Yesterday afternoon Dan and I took a bus from Ho Chi Minh City south to Can Tho, the biggest city in the Mekong Delta region, with the goal of getting up early and spending a day at Vietnam’s famous floating markets. We fist heard of the floating markets while watching a travel show on Netflix and it looked like an experience we couldn’t pass up.

After some initial confusion about where where to buy bus tickets we successfully made it on to our bus and arrived safely in Can Tho, where we had booked a night at Thanh Ha Guesthouse. When we arrived Ms. Ha helped us book our market tour for the next day (today). We spent the rest of the evening exploring a little bit of Can Tho, which, compared to Ho Chi Minh City, felt comfortable and walkable (though at 1.2 million residents it is hardly a small city). From the guesthouse we were able to walk down to and along the riverfront. We found a small street food market where I got to try banh trang nuong (or Vietnamese pizza) and Dan discovered a delicious dessert which we believe was a spiral cut banana fried and covered in powdered sugar (we still aren’t sure exactly what it was).

This morning our alarm went off at 4:30 AM so that we could be downstairs ready to leave for our tour at 5:00. Our guide met us at the guesthouse and took us down to the river where we got into our boat, piloted by a little old lady named Hong.

We took a 45 minute ride down the river before arriving at our first stop, Cai Rang Floating Market. Cai Rang is a wholesale produce market with a mixture of big and small boats. The big boats come from farms all over the delta to sell their goods to the small boats, who in turn take the goods to the local markets in the towns and cities to sell to consumers. Each boat advertises what it is selling by tying one of the goods to a long bamboo poll which sticks up from their boat.

We also got to visit Phong Dien, a smaller floating market further down the river with small boats selling goods directly to each other. Our tour guide bought us a few snacks so we could try dried sesame banana chips, longan fruit and golden apple – all delicious.

After the markets we got off the boat to stop for lunch and wander around some of the small riverside farms in the area, our guide pointing out the many different fruit trees growing along the way, before heading back to town.

We had heard and read that the floating markets are mainly just a tourist attraction these days, and their certainly were a lot of tourist boats. However, the markets and the river itself are clearly still central to life in the region. It was fascinating to witness a way of life that is so different than ours.

And, honestly, one of the highlights of the day was getting the opportunity to have an extended conversation with our guide. We talked about the different religions practiced in Vietnam and the United States, the state of education in both countries and different customs around marriage and maternity leave. We shared wedding photos (she and her husband got married about a month before Dan and I) and talked about our siblings and families. It was our first opportunity to spend a significant chunk of time with an English-speaking Vietnamese person and it was a great reminder that the people we meet on this trip will be just as impactful as the sites we see.