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Published: January 6th 2008
A day at the markets
Again functioning on Xinjiang time today I made my way to the markets and arrived at 9am-ish (Xinjiang time) and was amazed to find that the market that supposedly starts filling before dawn, was largely still closed! I wandered around what was open and then went and found somewhere for some breakfast which consisted of baozi (steamed buns with no flavour) covered in a stew-like sauce that had meat, and veges in it; they were pretty good in the end.
I headed back into the market and wandered into the hat section and I went a little crazy here. I bought one of the hats that all the Kashgar men are wearing, although I'm pretty sure my 'fur' is fake and not in fact the mink I was told it was, especially considering how cheap I got it, but that does not bother me in the slightest as I don't want a mink hat and it looks the part. Then I bought a few more hats, which don't fit me and I'm not even sure how you wear them, but they look cool! I continued through the hat section and found the suit section, the dress section, the carpet section, the homewares section and then the food section out in the street. There were so many donkeys pulling carts here and if it hadn't been for the LP (which actually gave me some useful information for once) telling me that 'Boish! Boish!' means 'Move! Move!' I am sure I would have been run over. I was once again amazed at the sights in front of me as I walked through groups of men with huge strands of garlic hanging from their outstretched arms, sacks of dried chilli's, carts filled with cabbages or any other sort of vegetable and open-air butchers galore. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better I couldn't help myself from smiling at the situation I was in - I was in Kashgar, at the Sunday market, surrounded by donkeys as if I had been transported to a time and place where everything seems so much simpler (of course looks can be decieing and I don't doubt that the good people of Kashgar have their fair share of troubles but hey, I'm a Romantic at heart).
I wandered back into the market proper and found the knife and jade section, having already bought two knives I looked into the jade. I found three pieces that I liked the look of and after shining a torch through them, scratching the glass cabinet case, and bashing them against other rocks, I was satisfied that they were the real deal (I think) and asked the price. His first price was absolutely ridiculous and was obvioulsy taking advantage of another stupid tourist, so I said thanks but no thanks and began to walk away. The bargaining had begun. In the end I got the three pieces for 60yuan, significantly less than his original price of 850yuan. It made me wonder about how many tourists actually fell for it and paid his first price, much like the American couple that I saw in the Silk Market in Beijing who were buying a PSP for the first price they were given which was 1500yuan, I had already tested the waters earlier and discovered that most vendors were willing to go down to 700 pretty easily and I thought they might even go to 500. But hey if I was a vendor, and if it had worked before I would try it and if they took it, you beauty!
Having said all that, I must admit that I too got tricked for the stupid tourist, walking out of the market I passed a man seeling pomegranates and pomegranate juice, he asked if would like a glass and it looked good so I asked how much and he held up five fingers, five. I drank my glass, which was delicious although a tad cold being semi-frozen, and pulled out five yuan and then he flew off into a tirade and said that it wasn't five it was fifty. Bugger. I stood my ground and told him that he showed me five fingers and I counted them for him, one, two, three, four and five, not fifty. If he holds up five fingers he should expect that there would be some confusion. He told me that a small glass was twenty and a large one was fifty, I told him that he showed me five and I was paying five. He flicked me away with his hand and I left the five on the table, then he poicked it up, gave it back to me and flicked me away again. I stood there holding out the five and said ok then, and turned to go. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back and told me it was fifty, I said no. He once again explained that a small glass was twenty and a large one fifty, I once again showed him five fingers and counted them for him and said that he was ripping me off because I was a laowai. After that he said he would accept twenty and I said that I wouldn't accept twenty, he started yelling in Uighur, I told him that I would see what the PSB thought of it, then he said he would accept ten. For the sake of finality I pulled out ten, threw it at him and walked away. I wasn't a happy camper.
Anyway, I spent most of the morning walking around the markets and bought a few other things and buy the time I left the place was buzzing with people. I headed back to the hotel to drop off my purchases and then was back out and into a bus headed for the livestock market. When I arrived it was just as busy as the other market if not moreso as there were also countless numbers of animals going every direction. I headed in and was once again thankful for the 'boish' warning as people were test-driving donkeys and horses all over the shop. I wandered around the sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, horses and found the camels. I sauntered over in my best 'I-don't-really-want-your-camels' nonchalant way and began to check out his camels, looking at their feet, legs, checking out their humps and doing general camel checking. After a while the camel seller approached me and I asked him if he spoke Chinese, he did, so I asked him the price of what I judged to be the finest camel. I had read and was told by a few people, that you can't just buy one came and keep it on its own as they get lonely, and if there are any other camels around and yours isn't properly secured, they run away to join the other camels. So, after he gave me a price I then asked him how much for two camels and we began to negotiate a price, however once agreed that meant he was left with only one camel. Not wanting to leave one on its own, he was keen to through in the third one and once again we negotiated at length. In the end, the price for the three camels was HUGE and the price of one camel was HUGE and way out of my price bracket, he knew camels could be so expensive! So, unfortunately I didn't buy any camels, adding to the financial restraints there was also the slight problem of getting them home and then what to do with them, more to the point what was Mike going to do with them? I'm sorry Mike but no camels today.
As I headed out of the market feeling a little deflated I was greeted by and odd looking fellow with a yellow smile that was missing a few teeth, he was selling knives, I told him I already had a knife but thankyou, then he asked me if I was hungry and if I wanted to have lunch with him, why not (or porrr que no! as the man Rogelio would say)! We headed to one of the stalls set up on the wall of the market and I had the best lamb shishkebabs I have ver had in my life. The meat was very fresh, coming straight from the market floor and being 'prepared' in front of your eyes, but I think what made them was after the huge hunks of meat had been placed on the skewers they were then dipped in some sort of batter and placed into the wood oven. The result was massive skewers of meat covered in a light brown crispy batter and they were good, very good. After having a few of these and enjoying some pleasant conversation about how many languages my odd friend could speak, I hopped back on a bus and back to the hotel to chillout for a bit, I was pooped.
I read my book (which I have almost finished which isn't good as the availability of English books is scarce to say the least) for an hour or so and then headed out into the old town and over to the night markets. This time I had my camera and got a few good photos before my batteries died, dammit! Feeling a little peckish again I headed back to my favourite little restaurant and this time my appearance was greeted with 'yahximusiz' (how do you do?) and salam alaikums from all the waiters and chefs and the owner, I had become something of a celebrity, I had a few more shishkebabs and some noodles with meat and veges.
Since then I have been here reading about a fresh outbreak of bird flu that broke out in Xinjiang province on the 29th of December 2007, in a place called Turpan, which I was supposed to visit after Dunhuang but decided not to as it seemed more like a place to visit in summer. While I know there have only been a few cases of humans contracting bird flu and that you have to be in close contact with sick birds to get it, I was pretty glad that I decided not to go.
Thanks for reading, I know its not as interesting without photos but I appreciate those of you who are still reading, I can't believe that some of you who started following me from the beginning are still reading, a big thanks to you. I hope you find these blogs just as good as the first ones!
Lazy day wandering around town tomorrow, have to go to the post office so that will be an experience, but apart from that not much else planned but I'll let you know what I get up to.
Matt out
END TRANSMISSION
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Michael
non-member comment
Cool :) those markets sound like the way to go! Pfft 50 for a glass of juice! what a rip-off :) I am glad you told him to get bent! Thats ok man, i understand! I figured that they would be quite a price even with the exchange rates...and i think it might be a little more important that you come home sometime :P Still good reading anyway!