Market days in Bhairahawa, Nepal

Nothin' like some good old bloody fish to whet the appetite!

Fresh fish (from where???)

Fresh vegetables of every form, color and taste can be found at the market

Spices vendors line the streets of the market...

Spices, spices, and more spices....

Coriandor and woven plate vendor

Hot chillies of every shape and form can be found at the market.

The biggest challenge at market day is deciding which of the vendors will have the tastiest and cheapest food (without giving you the trots!)

The market is the cheapest and tastiest place to eat. For $1-$2 you can fill up from the streetside food vendors

Buses decorated to the hilt are loaded to the hilt with produce headed to and from the twice-weekly market

Market day occurs twice each week -- on Sunday and Thursday -- in Bhairahawa. Vendors invade a large section of town to sell goods of all shapes, sizes, tastes, and colors. You can buy almost anything there from bras and panties to pots and pans to fresh bloody fish to colorful sari fabrics to fragrant spices to fresh vegetables to shoes, shirts, pants, socks and washcloths. The vendors line both sides of the streets and masses of humanity squeeze through the narrow dusty space in between.

But even with all the material competition, white faces are still a fascinating sideshow to the vendors and customers crowding the market. We are also an opportunity to double or triple or quadruple the prices being asked for the various goods. Haggling is essential if we are to even COME CLOSE to what locals pay for anything!

But the market is a must-see for anyone visiting Bhairahawa (as is the mosaic workshop!)

Photos from Bhairahawa, Nepl

Fruit stand in Bhairahawa

Tailors working next to fruit stand in downtown Bhairahawa, Nepal

Morning outside our back deck... foggy, foggy, foggy...

Downtown Bhairahawa, Nepal

This lady looked like a haystack walking. She carries a similar load past our house each day to feed her buffalo or cow.

The site of ladies with their heads loaded with everything from dung (this lady) to bricks to sticks to large masses of hay or branches to sacks of potatoes and other things is common in Nepal. (Every once in awhile the men will pitch in!)

In and around the town of Bhairahawa (which is just a few miles from the Indian border) are small villages like this one.

Our twice daily diet of dahl baat (rice, watery lentil soup and usually overcooked vegetables) makes the fruit stands a welcome visiting spot. The oranges are delicious (although fairly expensive at 10 rupies each (there are 70 rupies to a dollar).

January mornings can be foggy and verrrrry chilly. While I resort to my long underwear and lots of layers of clothes, many people build small fires and gather around them for a morning chat. These ladies giggled and chatted while I took their photo and a large crowd gathered around us to admire the photo and the ladies' celebrity status.

Although Bhairahawa is fairly prosperous (despite the fact that they only have electricity around 11 hours each day), there is definitely a class system. This lady is obviously very poor but she gave me a big smile when I greeted her with "Namaste!" and snapped her photo.

Vegetable vendors line the streets of Bhairahawa

Married Lady (as indicated by red stripe on head)

Cute kid