The Bazaar

This past Saturday Christian and I went to visit the bazaar. There's a little area on base that the people in charge allow Afghans to come into to peddle their wares every Saturday around midday. There are about 4 or 5 rows of shops. At the bazaar they sell a whole bunch of everything. Well, maybe not everything. What they do have is clothes, rugs, jewelry, nick-nacks, raw precious stones, electronics... no food basically, no food or drugs.

I went into the bazaar with the stated goal of not spending a single dollar. I've been terrible at haggling in these settings in the past and I wanted to get a feel for what the prices should be vs. what the initial offer is.

Here are some pictures that I snuck while strolling around:

Rugs and what appear to be belly-dancing outfits... not exactly adherent to sharia law.

Wooden souvenirs, and marble bowls and plates.

That is a rug with Da Vinci's the last supper stitched into it. Awesome.

I didn't get any good shots of the jewelry, but I hear that people can buy raw stones here especially rubies for good prices and sell them back in the states for about three times what they were bought for over here. If only I knew what was real and what was fake. If anyone has any suggestions on that front I'd be glad to take them.

Lots of things made out of some sort of material... can't quite place it.

The most amazing thing that goes on here is the bootleg dvds. Very soon after movies come out in theaters they are available for purchase here at the bazaar. The pictures below are not indicative of that immediacy. The wide selection is truly awe-inspiring.

You're taking a big risk when buying them that your desired content hasn't been dubbed in some other language.

Endless shelves of DVDs.

Most of my souvenir shopping will be done at the bazaar. I'm terrible at haggling, unless I legitimately do not want to buy an item - in those cases, I'll get sucked into haggling because shopkeepers will mistake my dismissal as an invitation to negotiate prices... when it's not.