Hong Gai, Vietnam 4-19-09 Night Market

Just a 10 minute shuttle ride from the ship, was a treasure chest of pearls! Gals chasing you down the street with pearls draped over their arms as if they were getting a running start and they had wings of pearls to fly! SO many pearls! Our friend Katie felt the need to rub them all over her teeth, as this is what her mother told her to do to test them to see if pearls were real or not. Haven't we all heard that? Well, I bet her mother never thought she'd be rubbing them on her teeth straight off a gals arm in the middle of the road in Hong Gai, Vietnam! However, Katie did it anyway. She might as well have kicked the curbs too! We had fun watching. I just let the gals use their Bic lighters to show me that the pearls were not plastic, as real pearls do not burn! I liked that plan better. Needless to say, we bougth many a strand of pearls and had a great time bargaining with the gals on the streets and the vendors in the night market. Once you cross the threshold into a real store or into the market area, the motor scooter pearl ladies can't "hound" you! We learned that trick and it got a lot more pleasant!
There were people setting up tables with plastic baskets that we assumed held "catch of the day" in them. You see what you think. Can you name any of the items in the baskets? We did not buy any of it, only because we had no way to refrigerate it. Charles really wanted to try one of everything!!