Our hotel is just a block away from the Ben Thanh
market. The market, located in District
1, is an intense experience. The main
entrance is marked with a large bell tower but the large square structure, that
covers many city blocks, can be accessed from any of the adjacent streets. Once you are inside all your senses are inundated
from every angle. If you are
claustrophobic, germaphobic , agoraphovic or an aphenphosmphobic (Fear of being
touched) Ben Thanh market is not for you.
Inside is a maze of stalls where it appears that almost everything is available
if you search or just ask. While inside
you are swarmed by vendors pitching their wares. Your personal space is constantly attacked by
aggressive vendors who will grab you by the arm and attempt to pull you in the
direction of their stalls in an effort to extract as much of your dong as
possible.
Here is where the art of negotiation is required to ensure
that you don’t get fleeced and leave the market penniless (dongless). In the
market there are many vendors selling some of Vietnam’s finest coffee. Weasel coffee is some of the most expensive,
and most desired, coffee in Vietnam. Weasel
coffee is made by first having a weasel eat the coffee berries. In the digestive tract the weasel’s
proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans making shorter peptides and more free
amino acids. After passing through a weasel’s intestines the beans are
then defecated. The beans are then
gathered, thoroughly washed and then sun dried.
The result, although it sounds strange, is some great coffee. (How do these people think of this
stuff?) Throughout our trip we would
often order coffee which was served to us in cups with their own small coffee
drippers mounted on top of the rim. We
would wait patiently, sometimes, as the thick coffee would slowly drip into our
cups resulting in an amazing cup of coffee.
I really wanted a few of these and some coffee to bring home and in Ben
Thanh Market they are readily available.
I walked around for a while asking multiple vendors their asking price
for this item. Once I found a reasonable
starting price, the negotiations began.
The vendor I chose started his pitch by telling me that he was going to
give me a kilo of his finest weasel coffee and four drippers for a discounted
price of 400,000 dong ($20). After
telling him that his “discounted” price was still way too high, his price began
to fall reaching 300,000 dong quickly.
Not good enough for me I told him, the price then dropped slowly to 250,000
dong. Still not good enough, I made my
offer. “I will take four drippers and I.25
kilos of weasel coffee for 200,000 dong ($10).”
“No, no, no. That is too cheap.” He cried.
“I will sell you four drippers and one kilo of a lower grade coffee for
200,000 dong.” He countered. “No thank you. I will find another coffee seller”, I replied
and began to walk away. As I turned the
deal was made. (I still think I paid
too much.)
Elsewhere in the market you can find every souvenir that you
can think of, and then some. From
t-shirts to Gucci knock offs to ivory inlaid chopsticks. It is all there. There is also a food court. Not like your local shopping mall, this place
is crazy and does not get any more authentic.
Your food is cooked right there in front of you sometimes before it
stops squirming. There are also few
sections of the market that are dedicated to fresh foods, and I mean
fresh. I stopped to take a picture of a
little old man who was cutting up some crab and a fish jumped out of a tub and
landed at my feet. A lady quickly
scooped up the fish that was flopping at my feet and threw it back into the
water filled bucket. Live squid, sea
snails, clams, crabs and a lot of other things that I have never seen before
are available for sale. Another isle is
a vegetarians worst nightmare. Meat is
on display everywhere. Cow brains,
intestines, cow hearts, pig’s legs, pig heads and much more are all out there
in the open air on display. While the
meat section maybe a vegetarian’s worst nightmare, the produce section would
make them drool. They sure do grow some weird
stuff here, but it is tasty.
After the morning in the market and a day filled with
terrorizing the streets of Saigon, we decided to try to gain some good karma
that may offset any of the bad that we may have achieved on the streets. We went to a local school and taught an English
class. We, with the assistance of one of
Keith’s friends, each took a class and spoke with them for an hour to help them
with their conversational English. My
class began with them asking me many simple questions about myself and where I
lived. One of the students asked me
about my house and if I had a car. When
I explained to him about how I lived back home he said, “So you are very rich.”
I quickly replied, “I don’t think so.” I
then followed it up with, “I have traveled through many poor villages during my
time in Vietnam. Compared to them YOU
are very rich.” I also added, “You have
made me much richer by allowing me to speak with you. Cảm
ơn.” (Cảm
ơn= thank you in vietnamese) I hope that they gained as much from the
class as I did.
Posted by Robert the teacher and the student.
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