Vietnam's floating market struggles to stay afloat

Can Tho, Vietnam

FIXING weighing scales used to be good business on Vietnam's floating Cai Rang market, but the last repairman on the river now makes just a few dollars a month as modernity pushes traders to land.

Surrounded by dusty old scales on his cluttered houseboat, Nguyen Van Ut says vendors are giving up their boats for better lives on terra firma where supermarkets draw the traders who once thronged the waterway.

"I don't have many customers now. In the past, it was alright, but now many boats have left the floating market …