Mui Ne is a popular tourist destination in Phan Thiet Town. The fishing village market only opens a few hours in the morning every day. People come to the village not only to catch a glimpse of fishermen’s life but also to buy fresh seafood.

Visitors should reach the place when the sun just rises. The market is on Huynh Thuc Khang Street, over 20 kilometers from Phan Thiet's center. At dawn fisherwomen stand waiting for fishing boats to return to shore after a long night of catching fish.

On the beach, Ly Thi Tu hurriedly categorizes the fish, shrimp and shellfish from her husband's boat by type and size for sale. The dead ones are removed. "Earlier this used to be a wholesale market where people would come and buy to sell elsewhere. Now many tourists come and like it here, and so when they ask to buy seafood, we sell our products to them," Tu said.

The interesting feature here is that fishermen sell their catch by the aluminum basin. Buyers can choose from large, small and medium basins. Lobster is also sold like this for VND1 million ($43) with four or five in a basin each weighing around half a kilogram.

Nam Phuong, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City, said: "The seafood here is fresh and much cheaper than in other markets and shops. At first I was a bit surprised because the sellers did not weigh the items but instead sold them in basins. I have never seen such a thing. It is a strange but fun experience."

At Mui Ne fishing village, fishermen sell their catch by the aluminum basin. Photo by VnExpress/Khuong Nha.

Vu, who has been working in Mui Ne for over 10 years, said she used to buy and sell from dozens to hundreds of kilograms at a time. "Now if tourists came to buy one or two kilograms, we had to find a scale to weigh that. People weighed right but at times some cheated, so we switched to selling by the basin."

"If you like what you see, you buy. There is no cheating on weigh here," Vu added.

But then some people do sell by the kilogram to tourists, especially lobsters and large squids.