the Darajani Market of Stonetown, Zanzibar

The Darajani Market in Stonetown, Zanzibar is historical. It is located a stone’s throw from the city’s biggest market of another kind, that which traded slaves. Darajani however was opened in 1904, a quarter of a century since slave markets were outlawed in 1873.


a fresh fruit stall in Darajani Market, Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania



squid and octopus for sale


Today, the market looks unassuming and humble. Blocks of soft gray stones still form the solid façade. The roof is comprised of GI sheets that are partially rusted. A finial sticks out at the roof’s highest peak which from a distance, almost makes the market resemble a church.


the stone façade of Darajani



vegetables being sold in front of the market



a Masai man passing through


Inside, the market is divided into four sections. There is quarter for seafood, from the popular octopus to crabs and fishes of various sizes. The walls are as red with blood as the floor is dark with hardened muck. One room is used for auction, which take place early in the morning.


fillet of fish on display



the fish section of the market



a room used for the fish auction


Another hall is for meat, primarily beef. Butchered blocks are displayed everywhere here, and carcasses are left hanging on hook for easy perusal. Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim so pork is virtually forbidden in Darajani (they say you have to go Christian mission for that).


beef slices for sale


the beef market


Outside of the main building, stalls shaded by plastic tarps offer fruits, vegetables and spices. In another section is poultry. In the periphery, and deeper into the town are more stores and buildings that offer dry goods, from clothings to shoes and even jewelry.


fresh local produce like bananas



a selection of fruit



eggplants and chilies provide a clash of colors


Amidst the cacophony of sales negotiations and the din of clanging buckets, the market moves in a chaotic rhythm of its own. A hubbub of life swirls inside. As tourists click and jostle for that snapshot of local color, locals imperturbably go by their own way. As a Filipino, I’m used to this. The stench, the mud, the noise are a reminder of home, in a good and oddly ,assuring way.


packets of spices catering to the tourists


To go: Daranjani Market is in Creek Road, north of New Mkunazini St., Stone Town, Zanzibar. It is near the Anglican Cathedral.

souvenir hunting in the Mwenge Crafts Market, Dar es Salaam

Only have a few hours in Dar es Salaam and need to buy some souvenirs? Hop on a taxi or a dala dala bus and head to Dar’s biggest crafts market in Mwenge.

Even if you don’t know Swahili, English is widely spoken by the vendors. The range of artwork represents what is native to Tanzania or even Kenya, from beadwork jewelry to wood carvings, Tinga Tinga paintings and local fabrics. As in any arts market, goods can be had cheap if you know how to bargain. As a rule of thumb, sellers usually jack up the prices by as much as 4x so start by offering a quarter of the original quote. If you like one item, don’t express too much interest. It helps too to back off and say no as typically, vendors will chase you with a lower bid. Check other stalls to compare prices.


Mwenge sits along a major highway in Dar



The market has a large quadrangle in the center which makes browsing easy


The selection is immense and it can work to your advantage. Take time to acquaint yourself with what are in store. Move around. You can always come back to haggle on items you really fancy.


The paintings are copies of art styles popularized by renowned painters like Tinga Tinga



It is not uncommon to see natives like this Masai man in the market



Tanzania shirts come in African “batik” that often uses the tie dye technique


It was my second time to visit Mwenge and like before, it was late afternoon. As the market closes at sundown, shopowners are in a hurry too to get some last day sale so this can work to your advantage. Wear a smile and enjoy.


A carver busy at work. I bought a 7”x14” ebony bowl that is carved out from one block of wood for $15. Original offer was about $34. I bought a similar one last 2005 at less than $10



I bought this Masai shuka fabric for about $7.5

To go: The Mwenge Crafts Market is in Sam Nujoma Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The complex is near the University of Dar es Salaam and cannot be missed. Unfortunately, during rush hour, traffic around the area can be horrendous.

Pasar Badung, part 2

To conclude Pasar Badung, part 1, here are more pics of the biggest flower market in Bali.


a sleepy vendor tending a flower stall in Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia



mussaenda flowers for sale


In between, I’m sharing a lesson in language which I learned when I was studying Bahasa Indonesia on my own 16 years ago.


vendors selling canang offerings



an old lady selling flowers in Pasar Badung


Then, I discovered the intertwining relationship of dialects in Southeast Asia. Take the case of the Indonesian word for flower which is bunga. I always confused bunga with buah (pronounced bu-wa) which means fruit. You see, in Cebuano, fruit is bunga while flower is buwak. Somewhere, sometime, during the centuries of direct contact between the archipelagos that are now the Philippines and Indonesia, words jumbled and blended.


baskets of exotic fragrant flowers



varieties of Lombok peppers that are also on display in the flower market


Somehow, it doesn’t really matter much. The flower and the fruit are interchangeable in a biological sense, both being bearers of progeny of the plant. First, the flower blooms, withers and ultimately becomes the fruit. One can’t be without the other. You might as well mix them up.


