Another interesting and full day today. We left the hotel just before 7.45am and set off for our first visit of the day, to the floating markets at Cai Rang, just around six kilometres from Can Tho city. We didn’t have far to go; our tour boat was just at the riverside along from the hotel. On the way, we passed the path we should have taken last night, coming back from the sky bar. Of course, everything looked different in the daylight from what it did last night. 🙂
We boarded our boat and found a seat; we had to put one of those massive and restricting orange life-jackets on again. Oh well, I suppose needs must. We set off, and passed the bridge and the building housing the Sky Bar.
The floating markets we would experience today were completely different from those we’d visited in Thailand, where the stalls were almost exclusively aimed at tourists. These were the genuine wholesale merchants selling fresh fruit, vegetables, cooked meals and other products from their boats on the Hau River. Established over a century ago, Cai Rang Floating Market has been a vital trading hub for the local communities along the Mekong River. It was created to facilitate commerce before the development of road transport, allowing farmers and traders to exchange goods directly on the water. In 2016, it was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, highlighting its importance to Vietnamese culture.
It was really interesting and lively watching the different boats as we sailed along. At one point we came across an interesting bridge, which Google told me was the Quang Trung viaduct bridge, spanning the Can Tho river and connecting the city’s Ninh Kieu and Cai Rang districts. It also helps to protect the city from chronic flooding.
On a couple of occasions, some of the traders’ boats came right up alongside ours, and sold cold cans of soft drinks as well as coconut ice cream or sweets. It looked an authentic Vietnamese scene, particularly as many of the boatmen and women wore the distinctive conical hats. 🙂
Soon we spotted another bridge, which looked (from a distance, at least) like the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle, and I pointed it out to Brian and Clare. We laughed a few minutes later when Brian spotted an arched steel bridge and said it was the “Tyne Bridge”. We also saw a 1960s concrete bridge which Trevor and I likened to Milburngate Bridge in Durham. 🙂
As our boat drifted along and we enjoyed the breeze that it generated, there was suddenly a scream and panic from someone at the front! It transpired that Sally, one of our party, had been stung by this enormous wasp-like insect that she couldn’t get off! Eventually they got rid of it, but it had left a swollen red weal on her arm; a visit to the next pharmacy was a must.
Just after 9.00am, our visit to Cai Rang market came to an end, and we all disembarked and caught up with our coach. Filling our water bottles, and taking long drinks from them, we settled back in our seats and relaxed, just enjoying watching the traffic and all the frenetic activities beyond the windows of the bus. We had a couple of hours until our next stop.
Eventually, the coach pulled up at our next stop, another riverboat ride, but this time it would allow those who wanted to to have a ride in a traditional Vietnamese sampan. These are wooden, fairly flat-bottomed boats found all over south-east Asia; they tend to be rowed or punted along and held the boatman/woman as well as four passengers.
As one of the sampans pulled up alongside our boat, I watched as people clambered down off our boat and into the sampan, with the helping hands of Kevin and our boatsman. The fact that it looked like a big step down was enough to put me off (as well as several others), but at least it would allow me to photograph Trevor in his boat. 🙂 Here he is (at the front) as they left, and as they came back again.
While the sampans set off with their lifejacket-clad passengers, our boat set off again to meet them at the other end. I noticed with a mixture of amusement and annoyance that I had developed a “lorry driver’s tan” on my right arm, as I’d rested my elbow on the wooden railing as we’d been sailing along. 🙂
After half an hour or so, our boat pulled over to a small landing stage, and a few minutes later all the sampans returned, and we all reconvened. Once everyone had ensured they all had their belongings, we disembarked for our next visit.
We walked for a short distance until we came to an open-sided building that had tables and chairs set up, as well as a small stage on which some musicians were casually playing traditional music. Soon afterwards, someone came around and took our drinks orders (beer!) and brought out plates of fresh fruit; pineapple, watermelon, mango and pomelo, as well as pots of fragrant tea. As we enjoyed our refreshing fruit, Kevin introduced a family who were going to perform some traditional songs and sketches for us. There was a man, a woman and a cute little girl of about three, who obviously wasn’t shy.
The music started and the lady began to sing and dance, with the little girl matching her movements. It was so cute! 🙂
At the end of the show, a box with the word TIPS on it was placed on the stage, but everyone was giving the money to the little girl instead! She was so cute, putting the notes into the slot in the box herself. She’d definitely been a big hit. 🙂
Once we’d finished our fruit and our drinks, we made our way over to the restrooms and got sorted out, washed our hands, and soon we were back on the coach. After about half an hour, we pulled up at the restaurant where we would be having a traditional Vietnamese lunch. The restaurant was open-air, although it did have a shelter over the top.
