The past week or so it has been very rainy here - the monsoons have arrived! Passang and I have experienced both the good and the bad of these rainfalls as we've been traveling around trying to get my documents in order. The rain causes landslides and there have been several road closures which have made our journeys longer than normal. But it also makes everything green and makes for some awesome waterfalls like this:
Yesterday was Monday, which in Sombaria (the town just down the hill from ours) means that it's market day (Sombar means Monday in Nepali)! Almost every Monday I go to market with at least on of my sisters-in-law to buy vegetables, fruit, and other items for the week ahead. Yesterday I went with Passang's sister and her daughter, Shila.
It takes us about 15 mins to walk down to the market. We have to walk down a couple of LONG flights of stairs. On Monday the market is bustling and the streets are lined with people selling goods.
We mainly go to market to buy fruits and vegetables since you can get most other goods throughout the week; however, we try to get as mush shopping done as we can at one time so that we don't have to go back to the market during the week.
Here is one of the fruit sellers. Our fruit mostly comes from outside of Sikkim since the rest of India is better suited for growing most fruits.
They grow delicious vegetables here is Sikkim, and they are all organic - the government doesn't allow anything else. Fruits and veggies from outside of Sikkim will most likely not be organic. We try to buy mostly local vegetables.
Here's my sister-in-law buying some ginger.
Here she is buying some beans.
We search around from shop to shop looking for nice produce and good prices. Some sellers have different prices based on the quality or source of the produce, and you can do a bit of bargaining, but for the most part you pay whatever the going rate is.
Here's a lady selling peppers under a plastic canopy. You never know what the weather is going to be like here, but these canopies help keep both the sun and rain off.
Here's a spice seller
Yesterday I didn't have too much vegetable shopping to do - the day before Passang and I had purchased some veggies at a town further down the hill as we were coming back home. The produce tends to be cheaper the closer you are to the Sikkim boarder so we try to buy a few things whenever we go down the hill. Yesterday I bought 1 kg of tomatoes (20 rupees - about 38 cents), 1 kg of mangoes (about 94 cents), and one small pineapple (40 Rupees - about 75 cents). It totaled just over $2 in US.
Here are my mangoes and pineapple
We also had a few other goods to pick up - my sister-in-law bought some clothes for our nieces, and I picked up some crackers and bread.
Here's a shop that sells mostly non-perishable items like cookies, crackers, chips, pop, shampoo, and soap.
Here's my sister-in-law checking out a sari as we're looking at clothes.
I also picked up several samosas to take home as a snack for my family. Samosas are a fried pastry item filled with potatoes and spices. I bought 7 of these samosas for a total of 30 rupees or about 57 cents.
My purchases including produce, bread, crackers, and samosas came to 185 rupees or about $3.50 US. Not too bad! After our shopping was done, we were loaded down with our purchases so we went over to this taxi stand and caught a ride back up the hill.
Yesterday was Monday, which in Sombaria (the town just down the hill from ours) means that it's market day (Sombar means Monday in Nepali)! Almost every Monday I go to market with at least on of my sisters-in-law to buy vegetables, fruit, and other items for the week ahead. Yesterday I went with Passang's sister and her daughter, Shila.
It takes us about 15 mins to walk down to the market. We have to walk down a couple of LONG flights of stairs. On Monday the market is bustling and the streets are lined with people selling goods.
We mainly go to market to buy fruits and vegetables since you can get most other goods throughout the week; however, we try to get as mush shopping done as we can at one time so that we don't have to go back to the market during the week.
Here is one of the fruit sellers. Our fruit mostly comes from outside of Sikkim since the rest of India is better suited for growing most fruits.
They grow delicious vegetables here is Sikkim, and they are all organic - the government doesn't allow anything else. Fruits and veggies from outside of Sikkim will most likely not be organic. We try to buy mostly local vegetables.
Here's my sister-in-law buying some ginger.
Here she is buying some beans.
We search around from shop to shop looking for nice produce and good prices. Some sellers have different prices based on the quality or source of the produce, and you can do a bit of bargaining, but for the most part you pay whatever the going rate is.
Here's a lady selling peppers under a plastic canopy. You never know what the weather is going to be like here, but these canopies help keep both the sun and rain off.
Here's a spice seller
Yesterday I didn't have too much vegetable shopping to do - the day before Passang and I had purchased some veggies at a town further down the hill as we were coming back home. The produce tends to be cheaper the closer you are to the Sikkim boarder so we try to buy a few things whenever we go down the hill. Yesterday I bought 1 kg of tomatoes (20 rupees - about 38 cents), 1 kg of mangoes (about 94 cents), and one small pineapple (40 Rupees - about 75 cents). It totaled just over $2 in US.
Here are my mangoes and pineapple
We also had a few other goods to pick up - my sister-in-law bought some clothes for our nieces, and I picked up some crackers and bread.
Here's a shop that sells mostly non-perishable items like cookies, crackers, chips, pop, shampoo, and soap.
Here's my sister-in-law checking out a sari as we're looking at clothes.
I also picked up several samosas to take home as a snack for my family. Samosas are a fried pastry item filled with potatoes and spices. I bought 7 of these samosas for a total of 30 rupees or about 57 cents.
My purchases including produce, bread, crackers, and samosas came to 185 rupees or about $3.50 US. Not too bad! After our shopping was done, we were loaded down with our purchases so we went over to this taxi stand and caught a ride back up the hill.
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