Culture · 2026-10-21
Cai Rang answered a sour boat trip with a 5am song
After a visitor’s complaint about a Cai Rang boat, Can Tho’s tourism department said it had called the operator in. It also said đờn ca tài tử is kept on boats at the market from 5:00 to 7:00 in the morning, every week.
Department statement reported 21 September 2026. Which mornings: Check on arrival.
A bad morning on the river reached the department. On 21 September, Tuổi Trẻ reported that a visitor who had booked a private boat for two at Cai Rang said photography was then refused, and that two small bowls of bún riêu and bánh canh cost 150,000 đồng together. Sầm Long Giang, deputy director of Can Tho’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the post may have described an August incident. The department identified a passenger boat operator, called that operator in, and told it to correct the service. Giang also said ward authorities watch the market directly, and that the department had asked each agency to tighten its own piece.
The part a traveler can use is the music, and the limit on what was promised. Giang said the department had instructed the Center for Culture and Arts to keep a đờn ca tài tử programme on boats at the market from 5:00 to 7:00 in the morning, every week. The English report does not name the days. Check on arrival for which mornings the ensemble is actually on the water. Giang’s longer explanation of the quiet river is that fewer traders remain because roads improved and the economy changed, and that a preservation plan is being studied so staying on the water is worth it. He did not, in this interview, give a new count of boats.
