Shopping can be an interesting – but also a very exasperating experience. So arm yourself with plenty of time and patience and get out there to find the amazing variety of great deals Vietnam…
Shopping can be an interesting – but also a very exasperating experience. So arm yourself with plenty of time and patience and get out there to find the amazing variety of great deals Vietnam has to offer. DON’T miss the markets: among the most atmospheric in Southeast Asia and still the hub of commercial activity everywhere in Vietnam. Notable markets include floating ones in the Mekong Delta, Cho Lon market in the district of Ho Chi Minh City that bears the same name (it actually means big market), the large fruit and flower market in Dalat, any of the major markets in Hanoi, the colorful Sa Pa market and other ethnic minority markets in the mountainous north of the country. DO go early when shopping at local markets. Goods are brought fresh every day from the countryside and without refrigeration they will suffer from the heat as the day drags on. Shopping in many parts of Ho Chi Minh City is now little different from shopping in Bangkok or any other Asian metropolis. Commercial complexes and supermarkets are also sprouting up in Hanoi and other sizeable towns. Elsewhere things change more slowly.
Before full-blown supermarkets arrived in Vietnam, there were only minimarts: compact operations only present in the big cities, catering almost I exclusively to a foreign clientele. Plenty of these little international stores still exist, stocking all kinds of surprising, exotic and expensive goods, catering to the hankerings of various expert groups. Over the years, caviar and Russian salmon have become scarcer, Fruit Loops and Californian Chardonnay more abundant. Still no real Marmite, though. DO check the expiry dates carefully on any imported produce you buy: many of the more obscure items in these shops have been quietly gathering dust (not to say rotting away) for years. In Hanoi, you may notice a baffling remnant of the city’s old ways. Tradesmen as part of Chinese-style commercial guilds were traditionally grouped together geographically (as many have remained in the Old Quarter), but a more modern breed of shopkeepers, such as those selling televisions or making photocopies, often elect to bunch together in a similar way. !he practical upshot of this is that you may spend several weeks In Hanoi convinced that it is simply impossible for the moment to obtain: say, a tennis racquet. Then, one day, you will turn a corner into an unexplored street and be confronted by an entire row of shops selling nothing but tennis racquets.
