Anjuna Flea Market- The Bohemian Rhapsody on the Sand

If someone asks me that ‘what do you like most next to travelling, in your 23 years of life?’- The answer would invariably be shopping. In that case, how could I ever miss out on iconic Anjuna Flea Market in Goa? Ever since we had planned our trip to the land of sand, sun and the sea- my friends and I were making lists of the stuff to buy in Anjuna flea market.

From the super-helpful travel desk of our resort, we got to learn that- this market takes place every Wednesday on Anjuna beach and it remains open from 10.00 am-4.00 am. Not to miss out even an iota of its charm, we reached on Anjuna beach in North Goa by 10.00 am. The temporary shops were just arranging themselves by then. The strategic location of this flea market overlooking the azure Arabian Sea- made for a wonderful location. I got curious about the origin of this flea market and asked an old woman running a junk jewellery shop about the same.

Anjuna Flea Market | Image Resource : flickr.com

What she told me summarized as this- during 1960s, many hippies used to gather on Anuja beach because they loved the ambience. When they ran out of money, the hippies started selling their belongings like clothes, guitars, jewellery, and other knick-knacks for cheap prices to the locals and tourists also. Thus Anjuna flea market came to picture, which became synonymous with the spirit of Goa, over the years. Lastly, Anjuna’s birth-story charmed me equally as its colorful shops.

Touring around the alleys of this flea market felt almost surreal to us. The color bursts surrounding us in terms of clothes, scarves, bangles made our hearts went swooning collectively after them. Much I love shopping; I have very little patience for bargaining with the sellers, so I moved towards the fixed-price shops. The live band music playing at the centre of the market set the mood on a cheerful note. The juice shops and the junk food stalls did their bits to satiate our thirsts and hunger pangs as well.

We spent close to 3-4 hours and when the time came for exit, we took a solemn oath to return back in this wonderful mélange very soon.