Standing on a bridge in the heart of Ca Mau City, at the end of the Ganh Hao River, and looking to the east, visitors see a row of boats on the river and all around many colors and much activity. This is Ca Mau Floating Market. When the market came into being is unknown, but it is now one of the most crowded and bustling markets in the region.

Why can't visitors visit the market at sunrise to be hold a fresh? Why at dawn? It's because the market at dawn is like a person's infanthood, which is beautiful and pure. Dew remains on the mosquito net covering the kids sleeping on the boats' roof. Gradually the dew dries as a busy trading day begins.

Hundreds of small and big boats, well-loaded, are side by side, creating a long row. Sellers and buyers in boats pass by. The early morning is the time of small boats with women selling breakfast foods, with the fragrance of cakes spreading farther than the calls. It is also the time of motorboats that come from hundreds of rivers and rivulets to buy goods, especially vegetables, and then head off on long selling trips. And it's the time of vendors on the boats getting busy about displaying their products to make it look the freshest and their boats the tidiest.

In the old days, like many other floating markets in the delta, the market on the Ca Mau River traded many commodities, from basic goods to furniture. Now, that form of trading is found only with the vegetable motorboats that go to people's homes, whereas the Ca Mau. Floating Market only wholesales fresh agro-products, especially vegetables and fruit.

For travelers from afar, visiting a floating market is a way to discover the character of a strange rural area. Visitors do not need to drop in at each boat to see what is being sold, but just ask the little girl to row slowly through the market. Visitors just look at the long slender bamboo pole at the bow of the boat: the things hanging on the pole are what are sold on the boat. Sellers do not call out and try to persuade people to buy their goods but customers do not want to leave. They cannot resist the attraction of the red of a cluster of rambutans, the yellow of pineapples and mangoes, the green of guavas, and the violet of eggplants.

Every boat anchoring here is a shop and a house, 2m wide and a few meters long. They are small but the owners are hospitable and generous. If visitors come, they are willing to invite visitors to eat the local fruit.

The water of Ganh Hao River goes to the sea and comes back every day. Is it that because it cannot leave and that it loves and misses the Ca Mau Floating Market? If it is the case with the river, let it be so for people.