I’m not even remotely a morning person, something that can be confirmed by just about anyone who has met up in the morning hours. Until I get a cup of coffee I’m fairly intolerable, my brain cobwebby and clunky. But there is one exception: morning markets. With swarms of people bustling about, gorgeous piles of fruit and vegetables and more food to eat than I know what to do with, I fly out of bed in anticipation of a market visit.
I posted a few photos from the Mekong Delta’s bright markets when I wrote about my very fun soup angel rescue mission in Cai Rang, one that finally resulted in a bowl of steaming hot bun rieu. It was hard to choose the photos for that post. A mere handful of pictures insufficiently conveys the glory of all that technicolor at dawn.
Photoessay from the Floating Markets of the Mekong Delta
Tourists head to the Mekong Delta specifically for the floating boat markets, among other things. In recent years, however, new suspension bridges and rebuilt roads have meant that market wares available only by boat are now accessible by land. While the floating market exists, I found that tourist boats closely numbered the local market boats in Cai Rang; what used to take up a huge swath of the river had narrowed considerably. In its place, the land markets ** were growing quickly, with residents buying a motorbike instead of a boat. According to Theu, who ran the guesthouse I stayed at (more about her soon!), a boat and a motorbike were roughly the same price in this part of Vietnam, and families were opting for motorbikes due to practicality, resilience and ease of use. It made sense, then, that the markets would shift with demand.
[** A small note on terminology. The land markets in Cai Rang are still referred to as “wet” markets because they comprise a wet part (for fruit, vegetables, meat and other produce, where the floor and stalls are literally doused with water to keep them clean) and a dry part where spices, dried goods and other foods and household products are sold. When people refer to a wet market in Asia, it is usually on land, whereas a floating market would be on a boat.]What follows are a series of photos from the floating market at dawn, with soup sold boat-side and boats skewering their wares on spiked poles to indicate what they had for sale. In addition, there are photos from the Cai Rang wet market, a place most tourist boats skip on their return to Can Tho. Given that the land market was relatively untouristed, people were surprised to see me meandering around, buying dragonfruit and desserts and eating, eating, eating.
This photoessay is a small taste of the deliciously overwhelming, unique feeling of standing in the middle of what seems like total chaos and watching it move around you unperturbed. I know these markets are a normal part of life for people in the Mekong, and having seen similar versions of them during my travels, I am no stranger to their beauty. But no matter how many times I venture to the markets at dawn, I always find myself with a silly grin on my face, spinning in all directions to take in as much as I can.
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One of the first things you notice from the wet market boats is how they are effectively housing for long periods at a time. Clothes hanging, kitchens on the boat & the makings of general routine, floating on the water.
Woman and her baby looking on as a boat drops off water near Cai Rang.
Melon transaction on the Ong Tim river. Note the bright “eyes” on the front of the boat. Legend has it that they were to ward away creatures of the sea, though every person I asked had a different explanation (including “it’s pretty”).
Boatside breakfast soup.
Boatside breakfast soup, part two.
One of my favourites: note the hands behind the hats — this kid was giggling madly then we waved at him and he dove behind the seat, cracking up the whole time.
Houses along the Ong Tim river on the boat ride to Cai Rang’s markets.
Approaching the land market in Cai Rang.
On the bridge spanning the Ong Tim river.
Greens at dawn.
The land market at eye level.
Vegetable negotiations.
Daikon never looked so good.
Nor did carrots, straight from the soil.
Fish aplenty.
I thought these were cuter than all the rest.
Ready for cooking.
Betel nut has two varieties used in Vietnam. One – piper betle – is for chewing (as a mild stimulant) and the other – piper sarmentosum (la lot) is used in cooking, great wrapped around beef and grilled.
Chicken, stamped, plucked and ready for sale.
Dried fish. Why choose one when you can buy them all?
Interrupting her breakfast for a photo. How cute is she?
Breakfast number two (after that great bun rieu soup). Bun thit nuong, grilled pork served over vermicelli noodles.
Breakfast number three, stir fried noodles with pork and bean sprouts.
Sticky rice, an excellent snack.
Glutinous rice balls filled with sweet mung bean.
Mini black chickens, used for ga tan.
Sawing through ice blocks to distribute to vendors in the market.
Banh bo, a light, sweet cake made with rice flour (and sometimes tapioca flour) and sweetened with honey.
The banh bo vendors were two women, pointing to these gentlemen and saying “look at our husbands, eating while we make money for them”. (This is why the men are all cracking up while eating!)
Fish and chilli, a perfect pair.
No shortage of duck, quail and chicken eggs, including fertilized duck eggs, a popular snack in Vietnam (and in the Philippines).
Crispy pork, extremely enticing but sadly no room in my belly for breakfast number 4.
Tofu in woven baskets.
Loved the banh bao tin with its great typography.
Pig grooming 101.
Requisite up close pig grooming shot.
This woman had cooked pig heads and wanted me to take a photo of her with them. Laughing and smiling, she got serious the second I started to take the shot, wanting to seem business-y for her close up.
A transaction occurs….
…. while the men looked on right next door.
It’s not all fruit and vegetables, however. This was the trash piled into the water right next to the land market where we got on and off the boats. Bags, food, plastic and more.
After 3 mornings of market eats, I was able to relax on an evening boat ride around the Ong Tim river, seeing the same canals that brought me to the markets, but at dusk.
More to come soon about the Mekong, including the fabulous story of how the couple that ran my guesthouse met each other in Vietnam.
-Jodi
Beautiful photos! It’s almost like I can smell, hear, taste all these strange, wondrous things from that faraway Vietnam floating market.Cheers!
After reading several of your beautiful blogposts I’m more than sure that I have to visit Vietnam on my next trip. Thank you!
Hope your eating brings you to Chennai, India, the home of some great South Indian cuisines.
Lucky Balaraman
Great photos but what disgusting polluters the people of the emerging world are! No interest in trying to keep their environment clean.
Great photos. Scenery looks like that of Philippines. But Cebu’s lechon or Cebuchon in Philippines would much tastier!
Fantastic photo essay. The colors, the light, the textures – just gorgeous. I am even more excited for my coming visit to Vietnam in February!
Crap. I may have to move up my trip to Vietnam to March instead of May. You’re killing me with the yummy photos and food descriptions. I seriously miss the street eats in Asia at times. For now I need to find some decent Vietnamese food in Québec City – if that is even possible. LOL
very nice and i like that very simple living along the river
Great photos. But I feel a bit sad with trash, that is my country
Great photos and descriptions! Thanks Jodi!
Hi Jodi, you both a good photographer as well as a good storyteller. Have fun!!
Fantastic photos..everything looks so yummy! i want to be there..seriously..
That’s beautiful! I love my country! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Love it!
These food are Nature’s treasure for us, and we are killing them.
It was nice but in the end, she killed it with a “nasty garbage” photo that killed the niceties. I think, the photographer just want to say “all those nice things are near a nasty garbage”, and everything is just garbage – like a pail of drinking water that is undrinkable because she put a drop of feces “