Get a feel of the real Mumbai when you embark on a tour of the local markets today.
Literally translated ‘Chor Bazaar’ means Theives Market and aptly so as this amazing market place seems to have everything and anything – but of course at a price! But not the asking price, here bargaining is the name of the game!
At this phenomenal flea market vendors have been selling their wares for generations.
Goods range from the mundane to the interesting to the unusual and not to miss the clever reproduction of antiques. This trip indeed reminds you of the fabled ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’.
Next we visit, Crawford market, named after Bombay’s first municipal commissioner, Arthur Crawford. Poised between what was once the British Fort and the local town, Crawford Market has elements of both. A blend of Flemish and Norman architecture, it has a bas relief above its main entrance depicting Indian peasants in wheat fields. The freize, incidentally, was designed by Lockyard Kipling, father of the famous Rudyard Kipling. The Kiplings’ cottage still stands in the market. Crawford Market looks like something out of Victorian London, with its sweet smell of hay and 50 ft high skylit awning that bathes the entire place in natural sunlight. Being Mumbai’s main wholesale market for fruits until March 1996, one can see mountains of fresh fruits and vegetables amongst other things in this market.
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