Ho Chi Minh City Shopping Tips by dinhyen

Saigon is a bargain basement in more ways than one. Clothing is probably cheapest. My companions bought fabric and had several dresses tailor-made. I myself had some suits made for somewhere around $20/each. However, to get the best deal, you'd have to bargain. This is unnatural even for me, who speaks Vietnamese fluently. You don't have to be an expert haggler, but as a rule of thumb shouldn't fall for the first price the vendor quotes. Or the second. Or the third.

Backpackers (known as Tay Ba Lo or "backpack-westerner" in Vietnamese) mostly concentrate in the Pham Ngu Lao area of District 1. Many domestic tourists come here to "see the hippies" :) I saw a street vendor with a stack of reproduced Lonely Planet guidebooks for less than $5 each. Hmm, but I already got my VT!



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Asia is a great place to get your fresh fruit and vegetable. I have a predilection for tropical fruit, bananas, rambutans, papayas, longans, yes even durians. They are dirt cheap, whereas apples and grapes are expensive by comparison. In some places, you can even buy them off the tree. We bought a kilo of longans for less than USD0.75!!! I know someone who once cleaned two kilos of rambutans in one sitting. Okay okay, I admit it, it was me.



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I had my eyes on that uber-stylish red, white, and blue coffure. It has me written all over it. If only it weren't so hot that day...



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