Shopping in Goa MarketsAnjuna Market & Mapusa Market ExperienceGoa Shopping: One of the best-loved and indulged in activities in Goa India is shopping in local markets that are a riot of color, exotic products and activity, and attract tourists from all over the world. Goa Holidays offers exhausting shopping possibilities from cosmopolitan department stores and designer boutiques, to makeshift stalls that everything you can think of. Its bazaars are chaotic sites of busy activity where haggling and bargaining are the fun of the day! When you are in Goa for your Goa Holidays don’t forget to visit below two most popular Local Markets, because your visit to Goa is uncomplete if you don’t visit these Markets for your Shopping in Goa. Anjuna Flea Market ExperienceGetting to the wednesday flea market at Anjuna can be half the fun; you can take a bus or a motorcycle taxi, or a fisherman's boat from Baga, which is quicker (15 min by boat, 30 min by road). Although you will still find hippies there, it really isn't their market any more. Now dominated by Lambani namads in their striking clothes and jewelry, and craftspeople from elsewhere in India, the market is a splash of red and orange in a flat clearing above the rocky beach. Bead and white metal bangles, necklaces and earrings, silver toe rings, embroidered shoulder bags, silk and cotton sarongs, and ethnic footwear are among the more ordinary products on sale. If you look carefully, there are all sorts of other things here from used motorbikes of uncertain age to do-it-yourself mehendi (Henna) kits. Buy a crochet bikini, a backless mirror-work top, or a tie-dye bandana to enhance your wardrobe for those really format occassions, or just sit back at the market bar and down a ridiculously cheap beer while someone braids your hair deftly or offers to tattoo, pierce, or otherwise mutilate various parts of your anatomy. When your day's bargains have been struck (and getting things for a third or less of the quoted price is not uncommon), join the rest of Anjuna down at the shore. Be careful not to bargain unfairly, because you run the risk of sarcastic "take it for free?" from one of the tribal women. The market only appears during the tourist season, don't go looking for it in the monsoon for your shopping in Goa. Mapusa Friday Market ExperienceMapusa (Maap is Konkani for 'measure), is the capital for Bardez Taluka and a trading centre. It's a good hub from where to hit the more famed of Goa's beaches.Mapusa MarketMapusa is synonymous with its Friday Market, located outside the Mapusa Municipal Market. Friday sees most housewives from Bardez and Tiswadi descend on the stalls selling a staggering variety of local produce brought in by farmers and small entrepreneurs from all over Goa, to sell directly to the consumer.If you are looking for the essence of Goa, this market is a must-see on your itinerary. The place is a riot of colour and noise. Goan women dressed in their colourful best come in from surrounding villages to sell their locally grown or manufactured wares, including spices of all kinds. You get great bargains here. Fresh fruit, mostly organically grown, is in abundance. That elusive smell that has your nose twitching is Goa's secret ingredient for all those wonderful sweet and sour curries - round lumps of seedless tamarind, or amot as it is known locally, in great demand in traditional Goan kitchens. Get yourself a string of churis or Goa's mouth-watering sausages, spiced and marinated in feni. No sausage anywhere else in the world tastes like the Goan churis. The sausage can be fried, or boiled, or added to an ordinary dish for extra zing. The best part of shopping in the Friday Market is, despite the good bargains, you are still expected to haggle. Never pay the first price asked, whether it is over trinkets, straw hats, dried fish or furniture. The Friday Market winds up by dusk and Mapusa quickly gets back to normal, until the following Friday. Goan Shopping: But do remember that the charm of shopping in Goa (Goan shopping) remains the look and feel of a small town running at its own pace. People are laid back and life unhurried and peaceful. So what's your hurry anyway? When in Goa live as the Goans do - relax, chill out. Enjoy your holiday to the fullest and, of course happy shopping in Goa.
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