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 03.

- 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

Even though Cholon is such a busy place with the Vietnamese fighting for business with each other, you’ll find that most of them are friendly and will spare you a few seconds to snap a portrait. Cholon is one place in Saigon where most of them are not camera shy. In fact, some of the Vietnamese invited me to take shots of them. Below are pictures as evident.