We arrived Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) just before lunch time, from riding the sleeper bus all night. After checking into our hostel, and refreshing ourselves, we immediately went to Ben Thanh Market to buy more souvenirs.
As we already explored the market a few days ago, we were pretty familiar on what to expect and on what to do. I only bought a few items and looked around aimlessly. Then the incident happened. I was simply looking around at some beautiful bangles and earrings which caught my attention, as they looked the same as what was being sold in the Philippines. I was really interested on knowing if prices were the same or not, so I asked the vendor on how much were the items. Turned out, the items were quite expensive, so I declined. As I continued perusing over the merchandise, she continued asking me “How much?” in her high-pitched voice. It was starting to get a bit irritating as she kept asking the same thing, over and over. As we were walking away, she then shouted “You crazy! Ask price and no buy.” I immediately did a double take on her. I mean, what the hell did we do?! With that, we stormed off. I really didn’t want to prolong this confrontation.
Pissed off as I was, I decided to brush off this incident. No use thinking over and fighting back. I didn’t want this experience to mar my experience in Vietnam.
After Ben Thanh, we explored other places to check on what to buy. When we were satisfied, we called it a day and went back to our hostel.
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