Cholon, or the Binh Tay Market, is an indoor wholesale market which is well known for its great bargains. For everything from fermented duck eggs to flip-flops, head to this rambling market which is far less touristy than the Ben Thanh Market downtown. Cholon is divided into sections that contain everything one might need to run a household, from kitchenware, to cloth, to candied fruit. Towards the back, you can grab lunch at one of the many food stalls and listen to a rooster crow in the nearby butcher section (not for the squeamish). This is the Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinese quarter or Chinatown area so many traders are able to speak Cantonese or Mandarin.

Because there are so much to show, I’m dividing this Cholon post into a 4-parts series with this being Part 01.

- Cholon 01 of 04: Bags and wallets
- Cholon 02 of 04: Shoes, cloth, helmets, hats and hairclips
- Cholon 03 of 04: The people of Cholon
- Cholon 04 of 04: The food and the wet market

 

Below are quite a few pictures of the different types of handbags, mostly for the ladies, and wallets that you can find in Cholon. Last week I’ve covered the Ben Thanh Night Market where you’d have had learn that the ladies bags starts from a mere US$3. Cholon being a wholesale market should mean that if you buy the bags in bulk (as gifts or to bring home to sell), you may just be able to walk away with US$2 for each bag (?)

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