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| Meat Department at Ben Thanh Market |
As we move through the market, the merchants grab our arms
and ask us if we want to buy whatever it is they sell. If we tell them ‘no’, they ask what it is we
are seeking. Stopping to look closely at
merchandise is seen as an opportunity for the merchant to close in for the
sale.
The process starts with the merchant pulling out a
calculator, and punching in a suggested price.
If the price is in Dong, the number entered is presumed to be in
thousands (if 100 is entered, this is 100,000 Dong, or a little less than
$5.00). If the shopper is interested in
the item, the calculator is passed, and a counter offer is entered. The process continues until an agreed upon
price is reached, or the buyer walks away.
Invariably, walking away will cause the merchant to accept whatever the
buyer entered as the final offer.
Merchant, with calculator in hand, starts the bidding
I end up buying a bed cover because I foolishly make a
counter offer. It’s a nice bed cover,
but I should have walked away without making a counter offer. We get into the spirit of things and make a
few other small purchases.
After the market, we start wandering the downtown
streets. Near the river, we find the old
American Embassy building. This is the
embassy where Ken and our mother worked. It was bombed on March 30,
1965. Ken and my mother were in the
annex, right next door to the embassy when the car bomb exploded. Neither of them was hurt, although two
Americans were killed.
Old American Embassy (left side of picture)
Following the visit to the embassy, we head for the Bitexco
Financial Center building. This is a 68
story building in Saigon, opened in 2007.
It epitomizes modern Saigon’s embrace of capitalism. We get tickets to go up to the skydeck to
view the sprawling city.
On the skydeck of the Bitexco building, we are able to get a
panoramic view, which is hampered by haze.
The haze is also a hallmark of the rapid growth in traffic and the
resultant pollution. A good portion of the population wears face masks to
presumably filter the air.
We take several pictures through the haze, and on this 95
degree day, enjoy the free bottle of water offered on the skydeck. Then it’s off to lunch and some more
wandering around.
View from Observation Deck of Bitexco Building
Our flight to Siem Reap leaves about 4:00 PM, so we head
back to the hotel to pack. Because the
baggage limits are less on our flights to Cambodia and Laos, Ken and I load his
large suitcase with items we can live without until our return to Saigon. Ken has an extra duffle bag which he uses as
a suitcase and we entrust the large one to the hotel concierge.
We head back to Tan Son Nhat airport. Ken sets off the security check alarm because
of his titanium hip. He gets
wanded. I make it through okay, even
though I apparently have a lethal weapon in my carry-on luggage.
Our plane takes off pretty much on time for the one hour
flight to Siem Reap. On the plane, we
are given immigration forms to complete.
When we land, we are told there is one more necessary form. This form seems to serve the same purpose as
the one when we arrived in Saigon. In
other words, it doesn’t matter what we write, as long as there is something on
the form.
We are met at the modern airport by our guide. The airport is much larger than when I was
there in the 60s. We learn from our
guide that there were about 1.2 million visitors to Siem Reap the previous
year. And the numbers are rising
dramatically, partly because the Angkor Temples are a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
From the airport, we are taken to dinner, which also
features a show of ‘Aspara’ dances, each of which tells a story. I can’t manage to stay awake during the entire
show, even though the dances are quite interesting. Jet lag simply catches up to me.
Monkey Dance in Siem Reap, Cambodia
From the dances, we head to the Tara Angkor Hotel. We check in, and have no trouble falling asleep.
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