Mapusa - Friday Market

Soon after we landed in Goa, we were busy in arranging our schedule. The guy in the restaurant have already mentioned the name Mapusa and that, we should plan a travel there on the weekend. Now, it is Friday and we woke up early to make our visit to the city.

Travel was never a problem to Mapusa, because options were many - autos, motorcycles or taxis. We preferred taxi. It was suddenly that something caught my attention. Most of the roads and lanes there have no names. And to my wonder, most of the localities also don’t know any name for such places. Almost all the places are recognized by virtue of the nearby land marks - sounds strange? So were we. In our conversation with our taxi driver, we understood that we should make our first move to the Friday market. 

As we entered to the market, we wondered whether, the whole of India enjoy their weekend here. In other words, India’s weekends lie in Mapusa market. Preparations for a weekend are colorful and full of feel in this market. Here and there we could see Goan women trying to sell their handicraft goods and spices. The sweet smell of tamarind which fills the air is that which we find in most of the Goan kitchens- we realized during our later days in Goa. You will get everything special about Goa in this market. 

What we enjoyed most of the visit to this traditional market is the way we bargained for goods there. This was nothing new to the Goans as they have become used to sell their good at bargained rates. Even then, millions of rupees are flowing through the Friday market.

On our return, we made a visit to the Bodhgeshwar temple, another popular destination in Mapusa. We have noticed that reaching Mapusa from other spots of Goa is easy and planned to make yet another visit to the Friday market before we leave the place.