Mien Tay (The West)

This is an approach into my home town from the West. I was born next to this river within this market, Cho An Huu.




A little ways west of An Huu is this first major Mekong River crossing from Saigon.



The second major crossing of the Mekong-the largest, is still serviced by ferry, to the city of Can Tho-the biggest city The West. In the distance the largest bridge in all of Vietnam is being built, and some time last year one of these central pillars collapse killing over a hundred people. Goes to show how much it cost to conquer nature. It will be a few years yet until this bridge is complete.


I came over to Can Tho to visit one of three floating markets. My friend and I got there in the late morning so not too much was happening. I guess it's busy in the morning when locals meet to shop and late in the afternoon when tourist boats congregate. Still it was pretty cool.













At this hour there were only fruits left. Each boat hangs the fruit of it's stock to advertise. We bought 4 kilos of Rambutan, for 25,000 Vietnamese Dongs, which translates to about $1.75.

I often spend the early parts of these trips visiting my family, paying respect lets say. All we really do is eat and spend time talking about what to have for the next meal. (By now they know how my life is in the US so no need to talk about that.)

I hope you find these pictures and videos enjoyable. I wish that I had a better digital camera. I'm not very inspired to shoot pictures with this little thing but the videos turn-out fun.

By the way, don't worry that I'm taking these videos while driving. I don't dare do that. I'm riding in the back.

More from Saigon soon before I head up to Hoi An.