Markets in Vietnam

It’s hard to know exactly how many markets in Vietnam and how many different kinds of markets…

Ben Thanh Market at night, Ho Chi Minh City, VIetnam.

In the city, markets usually open late at night. In plain, rural markets or coastal markets, they are opened in the short time at the dawn or dusk, and often referred to “morning market” and “afternoon market”. And the markets open weekly or monthly in a session in mountainous lands. Locals expect going to the market like going to festival. The type of trade by exchanging goods for goods still exist, it is a beautiful icon for “selling and buying” in early days of mankind history.

You will be easily lost in the crowded scene, noisy but fun and warm. They greeting each other as have been known for a long time before… In there, you can enjoy the taste of hometown spread throughout the space. Eyes filled with the bright colors of fruit, products and goods…

If you feel tired after a long time wondering around, it is possible to relax with a drink on hand. Or if you are hungry, take a rustic wooden chair and enjoy the local dishes in the vendors.

Cai Be floating market on Mekong River Delta, Southern Vietnam.

It is difficult to express the feeling in different markets in Vietnam. Each one has its own taste. Come to coastal markets, visitors will find a fresh fish trying to jump over in the bamboo baskets or pots. Shrimps and crabs wiggling, iridescent jellyfish with rainbow colors saying goodbye to the immense sea… You may like some markets in countryside area with green coconut; vegetables, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, onions of unforgettable warm spicy flavors or rice, cassava, potatoes of a hard life… When visiting market in mountainous and remote areas, where selling everything such as the brocade bags, brilliant veil, the rattan baskets, the bearskin, velvet deer, python skin, honey or precious needles brought up from the plains,… Or you can visit the market in the east or southwest of Vietnam with crowded boats, floating market on the river side sagging with fruit tree, rice, and fish from hicks or remote regions in water land of the south…

Well, visiting markets, sometimes visitors will hear the sound of the monochord, erhu or the story in poetry of Nguyen Du, Nguyen Dinh Chieu and other folk artists… Sometimes, you will catch some demonstrations of martial art, circus, comedy rushing quickly… Who knows, you can incidentally find out a traditional herb or cure will help you out of specific diseases as the “prophet said”, maybe.

Each region has its own market and keeps a monopoly value.

Ethnic market in Sapa, Vietnam.

Extra reading about Sapa Tours in Vietnam.

Dong Xuan Market in Hanoi and Ben Thanh market in Saigon, Han market in Danang, Sapa market in the Northwest, Buon Me market in the Central Highlands; Dam Market in Nha Trang; Dong Ba Market in Hue … And so if we have never been here, we will never understand.

There are many reasons that Vietnam markets have its own charming, attract not only locals but also foreigners.

A female scientist, an overseas Vietnamese in the United States, in a letter sent to his girlfriend, she said that her desire and her momentum to come back Vietnam is just to get to the market.

A foreigner, who studies culture, has been to Vietnam many times talked about “Vietnamese markets”: That is the market selling magic, like an explosion of colors, sounds, flavors of nature, both people and country.

Indeed, getting to market is the time when you are immersed in a vibrant culture containing expressive nuances of Vietnamese people.