Tuesday, May 21, 2013

A River Runs Through the Market/El Paseo Del Rio Por El Mercado

Today we went to a  market in Thimphu. The Centennial Market is one of the largest markets for Thimpu area farmers and artisans. The Market sold fruits and vegetables imported from India on one floor and the local organic goods on the other. Across a river in front of the Market, there were multiple stalls which sold a variety of handicraft items made by Bhutanese craft-workers; we did a lot of shopping here. The bridge connecting the two sides of the Market was amazing; there were prayer flags hung all the way across the bridge. The handicraft stalls sold both Bhutanese clothes and western clothing. We were especially interested in the traditional Bhutanese items such as prayer wheels, cymbals, horns, clothes and baskets as well as some products from Nepal. Although we were able to speak with most of the merchants our guide helped us communicate with some of those who did not speak or had trouble understanding English. We were able to get great prices for the items we bought because we  haggled! When everyone was done with their shopping there, we continued our shopping in small shops within the City of Thimphu. There were a large number of small open shops located alongside one another in a l-o-n-g row; there were almost a 100 of them! These shops had much of the same lovely handcraft items as those we saw in the Market  but with more price variations. Overall, we truly enjoyed shopping in Thimphu!



Marita J.

El Paseo Del Rio Por El Mercado

Hoy tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar un mercado en Thimphu. El Mercado Centinal es uno de los mercados domesticos mas grandes para los granjeros de Bhutan. Despues de nuestra llegada al Mercado Centinal nuestra guia nos explico que en un piso se vendian frustas y verduras importadas de la India, y en el otro se podia encontrar productos organicos locales en venta. Del otro lado del rio entfrente del mercado se encrontraba el area de manualidades, fue en esa parte que se llavaron a cavo la majoira de nuestras compras. El puente entre estos dos lugares era algo impresionante de ver por si mismo. Havia banderas de oracion colgandas por todo el puente.  El lado de Artesanias podia ser dividido en dos partes, del lado derecho se encontraban en venta ropa tradisional y no tradicional de Bhutan, mientras que del otro lado se podia encontrar en venta artesanias, cadenas de oracion, ropa, canastas y algunos productos importados de Nepal. Aunque nos pudimos comunicar con la majoria de los vendedores, nuestra gia nos ayudo a comunicarnos con aquellos que no hablaban ingles. Fuimos capases de obtener buenos precios por los objetos que compramos. Algunos estuviantes hasta regatiaron para conseguir los precios que querian. Cuando todos los estudiantes havian terminado en ese lugar, continuamos nuestras compras en unas tiendas pequenas en la cuidad deThimpu. Alli se podia encontrar un gran numero de tiendas pequenas lado a lado. Estas tiendas tenian muchas hermosas artesanias similares a las que haviamos visto en el mercado anterior pero los precios estavan mas variados. El mercado tenia ambos precios altos y vajos para el mismo artefacto dependiendo de la tienda. Fue en este lugar que los estudiantes tuvieron que ir biscando de tienda en tienda, buscando el mejor precio. Despues de un dia de compras nuesta experiencia de compras en Thimphu llego a su fin. 

Marita J.

1 comment:

  1. I love shopping at those kinds of markets. I would have had to buy another suit case to bring home everything I know I would have bought. Really want some of those prayer flags! Remind John to get some for me please (if he has room :)

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