As corny as it sounds, Saigon is a paradise for shoppers. Beautiful handicrafts and deliciously tacky tourist junk are in endless supply. If you love to shop and have at least elementary bargaining skills and a good eye, your money will go a long way and you can enjoy virtually endless retail entertainment. Your bargaining skills will come in handy everywhere except major tourist shops. Generally speaking, anything not marked with a price sticker can be had for about two thirds the price first quoted. While there are fine shops throughout District 1, there are several streets which are especially good for shopping, particularly Dong Khai, and Le Thanh Ton behind the Rex Hotel. Many shops here sell jewelry, amber, ceramics, antiques, furniture, silk and apparel. The stalls along Le Loi Street between Ben Thanh Market and the New World Hotel sell all kinds of war surplus and hardware items. From Nguyen Hue, walk one block east to Dong Khoi ("Popular Uprising") Street. French expatriates knew it as Rue Catinat, and American soldiers bought their Zippo lighters on Tu Do ("Freedom") Street, but whatever the name,s this thoroughfare has long been the elite shopping street of Saigon. Walk south down Dong Khoi towards the Saigon River, and stop in at as many elegant boutiques selling the finest Vietnamese silks, pottery, and other crafts as you like. Hard as it may be to believe today, North Vietnamese tanks rolled down this very street on April 20, 1975-and soon after most of the stores were shuttered as the new nation plunged into a decade-long economic slump.