Mekong Market

TODAY in Vietnam I watched the locals do their grocery shopping from their boats. This is the largest floating market in Vietnam and it is not for the housewives but wholesale. Boats laden with hundreds of melons trade with the banana sellers while smart entrepreneurs snake their way in between the large house boats with snacks and drinks.

Everything is interesting in this market: the boats where families live, eat, bathe; the long spears that have the proprietor's wares on display to declare what it is he sells; the small boats serving juice, waffles, or other snacks; the glimpses of life on these "houseboats" where mothers feed their babies and young men steer with their feet.

The Muddy Mekong

TODAY in Vietnam I watched fishermen and families ply the mighty (muddy) Mekong river looking for edibles amongst the floating plants of the Mekong Delta. This is Chau Doc- the mouth of the Mekong River. Just up a ways is the border with Cambodia and just down a ways is the largest floating market in Vietnam.

I took a river boat down the Mekong, past the market, through the brown swirls of the river that is so often a part of all those Vietnam War movies. Small houses on stilts with fields in their backyards line this huge river. This river starts in China and flows through 5 countries, irrigating, feeding, and supporting the life along its banks.