Ben Thanh Market is a kind of ‘forever’ symbol of central Saigon. It seems to have always been there in one form or another. It was destroyed by fire in 1870, rebuilt in colonial times (1912) and renovated in 1985. It has over 1,500 stalls and can expect about 10,000 visitors daily.

​The experience of making your way through the labyrinthine lanes is to invite upon yourself a wave of quite strident requests to buy-try-taste-sniff this or that.  As market denizens go, they are somewhere on a scale of ‘actively pushy to indifferently pushy’. You don’t need to go twice, it’s true, but where else can you buy that wig-sunglasses-flip flops-ao dai-lotus seed combo that you have been hankering after all week, and finish up with a bowl of pho?

Below - The Metro, ready to go? Sort of!