First of all, Happy New Year guys!
I had to say "Wow this is how life in the deep-south of Vietnam really looks like" when I first visited Long Xuyen. Everything here felt so "transparent". The way people talk, how they express their emotion, the taste of the food, and millions of things just give me the feeling that they never try to hide anything, or they are not good at it. I could just see their stories through the way they walk that how pure the energy here is.
We went there in a rain season of the South so if the forecast tell us the next day is a sunny day, we will be outside walking all day.
It is never a day that I did not go to Long Xuyen market. Even for a person grew up in the countryside of Vietnam, my whole childhood is attached to the market because my mom worked there, I was still amazed to observe people at the market of Long Xuyen everyday. I did not stop until the third month we stayed in this city. The life here is just so wild and different to what I knew.
We walked through any alley that we could find, tried any food that we could it, and that is why I gained so much weight after the trip. So let's just walk around and check out what we found in Long Xuyen traditional market.
Where is this market though?
Guys, you can not miss it. Long Xuyen market is right at the city center. You will be able to find it without using the maps. Just drive around the city for 10 minute and it will be right on your face 😁. The market is quite big, I think asking local might be a better idea than following the map's direction.
People selling secondhand shoes and purses on the side of the road
Let's walk around
Yeah that's how we cut the ice in Vietnam guys.
The first thing I found it is different between market people in the South compare to the North is they all wear some kind of colorful shirts. It is so rare to find a lady with a black or white outfit. It could not click in my head how they can survive in the hot deep-south seeing these burning colors everyday.
That was my first time seeing a guy cutting a huge stack of ice with a knife because I thought they do it with a machine. But I was dumb. They must save so much money by doing it this way since his speed seems even faster than the machine.
People selling stuffs on the street, we make the street rules here guys!
My partner couldn't believe in his eyes that people just sell everything on the street while tons of bikes driving through the market. I told James, this is where we buy fresh food. And how we know it is fresh? Because we believe that when they do not store food in the fridges for days but it still looks new then it must be new. We die by our belief and luckily I'm healthy so far.
You can find anything that you can think of here. Clothes, food, jewelry, accessories, cuisine for gifts, tailors for $1, fixing shoes, etc. I actually do not have any picture of street tailors but I bet you that you can never find anything similar to this in the North. They have a street full of tailors with their old machine working all day. Sometimes if they are not too busy, they will fix your worn clothes in 20 minutes from $1, they never refuse to work with anything, they'll find the way to fix everything. Northern tailors always work at proper stores and they rarely take any task that too easy. This is one thing that makes me want to stay in the South longer.
These clothes stores just have discount 50% all year, some stores even have boards said they sell things for cheap to shut down all seasons.
The tool of a key guy. He can make the copies of any key you bring to him.
In the market, they sell different kind of things for morning, lunch and afternoon hours. In the morning they normally sell fresh food and you have to come here before 10 am if you want to eat breakfast. They mostly have Vietnam noodle soup with fish or beef. I personally like the fish soup that specifically made in Long Xuyen because they put some veggies and the YELLOW FLOWERS which I've never seen in the North. They call it "bún cá lóc" and the flower is "điên điển". After the "main course", you also have many options for dessert, we normally have some cakes but prepare yourself that it is really sweet.
My head is spinning around everytime I see this electric wires
We lost in a tiny alley nearby Long Xuyen market
This is the moment of the year to me. Seeing this lady care the soup one while driving bike. It just looks unbelievable how she handle it with such a confident attitude. If I were her, I would not think about that to begin with. It is quite entertaining to see other people just finished shopping at the market and went home right at the same time.
It is just how real life is in Long Xuyen city and deep-south area in general too.
I hope that you guys enjoy our walk and had a nice time of reading this story.
Thank you so much and Happy New Year!