petals of pink and red roses that are sold for Balinese offerings

all abloom in the flower market of Antananarivo

It’s a given- tropical flowers are a riot of colors. A visit to the flower market would be enough confirmation of this reality. But the heat can be too oppressive and some species are better suited to the moderately cool temperatures afforded by the mountains. It’s no surprise then that the more famous flower markets are always in the highlands. Think of Busay in Cebu, Baguio in Luzon and Bedugul in Bali.


flowers for delivery



a kaleidoscope of colors



more helicornias, roses, anthuriums


Think then Madagascar, a country famous for its relative isolation and unparalleled diversity. Add to this predisposition the fact that its capital, Antananarivo or Tana sits on a high plateau ranging between 1200-1400 meters above sea level, and peaking above 2,600 meters.


girl playing with a flower



lilies on the go



buyers selecting the best blooms


A place not to be missed then is the flower market of Tana located at the edge of Lake Anosy. The range is spectacular, from the easily recognizable roses, chrysanthemums and lilies to the wilder helicornia, anthuriums, gladiolas and orchids.


a typical flower stall



vendor selling papayas and mangoes


The pulse of the city is the market and this one in Anosy throbs with the energy of a teeming and vibrant people who love life. An obvious piece of advice: visit early morning when the blooms are freshly picked and simply unblemished.


a full display



prepping some bouquet



wild colors

what I brought back from Ben Thanh (Saigon)

continued from Ben Thanh, part 1 in colloidfarl.blogspot.com

There were several things I originally planned to do at Ben Thanh. I wanted to wake up early and shoot a long exposure of the facade at dawn – which actually is easy as Vietnam is late an hour versus Cebu time – but work got in the way. I also thought of eating at one of their food stalls which are simply brimming with steamed seafood, rice paper concoctions (a decidedly Vietnamese specialty) and fresh herbs and vegetables. Eventually, I ended up either having breakfast with a friend or elsewhere.

But busy or not, I did not miss buying pasalubong (giveaway gifts in Filipino) and souvenirs in Ben Thanh. Of course, I bought the requisite touristy stuff which my friends back in Cebu have asked me to buy- Vietnamese shirts and caps. I chose the machine-embroidered varieties over the plain ones so they were a bit expensive, ranging from $2-3.

Once I ticked the basic ones off my list, I scoured Ben Thanh for my personal favorites.

lacquerware. This is a must-have. Who can resist the shiny and colorful practicality of tempered and melded wood? I can’t. For my wife, I chose 6 pairs of ruby red bowls with matching sleek black saucers, curled elegantly at the corners. Three large nesting flat trays completed the ensemble. Although the trays are supposed to be a set of a singular color, we were able to convince the vendor to get a different tray colors for our set. I chose a combination of 2 red trays and one black. The pieces come with a dainty pair of dragonfly design inlay.
haggled prices: bowl and saucer for 80,000VND (4.7USD) a pair and a set of 3 nesting trays for 330,000VND (19.4USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 0.60s, f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 50

For gifts, I then proceeded to the food and candy sections. I live off exotic sweets. A plus is that the packs often have price tags already and there is practically no haggling involved. The prices are cheap!

rice papers (banh trang). If there is one item that I identify always with Vietnam it is rice paper. It is the basic and ubiquitous wrapping material of many a Vietnamese dish. The thin round paper is made of rice flour, tapioca starch and salt. Dry and brittle when packaged, it is easily moistened with water to make all sorts of food wraps.
price: 20,000 VND per pack (1.2USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 0.40s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -1/3EV


sesame-sprinkled peanut flatcakes (keo me xung). One of my favorite sweet and nutty treats. They look like soft pancakes, only way much thinner and taste like peanut brittle. As a plus, each cake is individually wrapped in plastic. They are made of peanut, sesame, sugar, rice flour and malt sugar.
price: 30,000VND (1.8USD) per pack


Canon EOS 5D, 0.40s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -1/3EV


sesame-sprinkled candy squares (me xung vung). These peanut-laden sesame-sprinkled sweets are on the tough and chewy side but they are fast becoming my favorite dessert munchies nowadays. The candies are made of rice flour, barley, sugar, peanut chips, sesame seeds and flavored with vanilla.
price: 13,000VND/pack of 6 candies (0.8USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 1.00s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -1/3EV


