In a tour to Mekong Delta, I visited Can Tho City, one of the most well-known destinations in Southern Vietnam. It also possessed the largest area in the region with a population of over 1.1 million people. For me, Cai Rang “Floating Market” was the most memorial experience when travelling Can Tho. Here was the place where merchant boats gathered together to sell all kinds of foods, fruits and groceries. Our group hired a boat and a tour guide, a local people at price of 500,000 VND for a boat of 10 people. For those who want to explore Can Tho Floating Market, you should visit in the early morning because it is the most bustling time and the market will end at 11am. I was so excited to see a stretch of boats selling all variety of goods lines the river. Here was not a place for souvenirs but for large quantities of goods of all kinds, especially foods and fruits. You could easily know what kinds of goods the boat were selling just by looking at samples of such goods hung on the top of a bamboo pole. The thing that attracted me the most was my opportunity to enjoy local specialties right on boats of friendly sellers. They offered me fresh fruits, some of which were strange to me. Our tour guide said that such fruits were planted nowhere else from Can Tho Vietnam.
Leaving Cai Rang Floating Market, we visited a 300 year-old villages named Binh Thuy. The village included 20 beautiful ancient houses, of which the majority had been built since the 70s of the 19th century. In spite of the modernization of society, Binh Thuy Village still preserved its traditional inherent beauty with vast orchards clean rivers and green plains. I was truly impressed by an African cactus of 10 meters in height which lived for nearly 300 years.
The last attraction in my tour is the center of Can Tho City. The center was an ideal place to be absorbed in local traditional culture. We chose a market to start the walking itinerary visiting Can Tho commercial areas. Products of all kinds from food to textile and souvenir were available in markets. I bought some souvenirs for my friends and families with a reasonable price. Walking around the market, I had the opportunity to take a first-hand look at daily lives of Vietnamese sales. All of them were busy doing their own things but no one forgot to smile friendly.