Great trip and difficult realization.
Today, on my fourth day, I got up at 5:15 a.m., which was 11:15 p.m. local time, to go to the floating market in Cai Rang on the boat belonging to Mrs. Ha, my landlady. That alone was an adventure, because the propulsion seemed to me to be like a lawn edger propeller. We would have been faster rowing…
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Unfortunately, I couldn’t find what I was looking for… The big ships are selling, there are buyers on the small ones, the goods are often packed in plastic bags, if they’re not already floating on the water. The sellers often turn away from the tourist boats that arrive in droves. It was very busy on the water, touristy. In addition, there was a harsh light situation, a glare that my camera could hardly capture. I was quite disillusioned because it became clear that I could hardly work here, i.e., I could hardly find the motifs I was looking for..
The second part of the guided tour consisted of a visit to the local market. Of course, I could find a lot here for the series, but now it’s supposed to be something different…
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Shoppers often ride their scooters right up to the stall and buy directly from it without getting off. As always, the sale of meat hanging freely or fish still alive in bowls is particularly impressive.
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We then sailed into a pleasant canal to visit two noodle “factories” in a small village. The first one produces “wet” rice noodles that have a shelf life of about one day. Women work here in intense heat (the men deliver the goods). As with spaetzle, the noodles flow out of the machine at the bottom, are cooked on a long conveyor belt, and then cooled at the back before being packaged.
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It’s different with dry rice noodles. Here, “plates” are made, cooked with steam, and then left to dry in the air for over 3 hours. The thin rice noodles are cut from the dried plates in a press. We were able to enjoy these fried in fat with peanuts and spicy cream on site.
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Apart from the realization that I haven’t quite found what I’m looking for here (research work, which can be quite frustrating), I was able to get an idea of the place and then decided to travel further inland tomorrow to a place along a tributary of the Mekong. There used to be a floating market there, but now there are perhaps (no one can say for sure) a few boats left that might be what I’m looking for.
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That means tomorrow I’ll get up at 5 a.m., take a taxi there, sit in a café and wait and watch and wait and watch. Hopefully I’ll get to hop around in between… 😊
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