Day 2: Regrouping

Ok, so nothing anyone said truly prepared me for the experience of the Ben Thanh market. We started out well and mom located some t-shirts just inside the door. As we went deeper and deeper into the rows, things became more and more overwhelming. The wider aisles had women calling out "something-something-something, Madame" (or that's what I heard). It took me a good 10 minutes of listening to discover the phrase was "I help you, Madame". The narrower aisles had women gently poking your arm to get your attention or pulling your sleeve to show you their wares.

On top of that, there was the currency issue. Mom spent 400,000 Dong on gifts and we spent at least 5 minutes after that wondering how much exactly she had spent dollar wise. And still, if wasn't until well after we left the market, that she remembered that she should have at least tried to bargain. There was a very nice wooden box that I liked but I couldn't breathe long enough to do the math.

It all happens very fast. This first time through, I bought nothing, but instead tried to acclimate myself to the system, the sights, and the smells. Such an odd assortment of booths. You can buy fresh fish right next door to the stall where you can buy t-shirts. There are probably at least 10 booths that sell any particular item or items--the only difference is, the price. So, you have to shop around.



After navigating the market aisles for about an hour, we headed for fresh air. Mind you, this comes with CROSSING THE STREET. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the Olympic sport that is crossing the street, let me tell. Traffic moves in a continuous and yet erratic flow. There does not seem to be any such thing as a traffic light or stop sign. There is a Zebra crossing symbol (and theoretically, when a pedestrian steps into a Zebra crossing, traffic must stop moving). Still, I seriously doubt traffic stops EVER and I have little desire to test the theory! The reality is you stick one foot in front of the other, choose a pace, and walk across the street. You basically turn your head to the side so you can adjust to the pace of the cars. It's a lot like Frogger!

We took a more adventurous route home and succeeded in picking up a young stalker. He was about 10 years old and was desperate to sell mom some Kleenex. He followed us for about 3 blocks, talking softly but incessantly (in Vietnamese) and ignored every refusal to buy. I'm not quite sure at what he disappeared--but I suspect it was when we started crossing the street.

Finally, mom and I decided to return to the hotel to regroup. In the past hour, we have sorted money and figured out the currency rate. For instance, mom's 400,000 dong was the equivalent of about $25 dollars. We also figured out that one of the bills we have is worth 12 cents.

What we haven't solved is water--we need water--and why the A/C isn't turning on in the room, and what exactly should we do about lunch/dinner. update: naturally, the A/C crisis is a silly answer. It wasn't turned on. There is a remote. We didn't know that. Now its on. Whew!

The agency representative is apparently in another province right now with one of the families. Thus, we are on our own until tomorrow morning.