The Flea Market in South Anjuna, Goa
Back in the early 70’s, some freaks (including 8-Fingered Eddie) decided to have a flea market for some fun. The first Wednesday they assembled in front of the flea market and a few hippies sold some chillums on the ground. Everyone played music, got high, danced around naked and had a good time. The good old days.
Gradually, the Indians began to get interested and the freaks had to keep moving the day of the flea market so that no outsiders would know when it was going to be. Keeping people away from the smell of money is tough though and eventually the whole affair got taken over by the locals. The various landlords who owned strips of sand beneath the palm trees began to rent out pitches and soon clothes, bag and jewellery sellers from as far afield as Karnataka, Kashmir and Nepal turned the flea market into the dusty, loud and hassle-filled debacle that it is today.
Boats arrive from Bagator and the other tourist beaches early in the morning bearing overweight English, German and Russian tourists towards the market where ladies with rings through their noses attempt to sell bits of copper and cloth for outrageous prices. The culture clash between a family of poor Indian sarong sellers and working class Brits on a 2 week holiday can be hilarious or painful, depending on your mood.
There are still a good number of freaks selling stuff on the market and at times it can be a reasonable social scene in some of the lanes, though the prices that most of the foreigners ask is beyond belief – for a hooded top that you could buy for 10 pounds in Portobello Road, London, merchants here will ask for 3500 rupees (40 pounds or $75). Granted, they designed the piece but some people work a month in Goa and make less than that.
The most striking thing about the flea market though is that all the Indian sellers sell exactly the same stuff. They all have the same designs of ill-fitting t-shirts, the same mirror-work bags and the same bangles. Either they get the stuff on sale and return from the same producers or they have zero imagination. I’m guessing it’s the first but you never know.
The worst thing about the flea market (apart from that it makes it impossible to go to the beach in Anjuna for the day) is the mess it leaves behind. Landlords are supposed to pay people to clear up the trash but often the plastic just gets burnt or dumped on the beach.