The floating market in Can Tho is pandemonium – large boats (wholesalers) selling large quantities of various types of produce to smaller boats (retailers) who later go down various tributaries of the river delta delivering fresh fruits and vegetables door to door.

Circling around this circus are boats labelled ‘TOURIST’ in great big letters, full of tourists trying to get photos of this distinctive floating market, without getting the other TOURIST boats in the photo. The sellers string up whatever they are selling on a post so that buyers can tell at a glance exactly what’s for sale.Purple shallots, one of the mainstays of Vietnamese cooking, for sale. Watermelons are in season and everyone is selling them. Overall, the women seem to working a lot harder than the men. But I did finally find some men working, helping the women shift bags of potatoes. Weaving in and out amongst all this frenetic activity are tiny boats offering up refreshments and snacks. In the midst of the market life goes on – washing clothes and preparing food. For this post I have distilled 80 photos down to eight, a ton of work! I can also see that I was successful at NOT getting any tourist boats in my photos, a shame really, as they were definitely part of all the activity. This Mekong trip was one of the highlights of our trip to Vietnam. Here are a few of the interesting things we discovered during this trip:
Two Very Different Restaurants on the Way Back to Saigon
Pink Lotus Flowers Growing on the Mekong

Some fun tropical fruits that grow in the orchards of the Mekong:

• Two Tropical Fruits from Vietnam: Durian and Jackfruit
• Rose apple (or water apple or syzygium aqueum or…)
• Gac, something different from Vietnam…