7 Best Places to Shop in Beyond the City Center, Ho Chi Minh City

Beautifully soft handmade leather handbags, resort wear, and accessories (including jewelry using semiprecious stones) here are all one-of-a-kind, often featuring intricate details, such as fish leather and tourmaline. Items are ethically produced, made in Vietnam from sustainable materials.

One of Ho Chi Minh City's newest shopping complexes, Crescent Mall, in the Phu My Hung expat area, has just about everything you could want in one shopping experience: a supermarket, an eight-screen movie theater, fashion boutiques, specialty shops, restaurants and cafés, furniture and housewares, electronics, and a children's entertainment area.

Ho Chi Minh City's flower market is a vibrant and colorful affair. Busiest early in the morning when the bulk of the wholesale trade is conducted, the market continues to trade until midafternoon. The area is also home to a Khmer community, so break up your wandering with some Cambodian specialties like soup laced with the pungent prahok (fermented fish paste).

Finely crafted Vietnamese lacquerware in traditional and modern designs, as well as a range of wooden products, are all made at Nga's factory in District 9.

The beautifully embellished handbags here, which are sold at high-end boutiques around the world, are considered by some to be the ultimate style souvenir from Vietnam.

Regular art exhibitions are hosted in this boutique gallery known for showcasing Southeast Asian artists. The gallery also hosts the occasional film screening and other events. Check their Facebook for current exhibitions. In between showings, the gallery is open by appointment only.