Our Time in India: Koimbedu Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Market

Thursday morning I arose before dawn to begin the drive to one of the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in Chennai. The market actually starts to set up around 2 am, wholesale goes from 5-7am and it is open to the public from 7-9am. My friend Liz and I left at 5 am and arrived around 5:45am. It an amazing sight to see the hustle and bustle of this huge market just as the sun was rising. There were lorries and bicycle carts all over the place waiting for goods to be loaded. We started on the vegetable side. I have never seen so many vegetables in one place. The colors were fantastic! We saw so many vegetables some that we had never seen before. People were eager to pose for photos but had a bit of a hard time understanding that I couldn't give them the photo. I wish I could go back and give them a copy but it would be impossible. I was constantly being told to get out of the way as people were on the move with produce! I can't tell you how many times I got wacked with a sack of something! There were a few bicycle carts but no shopping carts or trolleys here. Mostly it was pure and simple man power. Men carried gunny sacks on there back, they had metal hooks hooked through the bag to hold them. Others carried baskets on their head piled high with boxes and some just stacked things on their shoulders. The market was alive with people! I kept thinking that this was what India was all about. We must have walked for about 2 hours and then we headed to the fruit section. There were rooms piled high with mangoes, watermelon, bananas, pineapples, etc. We bought a few things. One interesting thing was that a few times prices were quoted to us by a young person and when the older person came over the price shot up drastically! People continually asked where we were from. One laborer who had very good English asked my why I was in India. Of course I told him that my husband was working here. He wanted to know what I did so I told him I was a mom with kids and just stayed home with them. He then looks at me and says, "You are a housewife." That still makes me laugh because I didn't think he would understand if I told him I was a housewife. Too funny! So an incredibly wonderful experience again in India. I really enjoyed getting out and experiencing what India is really about. We discovered that we missed the flower section but at that point we were so hot and sweaty we decided we would just imagine what it would have been like! Enjoy the photos of a very busy market in Chennai!

Market at dawn