I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on January 14, 2025. I knew street food would be great, but I never imagined it would be better than Thailand. I wrote a blog on street food here.
I also knew that most apparel and shoes are made in Vietnam too! How is that for a shopping win-win!!
Admittedly, I am not a big shopper. I try to keep it simple when traveling, as I do not pay for bags. The problem becomes when items are so cheap that they are almost disposable (setting up a Crocs joke here).
District one in HCMC has Bein Than market along with many other pop-up stores that sell knock-off brands. I know, you get what you pay for, but this stuff was worth it even if some of it does not make it home.
I always said that I would never buy a pair of Crocs, but I do not recall saying that I would not buy TWO pairs of Crocs. 🤓
I am going to take so much shit for this but honestly, I do not care as they were $10 bucks each. I also bought a couple of shoulder travel bags that were $10 each also making it a total of $40 for all four items.
I also bought a Nike jacket made of the same wicking material as the authentic. I knew it was a knockoff as the sizing is off on Asia products but again, it was $12 so what the hell:
You cannot even buy one of those items in North America for the total price of all five, screw it!
Here are some YouTube Videos of the famous Ben Thanh market:
The market outside Ben Thanh is better IMO and where I bought my items. There are so many other knockoff items that we overpay for in North America. These knockoffs items in some cases are made in the same factories and you cannot tell the difference and even go as far as to use the same tags:
I was wearing my $50 USD “Osprey Daylite” sling shoulder bag that has thousands of miles on it and did a side-by-side comparison.
The original is definitely made better and that is the reason it is guaranteed for life with the “Almighty guarantee“. I do not know of many other brands that stand behind their products forever so that makes sense.
The North Face, Patagonia, Nike and Crocs appeared to be authentic without a negative person’s overview.