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Mekong Floating market
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On arriving in the Delta, you can travel by motorised boat to
visit the Cai Be floating market, and experience the colourful trade
of goods between their vessels.
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The farmers from around the region bring their goods, mostly consisting of fruit
and vegetables, to the markets to sell them to local dealers. These dealers then
distribute the products to shops in the neighbouring towns and to wholesale
dealers from larger towns.
As the adjacent image indicates, wholesalers trade from the larger boats by
hanging their produce from a pole. This way, buyers on the smaller boats can
easily see where they have to go to purchase the goods they need. In this
example we see a vegetable market.
On the floating markets you not only find people buying and selling fresh
produce, but you will also find floating restaurants, bars, gas stations, and
many other stores. Canals in the area are simply the easiest and fastest means
of transportation.
The biggest floating market in the Mekong Delta is the busy market of Phung Hiep.
The market opens from 4 am through to 11 am. To visit the floating market you
should stay in the Mekong Delta area, wake up early and take one of the first
boats in the morning.
On a typical day, you might see coconuts, mangoes, a heap of turtles, a box of
snakes or even a pot-bellied pig being paddled from a riverside village to be
haggled over in the floating market. By sunrise, the waterways are clogged with
the sampans of buyers and sellers. Bamboo poles hoisting various goods are
numerous. Shoppers come by land and water, and as they stumble from boat to
boat, they often interrupt their shopping to enjoy bowls of noodles, on open
fires in the special ‘fast food’ sampans.
Cai Be, one of many well-known floating markets in the western region of
southern Vietnam was formed in the Nguyen Dynasty in the 19th century. The
market is always busy, bearing all the characteristics of the locals’ life in
the western region. All the goods are transported to the market by rafts and
boats.
The floating market lies in the Tien river, next to the three provinces of Tien
Giang, Vinh Long and Ben Tre. The market is divided into two parts: buying and
selling. Approximately 400 to 500 boats filled with fruits, vegetables, and
other products are anchored along the banks of the river. Again, the merchandise
sold in each boat is hung on a pole in front of the boat to attract customers.
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 3 am, rafts and boats are crowded because Cai Be is one of the biggest
wholesale markets in the region. Traders live on the river and many link friends
and family with boats over generations, not unlike a mobile home. On each boat,
goods are hung on poles that are called dialectically “cay beo”. Hundreds of
such poles point sky wards. Boats also operate like “taxis,” which are very
convenient for tourists. Along the criss crossing canals, people in the Plain of
Reeds take not only goods of each region to the Cai Be market but also their
unique cultural characteristics, creating such a beautiful river collage.
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