The Fish Market of My Dreams
A man working at the fish market in Hoi An, Vietnam, shovels recently crushed ice on to red trays of fish.
I’m almost too excited about these photos to share them.
The first time I visited Hoi An was in 2019. I was solo-backpacking around Southeast Asia and ending up spending about a week in Hoi An. One morning my friends and I biked out to find a bamboo boat ride and then we split apart for the afternoon. They went to the beach while I decided to bike around aimlessly in the April heat and humidity of central Vietnam.
After crossing a very high bridge, I made a left and decided to follow the coastline. I came across a fish drying operation. I grabbed my camera and took a few photos of the women, in long sleeves, pants, and hats, setting out fish to dry. The small fish were set on frames and laid along the road to dry. They would bring them out of a small building on carts and then work in partners or alone to set them on the pavement. After working my way closer, I ended up walking into the small building where they were dropping the frames into steaming vats before setting them out to dry. Most women wore rubber boots as the floor was covered in water. I watched for a while and then headed back to my bike to continue on down the coast. Before biking off, I knew I had to return to this spot someday with a drone and photograph these squares of fish filling the ground.
Fast forward to exactly five years. I’m back in Vietnam and back in Hoi An for the 3rd time. This time with my drone and an alarm set for 4:30 AM.
Now I didn’t realize that the spot I stopped five years ago was down the street from a fish market. Boats carrying tons of fish and seafood returned to this harbor after two days at sea, traveling almost to the Philippines. When I hopped off my bike at the market onto the streets full of people and fish, my heart soared. My head was on a swivel, I couldn’t press the shutter button fast enough. I was elated. Everywhere there was motion and chatter and seafood. I went down by the water, out on the docks (staying out of everyone’s way), and down the streets to fill my eyes with all the bright colors and patterns that this market held.
After the sun rose higher and the heat kicked in, trucks filled with blocks of ice rolled up. The ice was crushed right there on the street and shoveled over the fish before it was loaded on to trucks and carted off. A lot of larger seafood was sold off earlier in the morning and the sellers turned to filling square frames with small fish to dry in the sunshine. I stuck around to watch and take some pictures, finally flying my drone above this scene to capture what I had thought about for years.
A little side note: Just a week or so before this, I saw a reel on Instagram saying something about “What is something five years ago would be proud of you for accomplishing?” I remembering thinking to myself, “I’m not sure if there’s anything.” It really stuck in my mind. What had I accomplished that I really wanted to? Did I even have any goals? And then I flew my drone in the spot I had set my sights on almost exactly to the day five years prior. That’s something five years ago me would really be proud of.
So here are some of my photos from that morning. It’s definitely not all of them, but some of my favorites from my camera. My drone favorites are still on the way.
Red trays filled with fish and ice smoke in the morning light.
