The Hoi An Fish Market

Hoi An is coastal town in Central Vietnam. It is about 30km south of Danang and is famous for its abundance of tailor shops, its beautiful French architecture, and its excellent cuisine. However, my favorite thing about Hoi An is the morning fish market. The fish market is smelly, crowded, and packed with aggressive, pointy-elbowed (ouch!) old women selling and buying fish.

To attend the market, you must get up very early. By the time the sun is coming up, the market is already in full swing. Later in the day, the market miraculously transforms itself into a tourist hell – something like a miniature, low-budget version of San Francisco's Fisherman’s Wharf.


Tourist hell is a narrow gauntlet that must be run, while on both sides shop owners are coming at you saying, “You buy something.” Sometimes this is phrased as a question. More often, it sounds like a direct order! Having gone to the fish market in the early morning, and later returning only hours later to find tourist hell, I actually thought I had become disoriented and was on a different street!

In case you need to escape from a new-found parasitic twin at the market, there are always lots of water taxi’s standing by. You won’t need to find them, they will find you. My escape was facilitated by the woman in the lower left of the picture above (notice the betel nut smile!), but when I was dropped off, the woman in the track suit wanted payment too. Um, no!

So what is the appeal? The market is full of life: the good, the bad and the ugly. It is full of sights, sounds, smells and activity. One morning there was even a fight between some of the women over who got to buy a basket of fish. The women were yelling and grabbing the basket and the fish, while another woman was cracking up at the absurdity of it all.

What I like best is that the fish market is not there for the tourists (that happens later), it is all locals doing business and making a living. I find it much more interesting than the more easily found experience that I call, "Fisherman’s Wharfs around the world."

Far North Vietnam

Flower H'mong Woman

Katrina has just posted on her blog regarding our trip to the far north of Vietnam. This region is near the China border and is not visited by many tourists. This makes visiting far more exciting and rewarding. Being a curious novelty to the people that you are visiting makes it much easier to make portraits, and allows for the possibility of cultural exchange.

Rice Vendor

Flower H'mong Woman and Child

Market Woman

Flower H'mong Woman

While we were photographing in the market, I spotted the old woman, pictured above, curiously watching us. While she is Flower H'mong, I tried a few words we had learned from our Black H'mong friends. It seems that their languages are quite similar, and she was delighted to have her picture taken. When she saw her picture on the back of the camera, she was completely tickled. This is a far cry from the many people in touristed areas who now ask you to take their picture and then demand money. Homie don't play that.

Another thing that I love about this region are the ponies that the people here use to transport their goods. I am also enamored of the woven bridles and wooden saddles that adorn them.

Outskirts of a Flower H'mong Village

Village Boy

... with Dress Shirt and Bone Amulet

Several years ago we visited a remote market in this region. From the looks of astonishment we received, we might as well have been landing in a spaceship, rather than creaking into the market in a Toyota minivan. We had a fascinating visit while it lasted, but it was not long before some police appeared and told us that we had to leave. If only my phrasebook had a translation from, "We mean no harm to your planet."