This excursion was one of the things on this Plus 3 trip that I’ve been looking toward the most. On our way to the Mekong Delta, we stop at a very nice rest stop to sing a song and grab some drinks. I couldn’t help but compare this one to one of the many Pennsylvania Turnpike rest stops I’ve visited on my way from Baltimore to Pittsburgh to Erie (where my grandparents live). Maybe it’s the context in which I been to both, but the Vietnamese location was much cleaner, nicer, looked less dead, and had a wider variety of food options. Instead of Auntie Anne’s, I got a pork bao, and I traded my Dunkin’ hot chocolate for a Butterfly Pea tea, that’s a win in my book.
When we arrived at our resort, I was instantly blown away by the beauty. The little island where we had our lunch was picturesque and we even got to feed the fish some of our leftovers (seen above). Normally at my grandparents’, we feed our extra food to the dogs or chickens, but this was arguably more fun. After some downtime, it was time to go play games. We changed into what could be best described as brown pjs, and set off for what appeared to be a man made lake. After playing rock, paper, scissors roulette (which I won in case anyone was wondering) to the sound of K-pop, everyone was successfully wet and a little muddy. When we had to fight the other team on the shaky bridge, the hardest part was just not falling off before it was your time (which I did not successfully do on the first round). Even if it technically was not covered by health insurance and a little scary, I got quite into it. Our final game was a simple swimming race, which proved to be much more difficult in unsecure pants (disclaimer to anyone who was concerned, I was wearing shorts under my pants because they did end up falling off entirely). We were also given an option to try to catch fish with baskets. At the last second Ally and I spotted one, and she caught it, unfortunately, neither of us was up to actually picking it up.
This morning, at the rooster’s call and the rise of the sun, we got on a boat to visit a floating market. Similar to the fish market I visited in Venice, the market thrives in the early hours of the morning. For some reason I was envisioning all the boats to be connected in like a long line and we walk across them, but that was not the case. Once we got close enough to the market, a man simply tied his smaller boat to ours and sold coffee from about 2 feet away from me. Originally, this was treated as more of a wholesale market where people working in stores or restaurants would purchase their ingredients for the day, not a typical place for grocery shopping. Our guide explained that although these floating markets used to be the main way to buy goods, it’s become more of a tourist attraction for foreigners and Vietnamese alike. Trucks are much cheaper and simpler to maintain than a boat. Delivery is also much more convenient. Like many old ways of life in Vietnam and around the world, newer tech and methods of business are erasing or at least reenvisioning trade. I am curious how the floating market on the Cai Rang River used to look compared to what we saw on our trip. Did those who used to sell at the now extinct markets pivot to setting up shop on land or move to another line of work entirely? Today, how far are the buyers and merchants willing to travel to attend these floating markets? Are the sellers allowed to sell at more than one market?
