Fish, Vegetables and Pointy Hats

Markets Near Vung Tau

Just around the bend from the city of Vung Tau the markets along the waters-edge are alive with women sporting a veritable fruit salad of two piece get ups, stained in squid ink and fish guts, splotches of red betel nut juice, scales and vegetable parts, topped off with a pointy hat and bursting forth with some of the best smiles I have seen for a long time. 

Everyday they do this, natter amongst bucket loads of tiny fish that look like a pile of scales, small crabs making a clattering dash for somewhere to hide, writhing eels squirming around in buckets, some arching up like cobras, perched on tiny plastic stools the women work hard in a pretty rugged environment.

The men, contracted to unload the catch from the fishing boat, waiting patiently in line with their crate dragging hooks ready to drag a load into the market. Guys all standing in-line like it's an audition for some pirate movie. Blokes heaving tonnes of sea-life in to the bellies of waiting trucks. Men with cigarettes dangling from their mouths, the ash falling like a gentle snowflake on to the murdered fish.

It's pure carnage, the sea doesn't stand a chance, fish have no hope if this is a standard day at the fish market. Bits of other animals abound in a different market, the feet of chickens all yellow and weird reaching out for potential customers, dead ducks, gutted geese and then off to the side, a doorway and from within came an undersea green glow and inside the room not five feet away from Armageddon are a couple of cherubs playing games on an iPad.