Cai Rang Floating Market — Local services in Cần Thơ

Cai Rang Floating Market in Vietnam and the floating markets in Thailand each offer unique and vibrant experiences, but they have distinct characteristics that set them apart.

Cai Rang Floating Market (Vietnam):

Cai Rang Floating Market is located in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, near Can Tho City. It's one of the largest and most iconic floating markets in the country. Here's a comparison:

Size and Scale: Cai Rang is known for its impressive size, with a bustling atmosphere where boats of various sizes sell fresh produce, street food, and even household items. It's a vibrant and colorful spectacle.

Local Culture: Cai Rang is deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture. It offers a glimpse into the daily lives of local farmers and traders who rely on the Mekong River for their livelihoods. You'll experience authentic Vietnamese culture and hospitality.

Products: You can find a wide range of fruits, vegetables, seafood, and other Vietnamese delicacies. The focus is on local produce and cuisine.

Thailand Floating Markets:

Thailand is famous for its floating markets as well, with some of the most popular ones being Damnoen Saduak, Amphawa, and Taling Chan. Here's a comparison:

Tourist-Focused: Thai floating markets are often more tourist-oriented, with souvenir shops and a wider range of goods aimed at visitors. They can get quite crowded, especially on weekends.

Boat Tours: In Thailand, you can take boat tours through the markets, which is a unique experience. Vendors often sell souvenirs, handicrafts, and Thai street food.

Cultural Experience: While Thai floating markets do offer a glimpse into local life and culture, they may not be as authentic as Cai Rang. However, they are still a great way to experience Thailand's vibrant street food scene and traditional crafts.

In summary, Cai Rang Floating Market in Vietnam provides a more authentic and immersive experience into the local culture, focusing on fresh produce and Vietnamese cuisine. Thai floating markets, on the other hand, are often more tourist-oriented with a wider variety of goods and unique boat tours. Both offer their own charm and are worth exploring if you have the...

What a disappointing experience, i do hope someone from the market management reads this. We will no longer be using any partners who offer to send clients here. Let me explain the process (and Tet is not an excuse)

Two people collected at 5:50am, total cost only 200,000VND for two! Great!

The market is not a market! It is a very small collection of small boats, about 4 in total we counted. Selling the most useless fruit, whole pineapples, whole coconuts! No where did we get offered sliced pineapple, that you can eat on a stick (as in Thailand), no sliced watermelon (that would be perfect as a single serving). No Chom Chom, no apples or orranges, not even bananas!

Instead you are shuttled (and all the boats are sent) to a floating cafe to buy food and drinks! Then you are sent directly to a floating souvenir shop! These are the typical toursit trap! They are not a tour!

Then its off to a bee keeping garden. There is no education at all on keeping bees, no demonstrations etc etc. Oh, and i speak Vietnamese so this was not a case of misunderstanding or cultural differences! It was simply a case of buy some honey! After 30 mins here you are taken to a fruit garden, this is the best part of a terrible experience and one that is quite frankly a SCAM! The fruit garden is quite nice andyou can relaxe well here for about 1.5hrs.

Why is it a scam???? Because taking boat loads of tourists at 6am stright to a floating cafe and then directly to a souvenir shop and then to a honey shop is a scam! Tourists are not here just to hand over their wallets to you! You need to give something in return! Some information, an unforgettable experience etc etc!

Sadly if this continues only the local Vietnamese will suffer as people will slowly but surely start ti give Can Tho a miss from visiting. This has happened to other places in the world before, lets hope this is not a lesson vietnam will have to learn.

So in short, if you are traveling to Vietnam and are thinking of adding this to your itinerary, i would say dont, its very far ane their are better optionsto spend both your valuable time and...

Honestly, not worth it...even if you are in Can Tho anyway.

There are two ways of getting there - "large boat" of about 20-30 people or "small boats" of 2-6 - these are smaller sampans/ short long tail boats which can use either motor and oars. Smaller boats are slower to get there from the tourist dock (and you have to stop several times to remove plastic bags from the propeller - it's a heavily polluted river), and can get a bit choppy on the water, but feels less like a 'tour group' and can move around by paddle once there. We got to the dock at 5am "to beat the rush" but nothing prepared us for the massive deluge of people and sea of orange life jackets. By the time we got to the 'market' there were 70-80 tourist boats (90% large boats), so ~2,000 tourists, circling around (we counted) just 22 boats with produce on them. It was a tourist circus. It's a wholesale trading place so you'll just see the occasional boat offloading pineapples or plastic bags of vegetables from one boat to another, but there's nothing really going on and can't be described as really photogenic. The traders must wonder why they get a tourist deluge each morning. There's a couple of floating metal sheds on the water catering as shops for tourists (which we gave a miss to). Smaller boats can go up the canals (basically one canal that is just covered in floating Styrofoam containers and plastic bottles) - it was so bad we had to look away at times, but it was good to see the village wake up. They all stop at a 'noodle making factory'. It's really a tourist shop that also sells noodles (so best not to get too excited!). It's nice to be on the river at sunrise, but if I had my time again, I'd just catch a Grab/ taxi to the south side of the river with a coffee and watch the melee from there.....and not...