One of our first stops in Saigon was the Ben Thanh Market, centrally located in the downtown area. This indoor market has been around for almost a hundred years, starting with the French colonists who called it "Les Halles Centrales."Just like the traditional markets in Hong Kong, this one is loud and crowded, and seems to sell just about every kind of small household item. For the tourists, there are lots of clothing and accessories, including souvenir t-shirts printed with "Good Morning Vietnam" or Uncle Ho's portrait. For folks wanting more traditional souvenirs, you can get conical straw hats, lacquerware, or embroidered silk scarves.
Tourists might also be interested in the stalls selling copy watches. The salesmen who work these shops try to chat up potential customers in an amazing number different languages. I watched one fellow try to lure in customers with greetings and some small talk in English, Japanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. One end of the market is dominated by groceries, with fresh vegetables and fruit stacked in colorful displays. The smell of durian cuts through the air as women sit peeling and preparing the fruit for sale. Other stalls smell earthy and pungent, displaying dried roots and herbs in huge glass jars.
A lot of coffee is for sale in this market. The following photo shows a canister labeled with one of the more notorious varieties: weasel coffee. It's made by feeding coffee beans to a type of civet. The beans pass through the civet's system, where its digestive enzymes allegedly enhance the flavor. The beans are then are harvested from the droppings. I didn't taste it, so I have no idea if this method really works. I just want to know, who discovered this process, and how? What made them think this would be a good idea?
This market is also famous for its street food-style stalls. Just about every kind of Vietnamese food is available, from pho to fresh spring rolls.
There's very little by way of conventional tables and chairs. You either pull up a barstool and sit at the counter, or use a pair of small, square plastic stools, sitting on one while dining off the other. Other stalls have very short stools you can squat on, while being served on low tables.
I started to think of these plastic stools as one of the symbols of Saigon. Everywhere I went, I saw people using these stools as chairs, display stands, and tables, with the legs cut off at varying heights. 
Around lunchtime, young women began walking around the market bearing great silver trays of really delicious-looking food: noodles, heaps of herbs and bean sprouts, hard-boiled eggs, rice, and stir-fried dishes, all accompanied by little bowls of dips and sauces. It looked to me like it was a lunchtime delivery service, serving the vendors who worked in the market.
Sadly, we didn't eat lunch here, but we did get to try a lot of other places, which I will write about in a future post.
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