Vietnam: Pleiku Central Market

On our second day in Pleiku, we went to see the Central Market, which was only a short walk from our hotel. There aren’t a lot of tourists in Pleiku, and my parents were the only white people at the market that day, so they got a lot of attention, while we were walking around.

Some of the younger kids would stop walking just to stare, while the older kids took the chance to practice their English. “Hello, where are you from?” they shouted, and my dad would shout back “Dänemark!” (his German is still much better than his English).

The market is loosely divided into different sections and I think we walked through all of them. My favorite section was the one with fruit and vegetables, while I could have been without our encounter with the wet market section, where we walked in just in time to see a chicken get decapitated. I know pork chops and chicken nuggets don’t grow on trees, but that experience made such an impression that we all skipped lunch that day.

What to buy at Pleiku Central Market?

Clothes, shoes and accessories?

The prices are really low, but the selection is a bit outdated, so unless you’re into tacky, counterfeit goods, it’s better to postpone your clothes shopping until you’re in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

Fruit and vegetables?

Buy as much as you can carry and munch on tasty, sun-ripened exotic fruits in your hotel room.

Rice bowls, kitchen utensils, coffee cups?

Buy! Buy! Buy! This is your chance to get all the right stuff for your own private Vietnamese street kitchen. I bought the coffee cups and metal filters you need to make Vietnamese coffee and each set was only $1. So cheap I didn’t even care to bargain.