We took a taxi to the market and it cost us 34K dong (appoximately $1.60CAD). As soon as we got out of the cab, we were surrounded by vendors who were all vying for our attention - an our spending money! Within 5 minutes, I already bought four t-shirts. The market is separated into different sections. The food market is at the northern end of the building and the fixed-rate vendors are towards the southern entrance. The fixed-priced vendors have yellow signs above their stores that say they do not accept bargaining for any of the goods. The price of the merchandise is fair but if you want good deals, you're better off going to the middle section of the market where there are a slew of vendors vying for a part of your spending money.
There are literally hundreds of vendors - some are selling just fabric that you can purchase by the yard to sew dresses or ao dai's and some are retail vendors that sell imitation clothes ranging from Burberry to Abercrombie & Fitch. You can buy souvenirs such as embroidered pictures and mother of pearl wall panels. You can buy lace curtains and table runners for almost nothing. You can also get a suit sewn in a day!
My mother said that the market seemed so much larger back when she was younger and when we did our first lap of the market in about 30 minutes, she said it seemed a lot smaller than she remembered. So we did a few more laps and spent more money. By the end of the two hours we had spent there, we almost ran out of money. My mother bought eight pairs of silk pajamas and I purchased some fake eyelashes for pennies... (10 pairs for $1).
It's definitely a place you have to experience if you ever find yourself in Saigon. It's chaotic, but it's full of surprises!
