A sampan tour along a peaceful delta

My companions and I are on a private , 15-foot-long wooden boat , or sampan, equipped with an outboard motor. It is captained by Han and Ha, a married couple in their early 40s who have been guiding tours along the Mekong for 10 years. Their first mate, a 3 -month-old puppy named Dollar, stumbles around the sampan's planking. Bougainvillea, papaya, and palm trees line the riverbanks, spilling their greenery over the water.

Hiring a sampan in Can Tho costs anywhere from $5 to $20, depending on how long and how far you want to go. Luxury travelers can take a day cruise through Victoria Hotel Can Tho, which offer s a gourmet seafood lunch, complete with white tablecloths, for $25 per passenger.

The smaller, more navigable sampans like ours are suitable for travelers who want to be in the middle of the action at floating markets, while the larger junks circle the perimeter.

As the sun creeps into a hazy sky, the river stirs with activity. Two men load a docked sampan with fishing nets, and a small-scale ice factory starts its turbines. A decaying two-story boat inhabited by a family of six glides along . One of the young girls takes a break from hanging laundry to wave as we pass .

Our first stop is the Cai Rang floating market, where nearly 100 sampans are clustered chaotically . Each boat has a specific product to trade or sell, as advertised on a pole mounted at the helm displaying a sample item. Cabbages, coconuts, eggplant, oranges, and even soft drinks are arranged on the boats in geometric stacks . Ha, the female half of our crew, switches off the motor and navigates the maze of boats using a 10-foot-long branch that she keeps handy . She stops briefly to purchase a bag of rice from a passing rowboat, then maneuvers to the outskirts of the market so we can snap photos.

After discovering that I speak Vietnamese, Ha's husband, Han, gives up on his English, learned from talking to foreign tourists. He tells us that some of his customers were soldiers during what the Vietnamese call the "American War in Vietnam."