15 May 2018 - Day 4 - Shopping and eating in Ho Chi Minh City

Before I left for HCMC I had extensively searched for information on the internet and shortlisted places I wanted to see, foods I wanted to sample and the drinks that had to be tried. When I woke up this morning I opened my pocket book to review what was left over after the first three days in HCMC. There were many museum still left in the list, but I decided that they would be given the short shrift because the displays were mostly in Vietnamese and quite long on propaganda. I decided that I would explore the Ben Thanh Market first because it is a favourite with tourists who are interested in picking up a good bargain, besides savoring local delicacies in the numerous food stalls inside the market in a hygienic environment.

Breakfast this morning comprised of toast and omelette with juicy cut fruits. While having breakfast I checked with Ms. Yang about doing a bit of shopping for coffee, dips and the like. She told me that the cheapest and the best buys would be in the co.op market; there is a branch within walking distance from the homestay, she told me. The Grab bike Ms. Yang booked for me dropped me at the Ben Thanh market. Traffic diversions were in force near the market where subway works are in progress. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures of the city and was formed out of early agglomerations of market and trading shops near the Saigon River. The initial market was destroyed by fire and in its place a new and grander one came up in the vicinity at the end of the 19^th century. Ms. Yang told me that excellent deals can be had if one had the courage and patience to bargain. She also told me that I should move around the markets and get the general pricing mood before even deciding what the fair bargain price would be. I am extremely poor at bargaining. And therefore, despite being armed with sensible advice I knew I would end up with bargains that went horribly wrong.

I was quite taken in by the cleanliness of the large market and the variety of products for sale. Majority of shops were related to readymade clothes, fabric, footwear, luggage, food articles, art and jewelry. There were rows and rows of shops packed with early morning bargain hunters and logistics personnel delivering fresh stocks. Name the brand and it was there. Skechers shoes that I bought online in India for INR 5000 plus was available in shops for less than the equivalent of INR 2000! Shops vied with one another too woo customers. In a hushed tone they would quote a price slightly cheaper than the previous shop. They were keen to strike their first deals and hence, the undercutting. Otherwise, I am told, that they are quite steadfast unless the purchase is in bulk. At a luggage store a couple of Spanish ladies checked out a couple of pieces of luggage and almost swooned when the shopkeeper told them that it would cost them VND 400,000 per piece. They kept on feeling the luggage around the edges and kept on saying, “Oh my God, just twenty bucks”. The lady who had quoted the price looked perplexed: she did not know if she had quoted more or less! Vietnam is one place where your currency goes a long way if you are from one of the western countries or from a wealthy Asian country. After looking around a bit and firming up on a couple of things I wanted to buy I decided to take a break and mentally work out the bargain I should seek.

That needed a cool head. Therefore, I headed to the food court and took a table at a shop that had a menu of all sorts of exotic drinks. I fetched my handbook from the pocket and started looking up the menu. There it was, Suong Sau. Which is grass jelly with coconut milk, a popular must-have while in HCMC. I took permission and filmed the drink being made. It was superb and the right antidote for the heat and humidity of the city. The menu made my mouth water. I wanted to have so many other stuff that were on it. However, coconut milk-based drinks are heavy. I sat in the shop taking in the drink slowly and observing customer behavior in the market. Locals shoppers are vastly outnumbered by foreign tourists. I found that locals hang around some more for better deals than foreign ones. The latter make quick mental currency conversions and strike less than optimum deals. When my turn came to pick up T-shirts and luggage I started by quoting 40% of the price first quoted. I thought the shopkeepers would snigger and ignore me. But, instead, they kept humoring me to quote a ‘better price’. Finally, after many rounds of punching numbers on a calculator I struck deals at 50% of the original quote. I bought two bags and a couple of T-shirts.

On the way back to the homestay I dropped by at the co/op store Ms. Yang had mentioned. I had wanted to pick up premix coffee, which I use for the morning cuppa back home., and a few other stuff. After spending considerable time going through the displays I picked up premix for making both hot and cold coffee, rice paper, lemon pepper salt and a few other dips and sauces that were hard to find in Chennai. I also picked up two cans of 333 and Saigon Bia. In the three days that I had been in HCMC I had not had even a drop of alcohol! That was strange, and I intended to correct that record in the night. The checkout was smooth, but I had a lot of luggage to walk back to the homestay with. By the time I reached there I was huffing and puffing and wet from head to toe with sweat. I turned on the air conditioning to full strength and changed into shorts and changed the T-shirt. I was quite keen to take another look at the bags I had bought. The first one was a large duffel with wheels and the second one was a medium casual overnighter type. I was aghast to find that the casual overnighter I had brought with me was a much smaller one than what I had bargained for. In the shop, at the last minute, I had changed my choice of colour and took the one I liked without checking if it matched what I had purchased. I had to go back to the market and try to get the bag changed. I took a Grab bike and set forth again to the market. While I reached it without much ado the job would be to find the shop where I had done the purchase. I walked around for some time and after a short search I located the shop. The lady didn’t even argue when I told her the mistake I had made. She gave me the exchange I wanted, and I left the market soon.

Back in the homestay I narrated the stories of the morning to Ms. Yang and she felt that I had bargained well for the bags. Her own estimation for the luggage was higher than what I had paid for them. She told me that by 4 pm she would get me, from a shop in one of the alleys nearby, Goi Cuon, which ranks among Vietnam’s most famous foods. Each translucent rice paper roll is packed with rice vermicelli, greens and various combinations of meat and fish. Ms. Yang was ensuring that I try as many items of the local cuisine as I could during the stay there. In some ways, I was getting embarrassed because she was spending so much money on me. Promptly at 4 pm she summoned me to try out Goi Cuon. With her sister for company I polished off four sticks of veg and non-veg rolls dipped in peanut and sweet chili sauces. That was another item crossed out in the pocket book.

The evening was reserved for Water Puppetry show at the Golden Dragon. I walked to the center and bought a ticket for the first evening show. At the counter the girl told me that she had only a seat right in the rear of the theatre. But when I was ushered into the hall by costumed boys and girls I had a decent seat in the third row from where the show could be seen unhindered. The show was novel to me because a body of water is the stage. The puppets used are made from wood and lacquered, often weighing up to 15 kgs. Puppeteers stand in water and weave stories with puppets that are manipulated using bamboo sticks and strings. The show is accompanied by instruments and vocals, two teams that sit on either side of the water stage. While I could not make out the content of the show – except that they were agrarian in context and folklore in content - the sheer energy of the show was mesmerizing. The tradition of water puppetry dates back to the 11^th century rural and agrarian Vietnam, I was told. At the end of the show the puppeteers came up to the water stage and took their bows. It was indeed a fascinating experience.

After polishing off the two cans of beer I had earlier bought from the co.op store I walked to one of the outlets of Mon Hue, which is a chain of restaurants serving traditional Hue cuisine with secret recipes, close to the homestay. I chose to have Mi Quang (rice noodles with charcoal marinated pork and herbs), which was every bit as tasty as was promised. The range of foods in HCMC has been amazing cuisine and the best part is that, with hardly any use of oil and zilch masala, the foods are light and digest easily. The other thing is relish in HCMC is watching the traffic flow. There is method in the madness, is all I can say. To an outsider, other than an Asian, the scenes could be life threatening. But, I never saw an accident nor were vehicles dented and scratched. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t dare to drive in the city; Grab bikes would just be fine for me from both convenience and cost points of view.