05:00 and it's out the door, camera gear, luggage and all. Stowing our luggage on the bus we walk a short distance to the waiting boats that will take us to Phong Dien and the Cai Rang floating market. With three or four of us in each boat, I luck out and end up in the bow, so I won't have to shoot around other occupants. The lack of light at this early hours challenges the capabilities of the the Nikon D850. But she rises to the occasion and I get some interesting shots with only limited artificial lighting in the scenes.
I especially like the mood of these pictures and the way the colors are more saturated.
I've seen floating markets before, like the one in Bangkok, which seem like they are really set up for the tourists. Our first stop is off the main river at a place where we can disembark and photograph the goings on from the river bank or from higher up on the second floor of an open building. Most of the boats in this area are small one person craft, typically with a woman vendor selling various fruits and vegetables and an occasional Coolie Hat. The hat not only serves as protection for the head but also a convenient way to pass currency from buyer to seller.
From here we take a small channel, almost like a canal, away from the whole floating market scene. This gave us the opportunity to also see life along one of the quieter waterways. Upon entering the channel we came across a large house boat bathed in the ascending sunlight.
All along we would see small boats tied up at makeshift landings, presumably to provide transportation for someone living on land nearby.In some cases the houses were on stilts right in the water.
The houses were pretty open, offering insights into the daily lives of the people, such as doing simple chores like washing clothes.
Every so often we would pass another boat coming in the opposite direction. It was usually filled with tourists, not much commerce going on. Interesting bridges would pop up out of the jungle overgrowth.
Proper etiquette among photographers is to avoid "photo bombing" each other, but on occasion it is fun to get that "I was looking back to see, if you were looking back to see...." pic. That was for all the Buck Owens, Susan Raye fans out there!
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| Public tour boat |
Then moving out into the main branch of the Mekong, we encountered the larger boats, which apparently are "wholesalers" as they are carrying much larger stocks of goods. All the activity makes for a "target rich environment" for us fotogs. There are also larger tourist boats traversing the river, so we are not the only ones trying to get pictures.
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| Woman's work is never done! |
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| Retailer buying from wholesaler |
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| Boat load of melons |
Then we stop, while in the floating market for breakfast. A noodle soup with pork and veggies. Not what I typically think of for breakfast but it's now about 9:00 AM and we are hungry. It turns out to be delicious.
Then our boats dock at a land side market with all sorts of products for sale. Vegetables of all kinds and even exotic fish (for an aquarium, not for eating) are on display.
Boarding the bus again we head toward Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), with a short stop at a Buddhist temple.
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| Happy Buddha |
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| Beautiful Lotus flower |
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| Inside the temple |
Finally we arrive in Saigon. The scale of the construction projects going on is amazing! I can't believe the number of high rise building and construction cranes all over.
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| Ho Chi Minh City skyline |
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