The Ben Thanh Central Market was original a market location that predated the arrival of the French in the 19th Century. The building was rebuilt in A.D. 1914.
It is an indoor/outdoor market, which includes a wet market and a wide variety of items for sale.
...including coffee stands:
Ho Chi Minh (or "Uncle Ho" as we heard him referred to more than once) is in a lot of places:
Wet markets, motor bikes and coffee stands, wonder if there is one of the latter down in the research stations in the Antarctic TB. Uncle Ho and Lenin, both embalmed.....who said the communists don't have gods?
ReplyDeleteNylon12, it was an interesting combination of novelty and expected items.
DeleteWe will visit the mausoleum (but not the Body) of Uncle Ho later in Hanoi.
I like the idea of open markets. They are more community friendly than chain stores. We have a few "flea markets" in the county, one even sells produce. The farmers market is in the next county over, so I rarely visit that one.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see everything clean and tidy, with no discarded trash here and there.
Leigh, it was definitely a novelty.
DeleteI will say that this market had a mix of "tourist" and "real people" items to make it functional - as opposed to, say, The Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul where 90% of the vendors all seem to be tourist oriented.
The cleanliness of many parts of Vietnam was noticeable. One of visual differences between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Nothing like an Asian open air market to make me thankful for our sheltered and relatively uncrowded supermarkets. I like the experience but am glad that ours is different.
ReplyDeleteEd - I am not a huge fan of the crowds, but did find the variety of goods interesting.
DeleteI do not know that I would ever shop at a wet market. Me shopping at a Farmer's Market is enough to stress me out.