Anjuna Flea Market

Anjuna Flea Market

Once a week, every Wednesday, thousands of traders meet up with thousands of holiday makers to do business in this unique beachside market.

Originally started by the hippies of the 60's who met here to barter and exchange goods, it is now mainly traders from all over India that come to sell their produce.

The Goan Shopper's Stop
Anjuna's Wednesday flea market is the hub of Goa's alternative scene, and the place to indulge in a spot of souvenir shopping. A decade or so ago, the weekly event was the exclusive preserve of backpackers and the area's semi-permanent population, who gathered here to smoke chillums, and to buy and sell clothes and jewellery they probably would not have to wear anywhere else, something like a small pop festival without the stage. These days, however, everything is more organized and mainstream. Pitches are rented out by metre, drugs are banned and the approach roads to the village are choked solid all day with a/c buses and ambassador cars ferrying in tourists from resorts farther down the coast.

Here you will find merchants from Tibet, Kashmir, Rajasthan and Gujerat as well as locals, but perhaps the most striking sight you will see are the Lamani tribeswomen from neighbouring Karnataka selling chunkyjewelery and richly dyed fabrics.

Even if you are not looking to buy, there is much to see here with all manner of life on display : entertainers, snake charmers, holy men, hippies, musicians, jugglers, shoe shine boys and itinerant ear cleaners all wandering among the throng. Come to buy, or come just to enjoy the spectacle, but come with a relaxed attitude - this market can be overwhelming. 

A Huge Array Of Choice
The range of goods on sale has broadened, too, thanks to the high profile of migrant hawkers and stallholders from other parts of India. Each region or culture tends to stick to its own corner. At one end, westerners congregate around racks of new age rave gear, Balinese batiks and designer beachwear.

Nearby, Kashmiris sit cross-legged beside trays of silver jewellery and paper match boxes, while Tibetans, wearing jeans and t-shirts, preside over orderly rows of prayer wheels, turquoise bracelets and sundry Himalayan curios. Most distinctive of all are the Lamani women from Karnataka, decked from head to toe in traditional tribal garb, and selling elaborately woven multi coloured cloth, which they fashion into everything from jackets to money belts, and which makes even the westerners party gear look positively funereal. Elsewhere, one will come across dazzling Rajasthani mirror work and block-printed bedspreads, Keralan woodcarvings and a scattering of Gujarati applique.