Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

You can seemingly get anything you need here in HCMC, for a cheap price, and in bulk.  It's like a giant Costco, Mervyns, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, pharmacy and illicit drug market all in one city block.  Young girls cruise in and out of cafes and restaurants with stacks of books (copy books, not originals) piled 3-4 feet high.  You can buy a set of 10 Lonely Planet books for under $30 USD.  The markets of the Cholon district are a retailer's dream.  You can find whole sections dedicated to flip flops, another section is Nordstrom shoe department at a half-yearly sale, and another floor is set aside for clothing that get you the leakage coming direct from Western factory brand name textile manufacturing.  

Some streets you go down are solely dedicated to parts - a street for car parts, home parts, hardware, electronics, you name it, there's a street for it.  Walking into a pharmacy, you just name your desired medication, and it magically appears, in vast quantity, for pennies compared to what we pay in the states... no prescription needed.  And Darrin seems to get the continuous flow of drug offers on the street- marijuana, opium, hash.. they call it out as he goes by.  A moto driver gave us a 30 minute lecture on how it's "no problem" to buy marijuana from him and smoke it openly in restaurants or our in the streets.  He says he's been doing it for years, has happy customers with no problems.  He pulls several big baggies of pot out from his US Army cargo pant pockets.  We look at each other, and then around the streets for the hidden cops and cameras... "put that stuff away," we say, before you get in trouble... "no problems, he says, it's all good."  We quickly move away.  

While everything you could possibly need is available for a really cheap price, as locals tell us, you get what you pay for.  "Anything made and sold in and for the Vietnamese market is crap," exclaim the locals, bitching about their motorbike that's only lasted 6 months.  They complain that it's poor quality, workmanship and typically falls apart shortly after purchase.  They tell stories of how the products made in Vietnam for the export market are much more high quality, but they are out of reach for the local pocketbook. They all complain about the cheap China products that are imported - products that are western in style, but imitation goods that are highly desired by the Vietnamese, and sold at Vietnamese prices.  From cars, to motor bikes, to electronics, the say the cheap Chinese products flood the marketplace, and while they are affordable for locals, they find it very disillusioning as they work so hard and save, for the ability to purchase a simple, yet luxury item, only to have it fall apart.

One aspect of the markets that we continue to take full advantage of here in South East Asia are the fruit markets.  The tropical fruit selection is to die for; dragon fruit, papaya, star fruit, lychee, mangosteen, mangoes, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, jackfruit... all stacked so beautifully on street vendor tables, so hard to resist.