#44: A Floating Breakfast

28.02.2020

After visiting the city yesterday, today we are exploring the Mekong. We have booked a tour to two floating markets, a fruit garden, and a traditional noodle factory. Since people here apparently like to get up early, the tour starts at 5 o'clock in the morning.

At exactly 5 o'clock, our guide is already waiting for us in the hostel lobby. As it quickly turns out, he leads us to the boat on bicycles. Even though there is not much going on the streets at this time, the ride in the Vietnamese traffic chaos is very exciting. The darkness adds an additional thrill to the ride. We safely arrive at the port with our single-speed bicycles. Lam chooses a suitable boat and introduces us to the driver, Tu. The boat is a small nutshell with an outboard motor. The ride begins. Our boat is the smallest and slowest on the Mekong, and every wave makes us sway. At the beginning of the ride, we were each handed a life jacket as a precaution.

First, we reach the floating market of Cai Rang. Here, tons of all kinds of fruits and vegetables like pineapples, melons, pumpkins, potatoes, and onions are sold from large boats directly on the Mekong to passing boats. The respective goods for sale are hung on long vertically attached bamboo poles at the top. This allows you to see from a distance what is being sold where. Today, however, we don't buy anything and slowly make our way through the market boats. The many anchored boats with their mountains of pineapples and melons are very impressive to look at. It is also interesting to observe how people here naturally go about their business between the boats. On the way to the next market, Lam surprises us with two handmade bamboo crowns, which he suddenly puts on us from behind. Martin's crown shows two grasshoppers, Vanessa's a rose blossom.

After the first market, there is a half-hour ride between us and the next market. However, since the ride itself is already an experience and there is much to see, time flies by. When we arrive at the next market, we see that it is significantly smaller. The boats are much smaller and the fruits are sold in smaller quantities. Since there is also a breakfast boat here with a local elderly woman, we take the chance to have breakfast on our boat. There is a noodle soup with mini shrimp, chicken, sausage, and vegetables. So basically a soup with everything. The soup is very tasty, but also very (very, very) flavor-intensive and not for the faint-hearted.

Strengthened, we continue to the fruit garden. The ride takes us away from the larger Mekong channel and along the smaller canals. The canals are lined with dense vegetation of trees and shrubs, as well as palm trees and mangroves. Again and again, we have to duck our heads because of low-hanging branches or vines. Although we imagined the garden to be more idyllic, it is cool to see where all the fruit actually comes from. We are shown all sorts of trees and bushes with their sometimes kilogram-heavy fruits. Mango and durian trees, banana and coconut palm trees, pineapple and lime plants, and many other plants with fruits can be seen here. Here in the garden, we take a short break, during which Vanessa enjoys a freshly squeezed mango juice.

After the break, we go to the noodle factory. Here, we are shown the traditional noodle production from rice and we also get to try it ourselves. First, the rice is ground and mixed with water. Then, the syrup-like mass is briefly baked on a hot surface, creating a large, round, and wobbly dough. After two days of drying in the air, it is cut into spaghetti shape using a cutting device. We were able to take the dough from the oven (Martin made a big hole in his dough) and then cut a dried dough into small pieces. After the very short but interesting detour, we head home. It is now around 10:30 AM and the sun is starting to shine quite intensely.

At 11 o'clock, we reach our hostel. Exhausted from getting up early, we take a break first. In the late afternoon, we go out to eat and then make a detour to the night market. On the way, it is very interesting to see how the city comes alive in the evening when the heat is not as strong anymore. Especially in the green areas and parks, there are young people exercising, playing, or dancing everywhere.