Chau Doc floating market and floating fish farms

An early morning spent cruising through Chau Doc's floating market will have plenty of photo ops. Head out early and hold off on breakfast. Floating noodle, coffee and fruit stalls are in abundance in the market serving the market sellers.

The market is mainly an exchange of fruit and vegetables.

Basa or catfish is a major export from Chau Doc and the standard tour of the town includes a visit to a floating basa fish farm. Basa is popular in the west as frozen fish product and an ingredient in fish based dishes. 

The number of floating bass farms has fallen away in the last decade. Local farmers told me falling prices were making things difficult for farmers to make a living. There are also environment concerns with large scale river farming of this type.

You'll likely only spend 20 minutes or so at a fish farm. Your host will feed fish and create a minor frenzy and that's about it. It's an easy addition to a visit to the floating market and the floating homes are interesting as well.


Travel tips

You can organise a boat through your hotel or head down to the water the afternoon before and find a boat operator yourself. Expect to pay between 100,000 and 200,000 VND depending on how long you plan to cruise.
 
You may want to include a visit to the floating fish farms on the other side of town as well.