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Shopping in Mumbai is a memorable experience as one wanders
through its bazaars with striking names like Chor Bazaar, Mutton Street
and Zaveri Bazaar. Mumbai's streets, corners and pavements are lined with
shops and virtually anything one wants is available in parts of its famous
bazaars and markets. Shopping in Mumbai can be anyway one likes -
air-conditioned and fixed price, or street market and lots of hard
bargaining.
Shopping Downtown
Most of the Handicrafts emporia and bazaars are located in the downtown
area. Crawford Market, famous for flowers, fruits, meat and fish, is
certainly a place worth capturing on your camera; its sheer colour and
variety will not fit into one screen.
The main areas for bargain clothes are around Colaba Causeway and Fashion
Street, which stretches along the Cross and Azad Maidans. More trendy and
costly shopping is found at Breach Candy and Kemps Corner, down the hill
from the Hanging Gardens. Chor Bazaar is antique-hunter's delight, while
nearby Zaveri Bazaar is famous for its diamond, gold and silver jewellery.
The shopping arcades of almost all five-star hotels such as the Oberoi
and the Taj Mahal offer a good variety of up-market shops. In central and
suburban Mumbai, the Dadar, Bandra-Linking Road, and Juhu Road areas are
good spots to shop.
Shopping Arcades Of The Hotels Such As Taj, Oberoi
If
one wants to take the leisurely option for your shopping trips, go for a
stroll around the air- conditioned shopping arcades of the main hotels,
the Taj, the Oberoi Towers and the new Oberoi, all in south Mumbai, and
shop for clothes, shoes, leatherwear, jewellery, and good quality
handicrafts.
Prices will be higher than outside, but the choice in these shopping
arcades is excellent, and if one is a canny shopper, one can always window
shop there, before heading off to the markets.
Some shops however are exclusive to the hotels in the Oberoi Shopping
Centre, for example, there is a wonderful shop called "Christina",
selling bags, purses, scarves and silk blouses. Designs are never
repeated, and one has to be quick off the mark if one sees something one
like, for the little shop is always busy, often with airline crews.
Chor Bazaar in Mumbai
At Chor Bazaar one'll find a phenomenal collection of antiques,
jewellery, wooden articles, leatherwear and general bric-a-brac. Chor
Bazaar is commonly known as "Thieves' Market, a name coined by the
British but perhaps mistakenly. It is also thought that the original name
was "Shor Bazaar" (Noisy Market), which aptly described the
yelling and shouting of the local traders on Mutton Street while selling
their second hand household goods. Today, it is a hustling bustling market
selling an electric range of new and old furniture and bric-a-brac. While
on one looks out for brass planters and silver "Hookahs"
(remember bargain very hard in Chor Bazaar) take time to wander up and
down the other alleys, some devoted to furniture, others to crystal and
glassware, and others to far less romantic items like inner tubes or
valves.
Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai
For beautiful silver jewellery and belts, go to Zaveri Bazaar. Silver is
a very good buy in Zaveri Bazaar, but bargain hard. Other good silver buys
are napkin rings, picture frames in old silver (beautiful, but pricey) and
boxes: lovely presents if one can ever bear to give them away. Always
check the price per gram for silver, and remember there is a different
price for old silver, and do compare prices in a few shops before buying.
Fashion Street of Mumbai
For shirts, tee-shirts and wonderful cotton clothes for children, all at
rock bottom prices, visit "Fashion Street" a street market
opposite one of Mumbai's exclusive clubs, the Bombay Gymkhana, but known
to everyone as the Bombay Gym.
Fashion street sells export rejects, and export "over-runs"
which are often excellent quality clothes at knock down prices. Bargain
very hard, and with any luck one can reduce the sales man's opening offer
down to a more realistic price. 
Colaba And Flora Fountain
Colaba and Flora Fountain (Hutatama Chowk) in the heart of south Mumbai
and at walking distance from Bombay VT and Churchgate railway stations are
full of shops of all kinds, mainly ethnic artefacts and departmental
stores. It is a good place to find shoes, cotton clothes, Kaftans and
children's clothes.
Shopping in Dadar
Another major shopping area is around Dadar T.T, and if you go there in
the evening, the place is packed. Good cotton clothes, saris, children's
cloth galore and a general atmosphere of fun shopping. Given the space
constraints in Mumbai, the further one goes from the over crowded southern
tip, the bigger and better the shops become. Departmental stores are
virtually unheard of in south Mumbai, whilst just a short drive away,
uptown, are large complexes.
Shopping in Bandra
Bandra, the so-called "Queen of Suburbs" is the residential
abode of film stars, industrialists and the likes, of Mumbai. Linking Road
joins Bandra to Khar and is lined up on both sides with showrooms for the
elite. But the striking contest here is the pavement selling, a world of
contrast from a posh showroom.
Shopping At Eternia And Shopper's Stop
Two mentionable places to shop in Mumbai are Eternia at Breach Candy and
Shopper's Stop on S.V. Road in Andheri. Eternia is indeed an international
shopping experience for women - a part of the Premsons Bazaar, one of the
trendiest addresses in Mumbai. Eternia caters to the growing demands of
the contemporary women and stocks everything she could ask for.
Shopper's Stop has burgeoned into a 75,000 square feet shopping
experience, covering three floors. It has every thing that women, men and
children could ask for. In fact, the kid's section is an experience by
itself.
Shopping For Books in Mumbai
For the book lovers, there are several excellent bookshops, and street
stalls galore, many of the latter concentrated around Flora Fountain. "Crossword"
on Warden Road sells books, magazines, records, CDs, greeting cards - the
lot.
One of Mumbai's most popular bookshops is the tiny "Strand Book
Stall" which has helpful knowledgeable staff, a comprehensive range
of books, and if they don't have something, they will order it within a
day or so. It is quite an achievement to leave the shop without buying
something!
Shopping For Handicrafts in Mumbai
Very close to Gateway of India, there is the main government emporium,
Cottage Industries, which is reasonably well stocked with a cross section
of handicrafts and clothes, and is fixed price. In the little streets
immediately opposite to the government emporium, there are lots of
handicraft and silver shops, and a couple of good, but pricey, antique
shops.