We took a seat at a nearby table, ordered our drinks (beer!) and waited for the food dishes to be brought out. We were somewhat taken aback when a large, whole fish was placed in the middle of the table in front of us.
A waitress then came over to the table with a dish containing circular pieces of rice paper. She deftly shredded some of the fish and placed it, as well as some fresh vegetables, into the rice papers which she then folded up and handed to us. We had a small bowl of sauce in front of each of us, and I dipped my fish parcel into the sauce and took a bite. It was delicious, although I tried not to look at the fish whose mouth was open wide as it gazed at us with its blind eyes. I could so easily become vegan!
After some more dishes of meat and rice and fresh vegetables, we were all well-fed and watered and ready for our next visit. It wasn’t far; we would go there on foot, Kevin leading the way. On the way, we passed a large tank filled with fish, and Kevin said it was where our lunch had come from!
The next place we went to was a crocodile farm. I didn’t take any photos at all because I really felt sorry for the crocodiles and the conditions in which they were kept. As we walked along the dirt paths, there were fenced-off areas behind which were pools of stagnant water, each one chock-a-block with crocodiles of all sizes. There were far too many crocs for the size of the pools. Many of the crocs lay listlessly at the sides of the pools, their mouths wide open, showing rows of sharp teeth. I wondered why they had their mouths open and Google answered me thus:
“When temperatures soar, crocodiles instinctively open their mouths to facilitate cooling — a process scientifically known as thermoregulation. By gaping widely, they expose their oral mucosa to the air, allowing excess heat to escape from their bodies.“
I couldn’t help feeling that the crocodiles were not very happy in their environment. I asked Kevin why they were farmed and it seemed it was mainly to make shoes and handbags, with the meat being sold to restaurants. Indeed, after we’d looked around the farm we were taken to a shop on the site, selling wallets, belts, handbags and shoes. Nobody bought anything. I’ve since looked up the Vietnamese crocodile farming industry, and it is appalling; large-scale exploitation and cruelty, such as some crocodiles being skinned while they are still alive.
Soon we thankfully left the crocodile farm, and Kevin said we should arrive at the New World Saigon Hotel around 5.15pm, with a comfort stop (and for petrol) on the way.
And so we eventually arrived at our last hotel for this amazing trip. It looked absolutely superb; we would spend two nights here. Our first thought, as ever, was to change into our cossies and go down to the very inviting looking infinity pool, over which was a massive plasma screen showing advertisements and videos and all sorts of stuff, the constantly-changing colours reflecting on the pool.
After swimming around in the refreshing water, we each procured a sunlounger and Trevor went to the bar to order the beers. A few minutes later, a guy came over with two metal insulated flasks in a large bucket of ice; each flask held a litre of chilled beer. There was also a dish of some sort of prawn crackers; I didn’t really think much of them.
We remained by the pool, enjoying our freezing cold beers and people-watching, and talking over the events of the day. We weren’t really bothered about going out tonight as we were quite tired; we’d just make do with the hotel bar.
It was after 7.30pm when we left the pool and returned to our room to finish getting dried and changed into clean clothes. Then we had a 30 minute power-nap before making our way back downstairs to the bar.
When we got there, all of our party were in there, and there was some live entertainment on in the shape of a guy playing the keyboards while a female sang. There were no seats at any of the tables, but Trevor and I were quite happy to perch on bar stools. We ordered our beers and suddenly realised we hadn’t eaten since lunchtime, so we ordered a bowl of chips between us. It made quite a nice change to have “British” food for a change. 🙂
Once a table became vacant, we nabbed a couple of seats. I noticed that they had Aperol Spritz on the menu so I ordered one of those, wondering what it would be like. It was actually a very good one, and I had to have another. 🙂
Like everywhere else in Vietnam, the bar closed at 10.00pm, and we reluctantly returned to our room. It was too soon to settle down to sleep, so I read for a while, looked over my photographs and looked to see if there were any English-language programmes on TV.
Eventually we settled down, setting the alarm again for 6.30am. At least we didn’t have to allow extra time to pack up all our stuff in the morning.
We had another packed itinerary to look forward to tomorrow in Ho Chi Minh City, and we slept very well.