More pictures from Saigon

The first tour we explored in Saigon is Benh Than Market. It is a big market where you can find anything, 'parang malaking tiangge'. It is clean and organized. We went there at 11 am and went home at 3pm. Our lunch is at Pho 24, recommended by most of the sales ladies at Benh Than. I realized maybe pho means noodles, because they only offer noodles and spring rolls. But the food is great. Actually we ended again there on Friday when we returned to Behn Than, as highly requested by Mommy Josie, Joyce's Mom. The first day Dennis bought a Vietnamese man's formal shirt so i bought one for Marlowe too. I hope his disappointment will be eased by this shirt. Dennis said they can use this when we go view concerts at the CCP. I just hope they will not use them at the same time. On Fri i bought a Vietnam dress and a blouse for Leony, and a lot of T-shirts for my friends because Mom Josie bought a lot too. My interesting finds are the art sketches, which actually are more expensive than the long formal dresses. I found them expensive, but eventually decided i really like them. The typical ladies in traditional dress with 'salakot' on bicycles is a common subject for these sketches. I got 5 for my closest friends and 1 for myself.

Entrance to the Benh Than Market


Colorful dried fruit and vegetable preserves
Colorful layers of bags

This are mounds of different colors of sugar. I dont know the differences. I actually smell them and these are really sugar-smelling crystals.

Do you know what these are? Dried sea cucumber or 'trepang' for Chinese (yata).

I love this one, a finely sculpted young coconut for the juice (buko). I wonder why their buko juice is really sweeter than ours, even if ours is really very freshly harvested. It could be the variety. I remember Vietnamese buko is as sweet as the Thailand buko. However, the Vietnamese is more nicely sculpted. Both remains white and not oxidized for long periods. The postharvest people knows what they do to let it stand white for a long time, but i will not tell you how. Secret!