Everything Is Available At Andijan's Eski Bazaar

In Uzbekistan, the local markets are the best places to shop. Huge, messy, busy, defiantly not just another grocery store chain outlet. Buy like they did on the Silk Road.

Behold big Eski Bazaar in Andijan.

Maybe start with a little spice and a little vegetable. You gotta get some nan bread from the beared bread man.

How are you going to cook your feast? Head to hardware and get a giant plov pot.

Don't forget the high sugar drinks. All sealed and ready for a quick purchase. A choosy shopper.

You need flour? You need flour! See this guy, he's got all the varieties.

Seeing The Bazaar In Qarshi

Uzbekistan has the best local markets and Qarshi's main shopping area is a fine example of the crossroads of a city all crammed together, selling anything and everything.

View of one section of the market. The usual rows of vendors under a little bit of weather protection.

Fresh loaves of bread, still in the delivery truck. And in old cardboard boxes, way to upcycle. Chick pea display, tenderly art directed. Humble.

Uzbek staples. Bales of cotton, brooms, and cooking oil.

Entertaining piles of toys. Babies bursting and a soldier, creeping up on some farm animals.

The Charmin of the East, bear toilet paper. That's rough. Not the best selling approach?

Mincing the meat. Hard to tell the photo ads from the real thing. Parts of the market look a little abandoned during a slow day.

The Egg Room.

 

Shopping At The Talat Sao Morning Market

The main, local market in Vientiane, Laos, is not some open air, spread out flea market looking complex. Instead, it's a multistory behemoth that would look at home in any modern city.

The temple to shopping.

Inside, stall after stall over several floors, selling clothes, housewares, textiles, everything a local Lao might need.

"You want me to check to see if we have a specific pattern? Forget it, come in and see for yourself."

The bling is drained when the shops are closed. Open, bling spilling from shelves.

The big attraction seems to be the gold jewelry section. Take a number and wait for your big chain.

Bag It At The Bangkok Local Market

Bangkok still has plenty of local, outdoor food markets, including the canal shopping, along roads, around stations. Just tables overflowing with yummy stuff. It's also hot and buggy in Bangkok and shoppers are in a rush. Maybe bring out some plastic bags for hygiene and speed?

Veggies, bagged. Looking a little like buying goldfish.

Eggs, your way. Amazing, whole or fully yolk. Grab and scramble.

Fish, infinity pose. Escher would shop here.

Plastic, good for fly protection.

Maybe there are limits to what you want to buy, plastic bag or not. Mystery sauce and not so mysterious silk caterpillar bugs.

Exploring The Market Bazaar In Nukus

Every city in Uzbekistan has a big, sprawling, local market bazaar. Modern grocery stores are a growing option for shopping, yet wandering the busy stalls of an old bazaar still satisfies.

Aisles of fruits and vegetables.

Legumes by the kilogram. Here comes the meat. Pig's feet on the right.

More stalls, bringing the color.

The fresh eggs truck, just open the back and set the prices. Butcher shop sign, boasting of the wide variety of meat sources. So regal.

The babushka waiting line. Having acquired their food for the week, the women line up in the parking lot for their rides home.

Shopping The Local Market In Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and the city features plenty of world class amenities. Fancy hotels, office towers, museums, the usual magazine spread worthy baubles. What about before the oil money remade the place? Where did the housewife in the 1960's shop?

Here!

You can't find what you wanted? In these over-crowded shops, it must not exist.

Ready to help. Maybe.

One important feature of the various shops, a set of royal portraits. Photograph, rug, just any representation will do.

Another merchant portrait. Rack it.

The Amazing Yangiobod Market

Think of your standard flea market and multiply it by 10. Or 50. Just make it huge. Plop it down in a dusty area by some railroad tracks, have it sprawl in and out and around a set of musty, dark warehouses. Sell everything, mostly used. Tools, clothes, auto parts, restaurant equipment. Some of your vendors have regular stalls, shops, areas. 

Many of your vendors are weekend junk collectors with a blanket of their finest products. Which means, they cleaned out some old lady's apartment a few days earlier. Score!

A pause before the dive.

The range of products. A regular stall, specializing in bolts, etc.. and a typical table of a someone's junk. Or treasures.

Young patriot. She helps her grandfather at his camera, telescope stall.

Old Soviet era stuff is around. "Who's bust can I interest you in today?" Moving off the cult of past personality, a suitcase filled with family snapshots.

Oh boy. One of the more interesting rooms, a musty-looking and -smelling place, filled with old art. Let's just call it the Salon of Yangiobod.

Back outside, another typical spread, a real random mix of stuff. "I need a meat grinder, a suitcase and a long brown coat and I don't have a lot of time." Whew! Not everything is inanimate. There's a pet/live animal section. You choose whether it's a pet or dinner, no judgement.

The lonely plant seller.