Yelllllow there🙋, I've decided to start a series of "stories" about life and living in Vietnam as I have found it so far. I have been in Central Vietnam for just over a month and have found myself adapting rather quickly 🙃, or at least I had thought....
My girlfriend and I, as well as some friends who have been in our city, Ha Tinh, for some time decided to take a trip to the local market the other day. As usual any expectations or ideas of what to expect from this little adventure that we had were completely wrong! 😅 that seems to happen here alot...
You arrive at the market and the first thing that hits you is this terrible, ponging smell of wet spice, rotting vegetables and freshly cut up livestock. As you can imagine it's quite a glamorous scene of filth and bartering😄😄.
As we proceed I see that you can buy anything from 1970s Honda Dream 125 mo-ped parts to chicken embryos😲. The local people seem to almost set up shop first and set up home later; with many make-shift beds/sleeping mats scattered everywhere.
When it comes to the purchasing of meat (or animal parts😲) nothing and no piece of the animal in question is spared. For example should you wish to buy chicken - you can buy filleted meat, or meat with bones, or just feet, or just the head or even the blood of the chicken to make a fine soup🙊
I think I have given you enough details about the gory bits... for now 😉
So what about the good stuff??
- You can buy rice for next to nothing,
- You will find many different favorable spices that aren't available at the grocery store,
- You can buy in bulk - which I did for eggs; buying 60 eggs at the market because at the grocery store eggs only come in boxes of 10, among many other cool things**.
- Generally you can save a few bucks by going to the local market, but in my opinion the saving is not worth fending off the stench as well as the locals wanting to touch you 😂
Check out the video below showing what our day at the market looked like... after reading my post and then watching the video I hope you'll have a clearer idea of what the experience was like 🙌!
Until next time....
😎