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marseilles
marseilles
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5 out of 5
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1
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Barter Trade Market

  • January 26, 2007
  • Rated 5 of 5 by marseilles from Metro Manila, Philippines
Barter Trade Market

My hosts brought me to "Barter Trade Market," which I found out is a dry market in the city known for its textiles with traditional Muslim designs, imported from Malaysia. I'm not entirely sure if this is accurate, but it seems, from what I gathered, to have gotten its name from the fact that many of the goods here were brought to Zamboanga by boatmen who barter goods off Tawi-Tawi with Malaysian boatmen.

Batik textile and embroidered malongs (large sarongs with their edges sewn together so that the material forms a tube that can be worn as a skirt or dress) are available here at incredibly cheap prices. The cheapest malongs are around P100 (US$2); malongs made with higher-quality material are around P250 to P300, depending on the length of the malong. This beautiful cloth is also made into bags, table cloths, skirts, shawls, and shirts. If you have time to spare, you can buy cloth and have it sewn into a shirt or skirt according to your specifications, then come back for it a few days later. I didn't have time to do that, but I bought some material which I intend to have sewn in Manila.

There were also food products—sweets and chocolates—from Malaysia, and other dry goods. I bought a box of chocolates for just P70 (about US$1.50) for the folks back home.

Everything is already incredibly cheap, but sellers are willing to haggle if you so wish.

I went on a weekday, and only about a third of the stalls were open, which still gave me a lot to look at, admire, and buy—in an hour's time, I was able to buy a skirt, a malong, some cloth, two handbags, several tubaws (a Muslim handkerchief-sized scarf usually wrapped around the head or neck), and chocolates, all for less than US$40. I was told, however, that the market fills up with both buyers and sellers on the weekend.

Shoppers cannot miss a trip to this market!

From journal Overnight Stay in Zamboanga City

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