Can Tho Floating Market
We kicked off today early with a visit to the Can Tho floating market, the largest in Vietnam. By 7:15am we were out on the water, headed in a boat to the on-the-water market, about 30 minutes boat ride away from Can Tho city center.
Tom explained to us that the floating market is largely wholesale, so it’s mostly locals who frequent the market for resale in other areas of Vietnam. He also pointed out that most of the Vietnamese selling food from their boats are illiterate, so instead of written signs hanging from the boat to advertise what they sell, they simply hang a few of the produce from a wire on the boat so it’s clearly visible what they sell. Easy enough!
The market was smaller than what we expected, but still neat to see. We pulled up to a pineapple boat and got to see its hull full of pineapples and one of the family members hacking away the pineapple skin on the roof of the boat.
We also pulled up to a women selling noodle soup from her small boat. We learned that she’s been at it for 30 years. I only had a few small bites, but Doug & the girls slurped it up and said it was delicious.
We even got our morning coffee from a passing boat!
Lots of activity and great people/boat/commerce watching:
Long form video of the floating market activity:
Ferry for Four
After the market we drove about 2.5 hours to Rach GIa (due West) to catch a ferry to our next destination, the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. We made one bathroom pit-stop and let the girls blow off some steam on an adjacent sports field:
Boarding the ferry was mayhem under the baking midday sun. Fortunately we had assigned seats so we stay calm amidst the chaos. We’re actually lucky we even got seats on the ferry! Last night at dinner, Tom casually asked us what time our ferry was leaving today. We looked back at him in confusion and said that we didn’t know; we thought that they (the tour company) booked our ferry on our behalf. After a few phone calls we realized that we had misunderstood that part of our tour package. We were supposed to have booked the ferry ourselves, which we hadn’t! Thankfully a woman back in the tour company’s office took pity on us, made a few calls and was able to book us confirmed tickets on the ferry that we had hoped to be on.
Fast forward to us sitting on the ferry (the only one daily to the island), we were doubly grateful for their last-minute help because we did not see but one or two free seats on the multi-level ferry. The ferry is almost like an airplane; we were served a bottle of water & cold wipe when we arrived, and there were comfy leather seats and large screen TVs all around airing some kind of Vietnamese variety show competition.
We scarfed down a bad pizza lunch (quickest thing we could find nearby the pier) as the ferry pushed off from Rach Gia. The girls then watched an old classic, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” while me & Doug worked on blog posts. Time flew by and the ride was smooth. Before we knew it we had pulled up to Phu Quoc island and were disembarking with the hoards of other people.
Birthday Celebrations
I can’t post on January 6th without saying Happy 7th Birthday to our dearest Sadiebug!! She wasn’t too happy about starting her birthday with an early wake-up, floating market and multiple legs of car+boat travel. On the boat ride returning after the floating market, she turned to us and said “Even though we had to wake up early on my birthday to come to the market, I’m glad we did!” Dedicated birthday post for Sadie’s special day here!!
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