Floating Market, Can Tho

This is my third visit to Vietnam, I have seen many of the wonderful sights all along the country but have never visited the Mekong Delta before. I have always wanted to go and see the southwest of Vietnam where the Mekong river ends its long journey from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Thi Bay in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. After a 5hr bus ride from HCMC through rice fields, villages and towns, I was finally at the campus where Thi Bay lives. Six months ago, Thi Bay left NY for a teaching position at Can Tho University and a chance to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots (her grandfather was Vietnamese, a fact she has to repeat 5 times a day on average). In a short time, Thi Bay has become somewhat of a local star in a city that has very few foreigners. From students walking by to the Xe Om drivers outside the gate, everybody knows her and wants to have a little chat.

I spent my first evening walking around Ninh Kieu Quay by the river where dozens of cafes offer a romantic setting and great drinks. It also happens to be the place where young couples make out by night and get married by day (lots of wedding halls all along the river).

The next morning, I got up at 5:45AM (!!) and hurried to meet another friend from HCMC, Nga, who was waiting for me by the river. Nga and I hired a private boat and went on a 4 hr boat ride up and down the river. First we visited Phong Dien floating market where merchants from all around the area come to buy fruit and vegetables for their stores/stands. The whole transaction takes place from the boats: the sellers tie a sample of their produce to a pole to indicate what’s on sale and the buyers approach with their boats to buy coconut, pineapple, dragonfruit, watermelon or any other fruit of the day. Many of the sellers live with their families on their boat, some even have their pets with them.

After the floating market, Nga, who is originally from Can Tho, suggested we visit the My Khanh resort. The resort used to be farmland but in the past 4 years, it has been transformed into a hotel with its own little zoo. I saw so many animals! Snakes, crocodiles, monkeys, pigs, bats, frogs all living rent free at this beautiful resort. We stopped for a nice snack and drink in one of the small restaurants at the resort. We then got back on the boat and went to a family farm to the north. The farm also had many animals and trees all around and I saw the largest snake ever, I never want to see it outside its cage.

Later in the afternoon, Thi Bay and I went to visit the Khmer Pagoda in the city and walked around the beautiful alleyways of Can Tho stopping to eat every couple of hours…The food in Can Tho is simply excellent, I tried many new dishes for the first time and liked them all. Even the fruit tastes better in Can Tho.

Life runs slower in Can Tho, everyone is very calm and smiley. The only ones working double time are the mosquitoes. Sitting at outdoor cafes at night is fun but adds about 20 new bites each time. As I am not taking Malaria pills this time around, I was hoping these mosquitoes were of the friendly kind. Animals are an integral part of life in Can Tho. At Thi Bay’s place, there are 5 geckos and 3 frogs at any given time, she even had a snake recently! She tried to reassure me by saying that she’s not sure whether it was a green Mamba or a Python, I was feeling real calm after that. AHHHH!

I got to meet Thi Bay’s friend and neighbor, Anh To who is a student at Can Tho. Since both Thi Bay and Anh To were attending weddings that weekend, the conversation naturally drifted to wedding customs. Anh To told me that in Vietnam, the bride’s family traditionally sends a pig’s head to the groom’s family on the night of the wedding. If the bride turns out to not be a virgin, god forbid, then the groom’s family cuts off the pig’s ear and sends it back to the bride’s family the following day. Depending on how mad they are, they might even send the bride back. It really made me laugh as I was thinking of all the pigs’ ears that would need to be Fedex’ed in the U.S. if such a custom existed.

On Saturday I decided to take a speedboat back to HCMC instead of the bus so I could enjoy a few more hours on the river. The journey back was so very peaceful until about 10 minutes before we reached the city. The guys running the boat, managed to miscalculate the amount of gas we need in order to get back and we got stuck with no gas in the middle of the Mekong. We were right at the entrance to the port and I could already see HCMC from afar. Within minutes, huge cruise line ships were coming our way honking very loudly so that we would get out of the way not knowing we are stuck and cannot move. Troi Oi!!! (OMG) Stranded at sea with no way to signal to them that we are stuck. Luckily, another boat towed our boat to the banks of the river so that we don’t get run over by one of the bigger ships. The guys called their office and through someone translating the drama into English, I learned that help was on the way. Another piece of good news was that the weird sounding baby cry from the back of the boat was in fact, a real live chicken inside someone’s bag. If we were to get stuck for a while, at least we had dinner.

About 45min later our boat was refueled and we continued on to HCMC. Quite an adventure!

It was a fabulous weekend and a great way to start the new year.

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