Here are nine of the world’s strangest markets.
For those in search of adventure or are fascinated by unusual places, these locations just might
be what you're looking for.
Number 9: The Ka Firushi Bird Market Kabul’s bird bazaar, known as the Ka Firushi
Bird market or Alley of Straw Sellers, might remind you of a certain Hitchcock movie.
Located along a narrow lane behind the Pul-e Khishti Mosque, the market is lined with stalls
where the vendors display hundreds of species of birds.
The rusty cages may give you the impression you are stepping back in time a hundred years,
as the market has remained untouched by war or modernization.
The bird market has reportedly withstood decades of strife, and the vendors have been selling
birds for generations.
The owners are most fond of the kowk (or fighting partridge), which is considered to be king
of all the birds.
Those who are lucky enough to have a kowk take great care of them and keep them in special
cages.
However, on Friday mornings, the owners organize bird fights, where the kowks are forced into
quick bouts of strength against one other, while spectators can gamble on the results.
Because of their ‘kings’ reputations, the birds are considered to be too valuable
for the owners to let them die, so they are pulled out of the fight before they hurt each
other too seriously.
Number 8: The Muara Kuin Floating Market The Muara Kuin Floating Market used to be
located on the mouth of the river Kuin Barito, Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Indonesia).
The vendors used to display their merchandise on boats named “Jukung”, after the morning
prayers, until 9 AM.
The traders (or dukuh), which were usually women, used to sell their own products, mostly
fresh fruit and vegetables.
However, there were also secondhand goods, which were called panyambangan.
The market still used the barter system between the boating merchants and the buyers.
The Muara Kuin Floating Market was a traditional market that had withstood the test of time
for more than 400 years.
It had reportedly gone extinct after the river canals were destroyed and replaced with roads.
Number 7: The Donghuamen Night Market If you have an adventurous spirit and an appetite
for unconventional food, then perhaps Beijing’s Donghuamen Night Market is just the place
for you.
The stalls spread over a 200-meter-long street and host some of the most unusual dishes in
the world.
The market is only open at night and has been around since 1984.
Daring foodies from all over the world come here to taste specialties like fried scorpions,
cooked bugs and unconventional animal parts, silkworm cocoons and many more.
Some of the weirdest foods displayed on the stalls are, reportedly, the centipedes, which
are supposed to be bitter and need to be seasoned with salt and pepper, and which might leave
little legs between your teeth.
The centipedes are followed by locusts, which allegedly taste like fried chicken and are
packed with protein.
Sea horses are also in the top three weirdest dishes you can have at the Donghuamen Night
Market.
They are the most expensive item you can find on the stalls, especially because they are
believed to possess medicinal qualities that boost the health of your kidneys.
Deep fried sea horses supposedly taste like “fishy bacon”, with a hint of garlic.
But the item dubbed the strangest by tourists is the scorpion.
They are displayed on sticks while they are still alive, but they are deep fried once
a customer buys them.
The scorpion is also believed to have medicinal properties, such as reducing pain and improving
circulation.
They supposedly taste like greasy popcorn, and some vendors season the scorpions with
a bit of chili powder.
Number 6: Spider Market The Cambodian city of Skuon, also known as
Spiderville or Spider Town, holds one of the strangest markets in the world: the spider
market.
The town is so infested with arachnids that they fall off the trees or off the buildings
and drop straight onto people’s heads.
In fact, there are so many spiders in Skuon that locals have taken to eating them.
They allegedly first started eating them during the Khmer Rouge period, due to the scarce
food conditions.
However, the crispy fried spider snacks are so popular in this city nowadays, that there
is a whole market dedicated to them, called the Spider Market.
There you will find mountains of crispy eight-legged snacks displayed on the stalls right next
to the fruits and vegetables.
The spiders are black and hairy and some of them are as big as a grown man’s palm.
Some of the vendors say you have to eat the legs and head first.
Some vendors advise avoiding the abdomen, while others claim the abdomen is the best
part of the dish.
Number 5: The Deyrolle Taxidermy Shop The Deyrolle taxidermy shop, named after its
founder, Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, is located on the classy Rue du Bac in Paris.
Walking into this unusual store might be a hair-raising experience for the unexperienced
buyer, as it is packed with stuffed animals.
Tigers, zebras, giraffes, bears, baby elephants, elk heads, bear rugs and many more.
Although it first opened as a pedagogical market, Deyrolle now attracts stuffed animal
collectors and also hunters, who are eager to immortalize their trophies.
If you want to take a lion home you will have to spend at least 10,000 euros, while a penguin
costs approximately 2,530 euros.
Most tourists that don’t want to leave empty-handed choose to buy the rabbit, as it’s one of
the cheapest items in the shop with a price of only 600 euros.
However, many customers wonder where all the animals come from.
Peio Rahola, the co-director of the boutique, revealed to the press that the exhibits are
either part of Deyrolle’s vintage collection, or they come from zoological reserves or circuses.
The taxidermy shop was almost destroyed in February 2008, when a short circuit triggered
a fire.
