Uncomfortable

My second trip to Prague’s largest Vietnamese market may very well be my last one. My first trip was at least bearable. It had been busy at the time, and the sellers paid little attention to me. I hovered past the four-striped “Adidas” shoes and the vendors did not give me a second thought.

Today must have been a slow day for them. It seemed that the Vietnamese sellers were eager to sell me anything my eyes happened to touch. “Two hundred koruna! One fifty! One hundred…” I had returned to the market in search of an authentic Czech tee-shirt. I was after something with “Česká Republika” or “Praha” on it. I found one, but the material was so thin that I doubted it would survive the washing machine in one piece.

I did not buy anything and the entire situation was ultimately depressing. The tarp ceilings and muddy ground gave the market an impoverished feel. The shrewd, unkempt sellers bartered with passersby. It felt unfair. I watched two American girls toying with one of the peddlers, bartering over a one dollar reduction in price. It was painful to think how much more the Vietnamese man needed that dollar than the two Americans, who had probably spent $700 each in airline tickets alone.

A smaller Vietnamese market near Hradčanská