My sister and I are hard-core shopaholics so we woke up early on our first morning in HCM. Breakfast was provided by the hotel – fried egg with veg, bread, fresh pineapple juice, coffee / tea and bananas.
Right after breakfast we walked to the Ben Thanh Market. This market is where shoppers get to bargain and find everything under one roof. It is crammed with mini stalls that are really closed to each other. There are stalls selling clothes, fabrics, bags, shoes, beddings, souvenirs, food, vegetables, fruits, spices, beauty accessories, antiques, watches, lingerie, coffee / tea, stall for pedicure and manicure, et cetera. One thing that is a total turn-off in this market is the vendors that pull and ‘pester’ each visitor trying to get them to stop by their stalls and hopefully buy their stuff. Prices could be bargained and slashed up to 70% off the price they requested. Walk away and they’ll call you back to close the deal.
This market closes in the evening. In the evening there’s a night market outside Ben Thanh Market. The night market sells similar stuff as the morning market with some dissimilarity.
So we managed to find our way to the Ben Thanh market and walked around the nearby shops before checking the map and find our way back to the hotel on foot. The exhaustion of walking was made worse by the hot and humid weather. Within minutes of stepping out of the hotel, I was drenched in sweat and could literally feel my body being covered with a layer of dust.
Well, the first day was shopping day… of course we tried more phó and the infamous drip coffee.
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