Besides Cái Răng floating market in Cần Thơ city and Cái Bè floating market in Tiền Giang Province, travellers are also urged to visit a lesser-known floating market for fruits in HCM City’s Kênh Tẻ (Tẻ Canal) where poor migrants from the Mekong Delta live in makeshift houseboats and earn their daily bread by selling fruit. 

Along Trần Xuân Soạn Street in District 7, one can see dozens of boats anchored along the canal selling typical Mekong Delta produce such as banana, coconut, rambutan, mango, and grapefruit.  

The vendors are mostly from Mekong provinces such as Vĩnh Long, An Giang, Tiền Giang, Trà Vinh and Bến Tre.

Trần Văn Hùng, 42, from Bến Tre said he and his wife have been selling dried coconuts and bananas from their hometown at the market for more than 15 years and spend most of their time on their wooden boat.

Like many of the other vendors, Hùng has equipped his boat with a cassette player, a TV set and even a motorbike so that he can deliver to customers nearby. — VNS