Sharjah Fruit, Fish and Flower Markets
. . . the fish market was found right away - by smell. This incomparable smell of fresh, and not very, fish led us to the place of its sale. The market itself did not look very pretentious, rubbish on the pavement, rusty taps along the wall, and... the absence of people. It looks like we arrived early and the active trading phase has not started yet. The fish is cut on large white tables, when I climbed the racks, the merchants looked at me somewhat bewildered (later, I realized that I was in the "cutting" part of the market, where they do not sell fish, but prepare it for sale). There are a lot of cats and seagulls around, and if the cats were sleeping in the shade of cars, the seagulls were actively jumping near the tables, periodically announcing the surroundings with shrill cries. To put it mildly, I was struck by the attitude of traders to hygiene - they butcher fish, on which flies immediately land, which no one is going to drive! Seeing something like a ram, I wanted to know the cost, but I was immediately pointed to the far side of the market, where the sale took place - it was impossible to buy it at the place where the fish was unpacked and cut. I took pictures, but no one was particularly enthusiastic, and after a while I was politely asked to leave this territory, which my family and I did.
We went to the embankment, at the pier were fishing boats, skinned and scary. Many fishermen live right on them, smoke swirled over the galley of many boats, someone washed things and immediately hung them on the deck, someone darned things.
Going to the place where the fish was sold, we saw a small crowd of buyers, mostly women, who were busily choosing fish. Moreover, they bought up five or six kilograms at a time, they did not waste time on trifles. There are a lot of fish, different and any, frozen and fresh. Everyone looked askance at us, because we did not look much like buyers, probably they were annoyed by our idle curiosity. A small cafe a stone's throw from the rows provided all the hungry with food and drinks.
Somewhere nearby (according to the map) there should be a fruit market, I turn my head, I can’t find it, I ask the passing Arabs - they dismiss it. We cross the road, and we see an unremarkable building, without signs and inscriptions. Slightly peeled walls, peeling paint - this is what the Sharjah fruit market looks like. In the middle, everything is much more decent, a large selection of various fruits, moderately sticky sellers. We go looking, buying up, the choice on all the counters is almost identical, out of habit I don’t buy anything from the sellers at the entrance, we go to the end, we buy up a little there (bananas - 11 pieces for 10 dirhams, large mangoes - 15 dirhams / piece, a little less 3 pieces for 20 dirhams, strawberries - 5 dirhams / box). While walking to the end of the market, the Arab barkers gave their daughter a couple of tangerines, a banana and a kiwi. I'm joking that you could not skimp, but just take a walk back and forth, and the child would have fruit for a couple of days. I photographed "by hand" because I did not want to check the reaction of the sellers when they bought up, I asked the seller for permission to take a picture of him, he did not refuse. Looking ahead, I’ll say that the fruits turned out to be of good quality, the bananas are small but very tasty, the mango is ripe, but the strawberries are slightly sweet and, for some reason, crispy.
Opposite the fruit market there is a meat department, where you can see butchered carcasses of camels in the windows, I wanted to go in, but my wife persuaded me not to do this, because she felt sick from the mere sight of these carcasses. There is also a letterbox hanging on the wall, apparently few people use it, since it is covered with a thick layer of dust...
We go to the car, we see that along the road there are shopping malls with flowers, plants and even trees. The wife could not pass by, went from one flower garden to another and looked at the plants. The range of prices is very large, from three dirhams for a small flowerpot, up to five thousand for a large two-meter tree in a tub. My wife is ready to buy everything with her eyes, but I warn you in advance that we will not deliver any of this safely (our customs officers can also get to the bottom, “What is it? ”, “Why are there no documents? ”). There are a lot of decor elements for the garden (vases, amphoras, tubs, chairs), the smell is amazing, the flowers are bright and beautiful, you don’t want to leave, but the sun is getting hotter, so we go to the car and go to the beach.
