today I decided to have a closer look at the large outdoor market and to buy for the first time some fresh fruit and vegies from there to cook my first meal since here. Getting tired of Pho and rice. What a colourful experience. Watch out for crawling crabs, jumping fish - they literally jump out of the bowl, wriggling eels and fish in different sizes - all alive - that's what I call fresh. But haven't quite the guts yet to buy that. Might try the prawns though, big and juicy, and whole squids in all sizes. A lot of fish is already pre-cooked. So many beans, rice and all sorts of household stuff. They traffic doesn't stop here, despite the narrow paths between the stall. Watch out or you have an encounter with a motorbike, truck, bike, or cart loaded with stuff. Sorry, don't speak Vietnamese - but pointing to stuff and showing your fingers how much you want, does the trick. When they show 3 fingers = that can be 3000 or 30 000 Dong - but, depending what you buy, you know. Some parts of the market are under cover and very smelly. How people can sit here in the dark in such confined spaces is incredible and for us westerners - well, for me at least - hard to believe. You have to see it to believe it.
Don't know what sort of meat I bought. I looked lean and nice. But it turned out to be very chewy. Might need long cooking.
