Discount Shopping in Mumbai...

If you think a Westfield Mall is big then you'll be blown away by the shopping experience, no shopping adventure of the Chor Bazar, South Mumbai's "Thieves Market". Chor Bazar literally means Thieves Market in Hindi. It's a collection of assorted stores selling anything and everything under the sun. You'll find many things of value here like antiques, faux antiques, statues, lamps, paintings, leather goods and many things which seem to have no value at all in the maze of market stalls, shops, back alleys and busy streets.

Our first journey through these streets was an attempt to follow a Lonely Planet walking trail heading for Mutton Street the main antiques street. Starting at the Crawford Markets we headed north and slowly headed off track as the temptation to head down an interesting looking alley was too appealing.
This area is a mainly Muslim area with many mosques and the noise here is unreal, with merchants trying to get your attention over the merchant across the street, "Sir, sir! No buy, just look!" each yelling over the prayers and music bellowing out of each mosque.

We put the book away tossed a coin, which drew the attention of the street kids and let fate lead us into the streets. At first the streets are wide enough for cars to pass once they had parted the throng of people with a relentless blast of their horn. The streets are busy with local shoppers competing with street cricket matches, motor bikes, bicycles, goods-laden coolies screaming at you to get out their way as they struggle with a load meant for a 1 tonne ute. At each turn we seemed no closer to our target of Mutton Street walking down streets of car part, electrical switchboards, metal and grain. This is a place where people live and work and the shops are small with the street being the place for the men to work. We saw one man smashing electrical fuses to make a small pile of valuable copper and a larger pile of broken plastic, other men sit in dried oil and grease splitting open gearboxes, still more simply stand around making sure they look important. This day we kept walking north until we reached a main street and followed it back to Chowpatty Beach for a cool drink and a chance to give our senses a rest. We vowed to return...

Since our first visit to the market, we were warned by local friends that we must attend these markets with them as we stood out a little as targets.. no kidding.. We were given the tip that as a foreigner the prices will be increased by 50-75% so bargain hard. We met Terrance on the street, an Indian jack of all trades, guiding two Americans around, boasting his tour is the only real tour of Mumbai. We had just emerged from a shop which was thick with large and small statues and masks. The tiny glass shopfront was to to hide a labyrinth of cramped rooms with a narrow walking trail amongst the idols from every religion on the planet. Terrance warned us to start at 10% of the asking price and no more. With it seems little else for the merchants to do bargaining is a game here played with much spirit.
Jo and Ash had a look around on the weekend, and a few new streets were explored. I thought I'd buy a vintage lamp for us and a compass for my Dad so I ventured into a few shops more for amusement at first. The shops are dormant with lights and fans switched off until customers walk in. The shop keep is quick to see where I am looking so he can develop a pitch, "you like lamp what about this one?", "compass yes, yes, very old.." I asked if the stamp of 1942 on the compass was real.. and got a great answer, "yes, yes... no no.." It seemed everything antique thing in the shop was brand new..
We won't be going back to that store but we'll be back....