Ho Chi Minh City Adventures: Day 10: August 30, 2014

Today was our first free day since we stepped off the plane about eight days ago. We all began our day later this morning than we have since we've been here, and at noon we headed out for lunch. We had street food and it was my first time trying phở (pronounced "fa"). This dish has noodles in it, but I ate most of it because I was so hungry.

After lunch we headed out to explore the city. We met up with Nhựt (aka Alex) so he could help us bargain if we bought anything. Our first stop was Ben Thanh Market where we just looked around. Everywhere we went people yelled out "Would you like a shirt, Miss?" or "We can make your size, Miss!". There were stands selling t-shirts, fabric, bags, food, fresh meat and vegetables, drinks, or offering services like tailoring. Basically, if there's a chance they could make money off of it, they were selling it.

When we were done perusing the stalls, a few of the girls headed off to get pedicures while the rest of us went to some other nearby stores. We stopped at Saigon Square, which is where the locals are more likely to go to shop for clothes. It was a little less crazy than Ben Thanh, but still insane! There weren't really any stores but instead just stalls owned by different people. It was chaotic and soon we found ourselves leaving to escape the close quarters.

Our group met back up downtown where we checked out a few other stores before heading off to get Wonder Buns and try a donut shop, which was not nearly as good as those in the states. Still exhausted from yesterday's adventures, we came back to the dormitory to do a little homework before heading off to the Mekong tomorrow.

Since I will be in the Mekong for the weekend, I won't be posting again until Tuesday or Wednesday. To make up for it, I'm sharing some of the photos from yesterday below. Enjoy!