Experience the best of Cai Be

Cai Be lies on the Tien River, the northern arm of the Mekong, where canals run down towards the delta towns of Vinh Long and Can Tho. Its floating market, where traders have long sold pineapples, pomelos and other fruit and vegetables from boats moored together, is the town's best-known sight, and a large Catholic church stands above the riverfront.

Small workshops along the canals make rice paper, puffed rice, coconut candy and rice wine, and the river islands hold orchards and old wooden houses. Boats take the quiet side-channels to Vinh Long and its fruit gardens.

Fresh tropical fruit, rice-paper rolls, river fish grilled or cooked in clay pots, and sticky rice with coconut are staples of Mekong cooking. The market is liveliest early in the morning, when the boats come in loaded, and most of the rain falls in the summer months.