November 25, 2009 – Day 335 – Anjuna Beach, Goa, India

The Wednesday Flea Market on Anjuna Beach is a colorful, bustling place to be bright and early Wednesday mornings. Sellers from the surrounding towns come to Anjuna specifically to set up and peddle their wares to the tourists staying in Anjuna as well as the car and bus loads that come in from surrounding beaches and towns to shop. Everything from pillow covers, brass figurines, jewelry, Indian, Nepali, Tibetan, and Western wares, to snacks and drinks to henna tattoos and beggars can all be found at the Wednesday Flea Market.

Deep inside the wednesday market

The stalls further from the beach tend to be more expensive because the out of town tourists park behind the market and come in from that way. Many prefer to shop in that small area around their car or bus and then leave again. The vendors in the back area get used to these tourists who are often older and less inclined to bargain hard (or at all) and thus raise their prices even more than the vendors set up near the beach. Plan to spend a couple of hours wandering through the seemingly endless stalls and as always, do not be afraid to bargain hard. Prices in Anjuna are heavily inflated anyway and the Wednesday Market makes them even more so. Most vendors (which seems to be nearly the entire town of Anjuna!) make all their money for the whole week in just this one day so they like to milk shoppers as much as possible.

Spices....wasting away in the sun

We got away with some very good deals on some things we had been eyeing all throughout India. Until today we could never get the right price but today was our lucky day. After spending a few hours walking around, we spent a lazy evening on our porch (we have a porch with our room here!) kicking back some ice cold Kingfisher beer.