A tourist selects pens at Nguyen Le Bao’s stand on District 1’s Le Loi Boulevard. He sells famous brand name pens for a good price.

For anyone who loves writing, a pen booth on the sidewalk of Le Loi Boulevard in downtown HCMC is the right place to shop.

If you are willing to explore, many streets have unique sales booths. In downtown District 1 there are several of these - one of which is the pen and brush booth of Nguyen Le Bao.

Bao’s stand is located at the corner of Le Loi Bookstore at 59-60 Le Loi Boulevard. It is small and simple.

Bao says he has sold pens here for more than 16 years. He sells strange-shaped and exclusive pens in all manner of styles.

Tourists can get themselves a Parker pen or a luxury MontBlanc.

Bao says he bought some of his rarest pens from customers. “Here are old Parker pens that I bought from someone who came to my booth. These pens are very valuable to people with good knowledge of antiques,” he says.

Bao sells many kinds of pens of different colors, from ballpoints to pencils. He also supplies and replaces nibs for fountain pens. Each nib sells for about VND30,000 (US$1.70).

Depending on what type, Bao’s pens cost VND100,000 ($5.61) to VND3 million ($168.5). Tourists can bargain and Bao sometimes offers customers a discount of VND20,000- 30,000 for an item.

Close by are places to get your new pen inscribed for a very reasonable price.

For people who still love the art of penmanship in an online world, finding a strange and exclusive pen at Bao’s booth is a nice surprise.

Reported by Diem Thu