Yes, I am quite surprised at the presence of stereotypical
western shopping malls here in HCMC.
Certainly, there are street stalls selling everything imaginable. Sometimes, people lay plastic sheeting on the
sidewalk and plop down their wares (most often it appears to be seconds or
overruns from brand names). Yesterday,
in my adventure to find the quilting store (which I did find), I passed a pile
of black rubber Croc type shoes, a pile of button-down collar shirts (each one
wrapped in plastic), hanging baskets of orchids (roots exposed and everything,
all hung on a fence), a pile of oranges, a pile of mangoes (many of them sliced
in artistic ways), a pile of plastic Made in China toys (prompting me to remember a time when my oldest wished we could go live in China where all the toys are made), and a small Hibachi fired up and grilling skewers of tiny
pieces of meat.
It is just difficult to put the outdoor meat market, with
vendors chopping off the heads of frogs, in the same part of the city with the
shopping mall that has Starbucks, H&M, Pierre Cardin, and Samsonite. And why do they need those incredibly western retail places when they have their is usually a rabbit warren of retail in every neighborhood. What DO those shopping malls offer? Oh, that's right, they are air conditioned.
The atmosphere inside the shopping malls are festive, open,
airy, and always full of some sort of campaign.
In the days leading up to Mid-Autumn Festival there were booths selling
Moon Cakes. I did a double take when I
saw the Oreo Moon Cake stall.
I’ve seen
photo opportunities set up with Happy Faces galore – that’s right, just line
your children up among all the happy faces and click away. My favorite was the huge Lego promotion – all that
Lego for everyone to try out. Note that
one takes their shoes off to go play with Lego.
Currently, the photo
opportunity space is devoted to Halloween, with sparkly orange and black
costumes to put on and sit with brooms amongst the scary moon and stars.
Today, at Saigon Center, there were 6
different brands of massage chairs on display, with people of all shapes and
sizes trying them out.
Food courts are also present, with some western choices
(like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Pizza Hut), as well as Asian choices
(Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian) and the ever-popular French
bakery.
There are photo booths, as well as places you can take your
phone to and have your photos printed without plugging in your phone or
plugging in an SD card. There are
karaoke booths where you and your friends can go and record yourself singing
(take it away on your phone or a flash drive, shoot, you can probably email it
to yourself as well).
The kids’ play place is typically massive. One mall has a bowling alley, and air hockey,
as well as the plethora of arcade games.
One day this week, our grade level is taking a field trip to the play
place of a mall because it offers the equivalent of a mini-ropes course for
children. My personal favorite has been
these over-sized, plush, self-propelled moving animals.
Other fun things from the last week:
We bought a few pieces of furniture to help accommodate our own personal things. One of those items was a wardrobe. It was delivered (free of charge) about 9 PM at night. It came with two young men, a box of tools, and knowledge of how to put it together in less than 15 minutes.
And the servicing of the 4 air conditioners took less than 90 minutes, two young men, an air compressor, a hose with a high pressure nozzle on the end that was connected to a water tap, a large plastic bag that went under the air conditioner unit, a ladder and a few buckets.
There probably won't be a new post for until after the 22nd - we are on October break next week. There will, however, be new stories to tell.
