Vietnamese markets, and the hour that decides what you see
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Vietnamese markets are the country's clock. The wet market is over before most visitors have finished breakfast. The night market has not opened when they go looking, and the tourist market in between is open all day precisely because it is not really a market.
Being there at the right hour is most of the visit.
What hour should you arrive?
Before seven in the morning for a food market, and after six in the evening for a night market. A wet market starts around five, peaks before seven and is largely swept up by ten. Nothing about that changes for visitors.
| Market | Where | Hours | Go for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any neighbourhood wet market | Everywhere | 05:00-10:00 | The real thing, and breakfast |
| Dong Xuan | Hanoi | 06:00-18:00 | Scale, wholesale, the lanes around it |
| Binh Tay | Cho Lon, Saigon | 06:00-17:00 | The Chinese-Vietnamese trade |
| Ben Thanh | Saigon, District 1 | All day | A landmark and a food court |
| Cai Rang floating market | Can Tho | 05:30-07:00 | Wholesale from boats |
| Da Lat night market | Da Lat centre | 18:00-22:00 | Highland produce, street food |
What happens at a wet market?
Everything a household needs, sold in the hour before it is cooked. Greens in flat baskets, herbs tied in bunches, live fish in shallow trays, a butcher's block, a woman shelling crabs, a corner with a rice-noodle machine.
The name comes from the water: fish tanks emptied onto the floor and hoses run over the tiles all morning. Wear shoes you do not mind, walk slowly and stay out of the trolley lanes.
The food corner is the part worth planning around. Most markets have a handful of stalls cooking for the traders. That means one dish each, served from six, finished by ten, and priced for people who work there. The cheap eating guide covers what those numbers look like.
Which markets are actually worth a trip?
Dong Xuan in Hanoi, for the scale and for the lanes of street food around its edges rather than for the wholesale floors inside. Binh Tay in Cho Lon, Saigon's Chinatown, which is a working market in a French-era building 11 km from District 1.
Ben Thanh is the famous one and the least useful. It sells souvenirs at tourist prices, its food court is genuinely good, and everything it does as a market is done better a few kilometres west. Go because you are passing.
Who is the woman with the pole?
A business, with a wholesaler and a route. The street vendor guide covers what she sells, what it should cost and the rule about photographing her — which is the same rule as everywhere, plus the fact that she is working.
What about the flower markets?
The flower markets run at the opposite end of the clock. Quang Ba in Hanoi and Ho Thi Ky in Saigon trade through the night for the shops that open in the morning, and the flower market guide covers when to turn up and what not to get in the way of.
What about the floating markets?
Cai Rang, near Can Tho, and go at dawn or not at all. It is a wholesale market held from boats, each one advertising its cargo by hanging a sample from a pole above the deck, and it trades between about 5.30 and 7am.
The dawn trading hour is the whole argument for sleeping in the Mekong Delta rather than day-tripping from Saigon, which the three-day delta route is built around. A boat leaving Can Tho at five reaches the market while it is still a market, and the hub is honest that roads have taken much of the trade since the photographs everyone has seen.
How do you buy anything?
Ask the price, in whatever mixture of words and fingers works, and pay it. Food markets sell at set prices to regulars, and haggling over vegetables reads as strange rather than shrewd.
Souvenir and clothing stalls are the opposite: the first price is an opening bid and about half of it is the neighbourhood. The shopping guide covers where that line falls and what is worth carrying home. Take small notes, since nobody wants to break a 500,000 at seven in the morning.
What should you eat there?
Whatever the stall makes. One dish, a queue of traders, plastic stools: that is the market breakfast, and it is usually the cheapest good meal of the trip.
Fruit is the other reason to come. A market stall sells the seasonal fruit at half what a tourist street charges, and the fruit guide has the month-by-month calendar for what should be on the tables.
How should you behave?
Move out of the way, ask before photographing, and buy something from the stall you have been standing at. None of that is complicated, and all of it is noticed.
A market is a workplace at its busiest hour. The etiquette guide covers the camera question in general, and a market is where it comes up most often.
FAQ
What time do Vietnamese markets open?
A wet market runs from about five in the morning and is largely finished by ten, with the best of it before seven. Night markets run from about six in the evening until ten or eleven. The middle of the day is the one time nothing much is happening.
Which markets in Vietnam are worth visiting?
Dong Xuan in Hanoi for scale, Binh Tay in Cho Lon for the Chinese-Vietnamese trade, Cai Rang floating market at dawn for the delta, Dalat night market for the highland produce, and whichever unnamed wet market sits nearest your accommodation.
Is Ben Thanh market worth it?
As a landmark rather than a market. Ben Thanh in Ho Chi Minh City sells souvenirs at tourist prices and its food court is decent, and the working market Saigon actually uses is Binh Tay a few kilometres west. Go if it is on your route, not as a destination.
Do you haggle at a Vietnamese market?
At souvenir and clothing stalls, yes, starting around half the asking price. At a food market, no. Produce, meat and prepared food are sold at set prices to locals, and bargaining over a kilo of greens marks you out rather than saving you money.
Can you eat at a wet market?
Yes, and it is often the best breakfast available. Most markets have a corner of stalls with two or three dishes each, cooked for the traders rather than for visitors, and they are busy at six in the morning and closed by mid-morning.
What is a floating market?
A wholesale market held from boats on the Mekong, where each vessel advertises what it sells by hanging a sample from a pole. Cai Rang near Can Tho is the largest, it trades between about 5.30 and 7am, and it is a working wholesale market rather than a display.
Is it rude to photograph market vendors?
Ask first, with a gesture if not a word, and accept a no. A vendor at work is at work, and the difference between a photograph taken with a nod and one taken from across a lane is the difference between a portrait and a snatched image.