Located five kilometers from the center of the city of Can Tho (Mekong Delta), the Cai Rang floating market is a wholesale market with a myriad of boats loaded with watermelons, mangoes, bananas, papayas, pineapple , onions, etc.. The main items sold there are agricultural products and specialties of the region. Many producers and farmers come here to sell their crop to wholesalers.
If the first boats arrive early in the morning, the Cai Rang market in full swing a little later, around 7 or 8 hours. Then we see hundreds and trade goods. The local transport their products on junks medium while the traders use large boats to be able to then carry the goods to Cambodia, Thailand or China. All kinds of sounds are heard: those of engines, oars plunging into the water, waves hitting the sides of boats, sellers and buyers calling to each other ...
Small boats offering snacks and drinks will here and there to serve their customers. A bowl of hu Tieu (Pork soup pasta, specialty South) costs 7,000 or 8,000 VND and take a cup of coffee for 3,000 VND (Here, we drink iced coffee). Appetizers are offered to accompany alcohol. In short, men, women and children: no leaves on an empty stomach.There are also many other things in this market apart. There are bound to his happiness that one seeks an engine, a scale, gasoline, bottles of fish sauce, salt, medicines or candy ...
Life on the Water
Each boat is equipped with a vertical pole on which are suspended samples of goods. Generally, the sale is all that is suspended but there are three exceptions that are guessing that the locals often ask visitors. The first, "what is suspended but not sold?" Answer, clothes. Traders live on their boats, so they dry their clothes in the sun but "that good", they do not sell. The second, "what is sold but not suspended?". These are of course food and beverages. It is unclear how the restaurant boats could expose their soups, for example. The last riddle, "which suspends a commodity but sell another?" The answer is those who want to sell their boats. Thus, according to tradition, a resident who wants to sell his boat, hangs a piece of coconut leaf.The Cai Rang floating market attracts about 500 visitors per day, according to the director of the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism Can Tho, Viet Dinh Khanh. Walking through the market, visitors can chat with the farmers in the cultivation of fruit trees. Sometimes they offer so tasty fruits as gifts or for a small fee.This scene trade full of life is typical of the Mekong Delta. It's great to take part and to witness this traditional lifestyle. The boats business families dropped anchor near the shore. They are like mobile apartments on the water, with all the comforts of the ancestral altar to the TV through the stereo or the bike ...So many things can be discovered at Cai Rang floating market! On occasion, spend a day with traders and the people so hospitable South. You will not be disappointed ...