Vinamit peanut candies (keo dau phong). Individually packaged in bright red foil, the candies have a thin white flaky crust which crunches deliciously to reveal a sweet peanut confection that is almost powdery. The brand is Vinamit and ingredients include barley, malt, sugar, peanut and salt.
price: 35,000 VND/500g pack (2.1USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 0.80s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -1/3EV


sesame-sprinkled crispy wafers (me xung don). Another crunchy delight that comes in a compartmentalized plastic package. The biscuit could have been made sweeter but delightfully, it is not. The sugar is tempered by the chewiness of the peanut paste enveloped between the rice flour wafers. Ingredients include sugar, peanut, sesame, rice flour, barley and vanilla.
price: 10,000 VND/pack (0.6USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 0.40s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -2/3EV


rice papers with banana (banh trang chuối). I saw them being made in Cai Be (Mekong Delta) so I made sure I bought some in Ben Thanh. These are really thin ricepapers covered fully with fresh bananas slices, which when sundried, result to thin brittle pancakes. They can be fried in hot vegetable oil but I would suggest lightly tossing them in butter on both sides so that they would come out soft and “rollable” like crepes. The rich butter brings out the aromatic amyl acetate goodness of the sun-dried bananas. They are made of rice flour, tapioca starch, banana and salt.
price: 30,000 VND/pack (1.8USD)


Canon EOS 5D, 0.25s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 50, -1/3EV

haggling in Ben Thanh

Question: Which retail space commands the highest selling price in the world?

If you answer Ginza or 5th Ave, think again. The answer is Ben Thanh Market, in downtown Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. As of August 2006, a stall in this traditional market commands a staggering price of 177,000USD per square meter according to The Guardian (UK).


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/4000s, f/4.5, 18mm, ISO 400
the Ben Thanh market in Saigon


Lower those raised eyebrows and allow me to qualify. First, retail space average is ONLY about 1.5 square meters in size so in actuality, any money exchanged will not be in the tens of millions of US dollars that would be otherwise required in Tokyo or New York where property is denominated in hundreds, if not thousands of square meters. Second, retail is cheap once you get the rights. Communist Vietnam offers socialized rates. Reselling is not common hence the high demand and the inflated price.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/40s, f/3.5, 24mm, ISO 800, +1/3EV
With space at a premium, Ben Thanh has narrow aisles

My good friend Dinh pointed out this bit of information to me but I was incredulous. I only checked this out online today and to say that I was surprised would be an understatement.

Ben Thanh, or Chợ Bến Thành as it is locally called, is the largest traditional marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City, covering more than 10,000 square meters, with about a thousand stalls. The market is old, dating back to 1859, but it has probably moved at least twice, until its present day location in 1914 at Le Loi St. The cream-colored edifice is a plain square, one storey and is most notable for its tower with 3 clock faces. The clocks were notoriously off-timed in the past but in recent years, they have already been synchronized. While the market is still largely a daytime operation, with most stores open from 7AM up to the early evening, it is fast becoming a haven of night-time habitues who frequent the numerous food tables that are set up in the evening.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/40s, f/4.5, 35mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV
This is fastfood Vietnamese-style. Note how large the prawns are on display!


Not minding its humble and unassuming structure, Ben Thanh is a microcosm of what are available in Vietnam. It practically sells a little bit of everything that anyone could need, or at least in my case, bring back as souvenirs.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/25s, f/5.6, 53mm, ISO 800, +1/3EV
travel tip: Ben Thanh food and candy stalls typically offer fixed prices

Like any other market in a popular tourist city like Ho Chi Minh, Ben Thanh is schizophrenic. There is a large part of the market which caters to the domestic market, from fresh produce to flowers and housewares; but there is also that portion which are for visitors, like t-shirts to trinkets and handicrafts.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/25s, f/3.5, 28mm, ISO 800, +1/3EV
Vendors use the lower market traffic in the morning to dust off and segregate displays


Price tags are practically non-existent and for non-locals, expect an inflated price. Haggle to kingdom-come. While this turns off many Westerners, we Asians think of bargaining as a local sport. Generally, I would start with 25-30% of the price and would consider myself successful if I get a price near 50%. I would suggest check out the prices in the bigger malls or stores with fixed prices to get a bearing on what prices to settle. Be willing to walk away if you don’t think you are getting a good deal. One never loses a face in coming back later. I’ve heard too that there is a secret color coding of the shopping bags given out by the vendors to broadcast to the rest of the marketplace whether you are a good bargainer or not. These are all part of the game.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/50s, f/5.0, 38mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV
Haggling at a section selling dried shrimps


And did I mention that vendors often know samplings of most other languages? While English is generally spoken, there are some mumblings of French to Chinese. I often am received with a greeting with Malay or Bahasa Indonesia and if they are really observant, Tagalog. (My native tongue is Cebuano but being welcomed in Tagalog is good enough for me.)


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/50s, f/3.5, 18mm, ISO 800, +1/3EV
Every morning, vendors would slice fresh fruits and package them in convenient plastic boxes.


I still have to meet a market with lady clerks more flirtatious than in Ben Thanh too. All is fair in love, war and I guess, shopping.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/50s, f/6.3, 40mm, ISO 100, +1/3EV
typical busy traffic at Le Loi St where Ben Thanh is located

part 2: what I brought back from Ben Thanh?