Shopping

Shopping in Vietnam is fun. Whether it is in markets, local street shops or even the local shopping centres. It can be exciting and it can be frustrating at the same time but, as time goes by it is becoming less frustrating yet no less exciting. There is always something to remind me I am living in a foreign country.
I have discovered so many things about shopping in the local grocery store that I am becoming just like a local. Things I need to remember include:
- don't line up or you could be in that line forever.
- you pay for your olive oil as soon as you get it off the shelf, if you don't want to be chased through the aisles.
- you can buy beer, wine and soft drink in the same aisle, but if you want m and m chocolates you have to get them from the locked cabinet.
- you buy bread from the bakery in the middle of the store, pay for it immediately and make sure you have close to the right money.
- meat comes mostly in big slabs, where you choose what you want using the tongs, hand it over and they cut and bag it for you.
- and fish....... comes out of the fish tank.

But most important of all, if you have a long arms, fruit and vegie shopping can be quick, for those of us who don't, you have to learn to wiggle your way to the weighing lady, throw your selection on to her scales where she weighs and tags it and then, if you aren't quick enough to grab it, it ends up in the basket near her where you then have to delve around looking for what was yours. For me this has become a challenge that I have undertaken with all skills of a ninja, I don't have long arms so I have become as pushy as the next person, wiggling myself stealthly into position to quickly pass over my produce one at a time, grab what she has already weighed whilst holding onto my basket I have become so adept at this that I even found myself doing this whilst arguing with a lady over my tomatoes! though I am not yet as quick as the locals, at least I am not standing there waiting and waiting.

And of course there is rice and noodles, the hardest part is what noodles to buy - with 3 aisles of noodles the choice is endless. As long as you are happy with 10kg of rice there's no problems.

I very regularly thank advertising gurus who decided to put pictures on products, without them I would be lost it's amazing what a picture tells you. Not to mention brand names; OMO is OMO in any language, as is corn flakes to name a few.

Well that's shopping in a grocery store.