with fruits as signals. Market-goers do not bargain, just a few words exchange, they sell and get paid. Very often, fruits are sold and brought to big boats. Then they will be transported to fruit-processing factories or to Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau, even to Hanoi and Northern provinces.

It's a floating market' but services are available, foods and drinks on small boats twist and turn to serve hungry sellers and buyers. Signal to buy is only a whistling or waving band. Apart from fruits, local products: snakes, birds, turtles, varans, squirrels... are easy to find near Phung Hiep bridge. Interestingly, visitors can visit snacks market. Here, visitors will be offered to drink snack wines and also visitors can see the local people performing snakes in front of the crowd. This makes visitors astonished and terrified as witnessed a dangerous game. Specialties in this market are almost bought and brought to restaurants in Can Tho or Ho Chi Minh City.

The atmosphere in Phung Hiep market was exciting, as we witnessed snake traders fearfully transferring poisonous copperheads, kraits, and rattlesnakes, from their cages to purchaser’s jute bags.

The price for a snake ranges from tens of thousands of dong for individual specimens, to hundreds of thousands of dong per kilogram. One kilogram of water snakes is priced at VND30, 000-VND50, 000 (US.88 - .13); while copperheads sell for between VND50, 000-VND400, 000 (.13 - ) per kilo.

Second to the snakes in quantity at Phung Hiep market are wild birds. All species favoured by urban gastronomers such as cao, cu dat, stork, blosh dove, moorcook, and la mia, are sold at the market.

Birds are hanged up on the motorbikes of bird hunters from rural areas and confined in narrowed cages. Thousands of birds are purchased each hour, and transported to “headquarters” for retail sale to restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City and southwestern provinces.

Phung Hiep Snake Market, located close to the floating market, is known worldwide. Visitors from all over the world go there to taste the snake liquor and see the dangerous snake dance.