CITY MARKET - BANGALORE SUNDAY 26TH

Our hostess Laika suggested we should ask the Tuk Tuk driver to turn on the meter with the promise that we would pay him meter price but a little more. However, she said the going rate was probably around 90 rupees (£1 approx)

The first Tuk Tuk driver we stopped quoted 200 so we just walked away, the second one started at 200 but we did some hard bargaining and got him down to 100 rupees which we were happy with and we set off for the 20 minutes journey to the City Market. Laika had told us to look out for the stairs leading up, and down, to floors of wholesale flower sellers where the blooms arrive in huge sacks and are either auctioned like that or strung onto garlands which are coiled in huge baskets and sold that way.  The garlands are auctioned for onward sale to temple devotees.   She couldn't be precise about the location and I'm not surprised. The City market is probably the largest Indian market we've ever visited – and it was jam packed full, noisy, colourful and smelly (some aromas more pleasant than others)!  

I reckon you could buy just about anything in this market

We wandered down street after street with both sides of the road given over to small market traders and the roads themselves full of bikes, motorbikes, Tuk Tuks and walkers like us all battling through the throngs and ducking to avoid the huge loads carried on the heads of porters ... amazing experience!

Because we took so many photos there, I'm going to split the posts into sections with pictures of the flower market, 'other' items in the market, people/characters in the market and animals

So firstly the flower market - and this is just a small selection of photos taken:

Sacks of flowerheads (mostly marigold, jasmine and some roses)

We took some photos from the higher levels to better show the scale and size of the operation

The flowerheads are threaded onto string to make long lengths like this.   Wicker baskets are lined with newspaper which is dampened with water then the lengths are coiled with great dexterity to form these stunning patterns/colours.

The garlands end up looking like this and sold in their thousands

OK - some photos of the 'other items' sold in the market and there were so many streets we probably missed many of the 'speciality' sections:

Cooking utensils

David purchasing a pan for cooking chapattis ... which will save my expensive non stick pans from being ruined.   He reckons he will now be able to produce perfect home made Naans.   The cost of this expensive pan was around £1.20

I'm so envious of the Indians being able to sit cross legged like this for hours - obviously they are very trim and athletic but even the very elderly folk find 'squatting' to sit and chat effortless!   I'd never be able to get up again if I spent 10 mins in this position (assuming I could sit that way in the first place)

The fruit and vegetables are always beautifully presented and the vendors spend a lot of time dusting/polishing the merchandise and arranging them attractively

As mentioned before, the porters work very hard in Indian markets

The stalls were more diverse as we moved (slowly) from the centre of the market to the outer areas

I/we have no idea what this fruit/vegetable is

Well, I did say I thought you could buy just about anything at this market.   This carpenter was sawing/planing wood quite happily and it was David who spotted what he was actually producing!

Not the best advert for the product ....... or maybe it is?? ... 'as endorsed by 100s of wasps/flies'......... 'millions of wasps can't be wrong' etc?