  Ho Chi Minh City
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 2723 Ho Chi Minh City Tips.4358 Ho Chi Minh City Photos.0 Ho Chi Minh City Videos. Ho Chi Minh City Pages by Ciambella
Tips 1 - 2 of 2 Ho Chi Minh City Shopping
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Name of Shop: Stall 96, Chợ Lớn
If you are going to have your clothes tailor-made in Saigon, it is best to provide the tailor with the fabric instead of trusting him to find something that suits your taste. Buying your own fabric also help lower the total cost, and in turn, giving you the opportunity to have high quality fabric at lower price.
The best place to buy fabric is Chợ Lớn where stalls after stalls are stocked with an array of import fabric from all over the world as well as natural silk from the northern and central part of the country. The best thing about buying in Chợ Lớn is the wholesale price. There is no worry about bargaining because the price is fixed, low, and offered to everybody.
My niece and her family always buy their fabric from Stall #96 in Chợ Lớn (see the accompanying pictures) but you will not go wrong with any of the stalls.
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Directions: At the Five Point roundabout in Chợ Lớn (Chinatown). This is a very old landmark, the only intersection with a five-point lamppost, everyone in the city knows where it is.
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Name of Shop: Shoes Stalls In Markets
There are over 3000 stalls in Bến Thành Market, a good amount of them sell women clothing and accessories, which does not say much since women in general do spend a good deal of money on themselves (not a bad thing actually). Shoes are always placed at the top of women-related merchandises, so it's not surprising to see that there are many shoes stalls in Bến Thành. However, most of the shoes you find here are not the same as in shoe stores elsewhere, but the typical wooden sabots that are called "guốc" in Vietnamese.
Guốc are made of balsa wood (except straps and soles) and have been popular with Vietnamese women for a century or more. The styles have changed a lot since my childhood. Back then, there was only one body style and three colours: black, white, and natural, with clear or coloured plastic straps and very little decorations. Nowadays, there are many body styles to choose from and straps are much more fashionable.
Two things stay the same over the century: the location and the fitting procedures.
Guốc are not sold in stores, you can only buy them at markets. Enter a stall that sell guốc and you do not see anything else, no other accessories, just rows and rows of wooden shoes with or without straps. Pick out the style, then bargain the price down a bit -- most guốc sellers do not ask for an outrageous price and wait for it to be bargained down, the price is more or less the same everywhere. After the price is agreed upon, you would sit down on one of the low stools and have your feet fitted for the straps of your choice.
During the fitting stage, do not hesitate to ask the seller for second, third or even fourth alteration if the fit is not perfect, and do not pay before a trial walk. Guốc take some getting used to, although they are light on the feet, they are not cushiony thus not comfortable as regular shoes, so a trial walk is very important.
What To Buy: Handpainted or hand carved guốc. Price starts from VND 80,000 for the simplest design. If you buy guốc for a gift, ask the seller not to mount the strap at the point of purchase, and make sure to take plenty of studs with you. The most studs used to mount straps on a pair of guốc are 12, but ask for extra to be on the safe side.
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Theme: Shoes
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alsas Tue Nov 20, 2007 01:25 UTC
do you have an e mail,address for the driver. Thanks Alsas | saracen Tue Dec 12, 2006 02:47 UTC
Thanks for some excellent HCM tips - I go next week and can hardly wait! |
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