August 29, 2014
The highlight of our two-day Mekong Delta tour was to visit the floating wholesale market outside Can tho city.
Starting at 4 AM, hundreds of people flock from many provinces to this place to sell their products, mostly produce, to retailers all over the area.
Boats tie up to each other while they do business and exchange goods.
Potential customers know which boats sell which types of produce either by the small potted plants on their roofs or the bamboo poles with varying types of produce tied to them and propped up like a flag.
Many of the families live on their boats and we are told most children don't go to school because they are constantly on the move.
Smaller motor boats and paddle boats drift by selling everything from cuts of meat to prepared soup and iced Vietnamese coffee.
Most of the non-motorized boats are propelled by crossing wooden oars.
Offerings of incense, food, alcohol, and cigarettes to the shrine inside the boat appeases ancestors and the Budda.
This family selling a mystery root vegetable were particularly interesting to photograph.
They had an efficient, three person system of packing, weighing, prepping, and selling on different parts of the big, wooden boat.
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