Very interesting to see the locals trading and the quality and quantity of local fruit and veg just amazed me!!! Quiet busy but no one comes to sell tourist anything apart from coffee. It's also amazing to see how they live on the boat for days and work out of it. An absolute visit along with a must to see the sunrise on the Mekong!!!
Photographic opportunities at every turn on the river and the banks of the Mekong.Sellers with fruit , vegetables and lots more.Vietnamese life with the chance of tasting some fresh produce.We then cruised the Ba Lang canal - an excellent day.
I consider a trip to the Cai Rang Floating Market as a nice to see.If you don't have a free time, you will not miss much. The all trip by boat can take about 1-1.5 hour and it's enough for my opinion.In my opinion the floating market is Interesting and that is it.
Start early (6 am at the latest ) and enjoy the sunrise on the river! Many great photo opportunities, make sure your camera is fully charged...of course the floating market itself, but also the scenes along the river and canals, people washing clothes or dishes, etcWe were a group of 5, and it was 30 $ for the whole boat, for a 6 hours tour (including free fruits), seemed like a fair amount for the services offered
A eye opener to westeners, The people who live, work , trade , on this river need to be applauded for how they operate. I for one was taken back by the way these people go about there every day lives with what seems to be very lil stress and the always seem happy, see money doesnt buy happiness.
We'd heard a lot of good stories about Susan's tours in can tho, so we decided to email her. The same day she organised a homestay for us, where we got coconuts from the trees, baked our own springrolls and did a bycicle tour along the mekong delta to a local market to get food for dinner. The next day we went to the floating market by boat where we enjoyed our breakfast. After this we saw a rice factory and a fruitgarden. These two days were two of the best in Vietnam! Susan made it even better because she speaks very good english and explains everything you want to know about the mekong delta area. After this tour we went to hcmc by bus which she also arranged for us! If you want to experience 'real life' in the mekong delta, you should book a tour with Susan! You can find her on Facebook: can tho touring. We love her!!
This market does need an early start try to get there at daybreak, your photos will be amazing. Much better than Cai Be Floating Market and much bigger. We actually got stuck in a river "traffic" jam quite entertaining and added to the fun. If you only intend to see one market on your visit go to this one.
Early morning about 6:00 am the boat from home stay crossed to another side of Mekong river for visit Floating market . It was as paradise : saw the Sun rise, very beautiful, water calm down, glass, trees relaxing, not noise, fresh air... Come to Floating market saw many boats ( big boat and small boat) change goods together, battle on water. Strength, why the boats had eyes?.
A great place to visit if you are in Can Tho and it is best to visit early in the morning when the traders and buyers are busy. Not a quaint tourist market but a very large and bustling wholesale market. Great opportunities for some excellent photographs.
Perhaps I read too much into the floating markets, but the hype does not meet the floating markets true experience. Still go, it is very interesting, but we saw other more interesting floating markets in Vietnam such as the really cool floating fishing villages in Ha Long Bay. Overall, there weren't as many as boats as I was expecting. Maybe it was a slow day or low season?