French soldiers, who were at that time on a routine patrol, detected the smoke and were
soon joined by dozens of firefighters in their efforts to put out the blaze.
The fire at the Deyrolle market was dubbed as a “catastrophe” by Michel Dumont, the
then-mayor of the Seventh Arrondissement where the shop is located, as almost 90 percent
of the stock was lost to the flames.
However, the French Army opened one of its nearby military depots, in order to double
as a warehouse for the burned animals and items.
Fortunately, as Deyrolle was considered one of the most important shops in Paris at that
time, it was brought back with the help of its customers.
After the fire ruined everything, one woman donated 50 boxes of butterflies to the shop.
A man returned the back of a bull’s head he had bought before the disaster, while photographers
and artists from all over the country donated their works.
By November 2008, the owners managed to partially reopen Deyrolle.
Number 4: The Maeklong Railway Market The Bangkok Railway Market is one of the most
famous unusual markets in the world.
Located down the street from the Maeklong Railway Stations, the vendor’s activity
gets disrupted six times a day by the train that runs right through the middle of it.
When it approaches, a warning bell goes off, so the vendors begin pulling back their merchandise
so that only the flatter fruit and vegetables remain near the train tracks, but low enough
to be safe from the metal wheels.
After it passes, they begin putting everything right back into its place like nothing happened,
and everything is back to business as usual.
The train’s horn is loud and cannot be ignored, so accidents rarely happen.
Although it is not a fast-moving kind of train, the Railway Market has been dubbed one of
the most dangerous in the world.
However, the market has been on the railways for about 50 years, and only two deaths have
allegedly occurred during its existence.
Nevertheless, people say the killings happened so long ago, that nobody remembers exactly
when and how they happened.
Number 3: The Gypsy Bridal Market Young Romani girls dressed in provocative
mini-skirts and gowns are sold by their parents to young men at the Gypsy bridal market in
Bulgaria.
Thousands of people gather to witness the marriage agreements that take place between
the parents of the teen girls and the parents of the grooms-to-be.
The fair reportedly takes place twice a year and it begins with groups of boys and girls
flirting and checking each other out, while their mothers and fathers are watching.
The girls wear what are supposed to be sexy gowns and heavy make-up, while the boys are
usually dressed in black leather jackets and jeans.
The prices of the potential brides are negotiable and range between 5,000 and 10,000 lev (from
2,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars).
The girls are aged 18 or 19, while the boys can be as old as 22 or 23.
The young women must be virgins when they marry, as the tradition dictates, so some
parents remove the girls from school when they are as young as 15 to ‘avoid temptations’.
Although this idea has faded in many segments of the Bulgarian Romani society, virgin brides
are still sold for much more money.
However, unlike other Gypsy communities, the bride and groom must agree they like each
other before the marriage agreement occurs.
Number 2: The Akodessewa Fetish Market The Akodessewa Fetish Market in Togo, Lome,
displays the largest collection of Voodoo items in the world.
Visitors are greeted by local practitioners, who invite them to try or have a look at their
mystic items.
Some of the strangest objects you can find on the stalls are animal heads, especially
bull or tiger heads, and even human skulls.
The fetish priests claim to be able to communicate with the gods according to the customer’s
needs, to find out whatever item is most appropriate.
They use either dead or live animals and allegedly only practice white magic, while they claim
to heal and not hurt anybody involved.
Moreover, the practitioners say they are only able to use dead animals that have been found
and not the ones that they have killed, as those would not be accepted by the gods.
Along with the skulls and bones, other items that are displayed within the Akodessewa Fetish
Market are ragged pieces of fur, rotting birds, herbs and medicinal plants, good luck charms
which the practitioners claim have been blessed with incantations, tortoise shells, statues
and talismans.
The place is reportedly surrounded with a strong stench that comes from the rotting
animal corpses that are put up for sale.
Initially, the market was located in Dahomey, but it was moved to Lome in the early years
of the 20th century because of the putrid smell.
Number 1: Witches’ Market in La Paz, Bolivia Also known as El Mercado de las Brujas and
La Hechiceria, the Witches’s Market in La Paz, Bolivia, is located on Calle Jimenez
and Linares, within a lively touristic area.
Raw ingredients used in rituals, dried llama and frog fetuses, dried turtles and snakes,
multiple herbs, folk remedies or owl feathers are exposed on the vendors’ stalls.
The merchandise also includes aphrodisiac formulas, potions and other enthralling ingredients
used for calling on the spirits from the Aymara world.
However, some of the strangest items that are to be found in the Witches’ Market are
the dried llama fetuses.
Poor Bolivians believe that by burying them in the foundations of new buildings as an
offering to the goddess Pachamama it will keep the construction workers safe.
Wealthier locals usually sacrifice living llamas for this purpose.
Along with the unusual objects the vendors are selling, the market is also populated
by actual Bolivian witch doctors, called Yatiri.
They are easy to recognize, because they wear dark hats and dresses, and wander around offering
fortune-telling services and selling talismans, amulets and powders that they carry around
in coco pouches.