Shopping?

I left Nha Trang alone last night. Joanne, my traveling companion for the last week or so is headed to Dalat. I will miss her company, but she might catch up with me at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

I arrived in Saigon at 6:30 am this morning and after finding a hotel and getting about 5 hours of sleep I set out into a cloudy overcast city that refused to be deterred by the possibility of rain. Business was bustling along as usual with women selling books to tourists, touts asking you to come in for a drink at every cafe you walk by, and of course, the ubiquitous motorbike drivers waving their hand at you and calling "Hey! You need moto?" Determined to see the central part of the city on foot I ignored them all and kept on my way. Until it suddenly started raining. Hard. I sprinted across the street and ducked into the first opening I could find which turned out to be the main entrance to Ben Thanh Market.

Ben Thanh Market is a cavernous building approximately the size of four football fields where you can buy ANYTHING. Imagine a mall, mixed with a grocery store, a butcher, a fish monger, and two dozen restaurants. Now that you have that in your head you need to take away almost all of the empty space that you normally associate with each of those places. Instead of the broad promenades of your average mall you get...

For a tall broad shouldered American with a backpack on, there is no room to pass someone without knocking something off of a rack. Much to the irritation of the shopkeeper. The only limit to the use of space is the height of the Vietnamese. If they were taller, I am certain that the stalls would extend farther towards the ceiling.

What follows is a brief snapshot of some of the things that can be found within Ben Thanh.

Cologne and perfume.

A million and one hair clippy thingies.

Candies. They were about $0.03 each. I bought about 30 different ones. I instantly spit out about 75% of them. The Vietnamese ladies in the market were greatly amused.

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes.

The food court. Effectively just street food indoors. Lunch was $0.65.

Fruit.

White snapper. Alive.

Flowers.

I hope that you found the sheer number of pictures I included in this post a little overwhelming. That way you can begin to understand what it is like to walk through Ben Thanh Market.