Dezerter Bazaar — Attraction in Tbilisi

A great market if you are a tourist and want to buy something or anything from Tbilisi.

One area of the market focuses on clothes, accessories etc and another has vegetables, fruits and other grocery items.

For an Indian like me, we even found an Indian and Madrasi Grocery Store. There is something for everyone!

The station square metro station opens right into the market, and the street lined vendors start selling to you immediately, along with people who will try to sell you fake perfume in a sneaky way, to act like its smuggled real perfume, very funny 😂 but irritating a while later as they don't leave your tail and get rude if you stop responding or reject them.

These initial street lined shops have everything but are expensive and barely negotiate. They will grace you with a maximum of 10 GEL discount on a 150 GEL item and don't even let go off 2 GEL on a 20 GEL item. Don't expect any negotiation at all.

Rather, go past them, select your item, take a photo, understand the rate and go up the stairs to the indoor market.

There, the stock is obviously almost exactly the same, but here the vendors have lower prices and even negotiate. I bought a shoe for 80 GEL which quoted to me for 110GEL on the street lined shops.

Enjoy the market, do use a keen eye for the quality and do...

Of all the farmers markets in the city (and we hit them all, I think), this is by far the biggest, busiest and more awesome in regards to shear action, noise, chaos, smells. Think of anything a human might want, it will be here, somewhere. Finding it is true adventure. Wholesale action (trucks, cracks) right beside retail action. Prices excellent, much better than Carrefour, Agrohub, Spar etc and quality/freshness very good as well. Perhaps better. You need to shop around as quality varies a lot. Insist on bagging your own goods, don't let vendor do it for you. Take your time. Bring cash, nobody takes cards. English not popular so bring google translate. Prices are posted right there so haggling not needed. If you buy, typically the vendors will toss in some extras, like grapes, walnuts, etc.

Very hot in summer, bring water, sunscreen, hat. No WC but lots of coffee shops 300m away (after noon, closed before). Bus stops right there. Traffic is terrible; be bold...

The bazaar was full of fresh food of every sort, and items beyond foods as well.

I found this market more chaotic than most "green" markets I have visited in the world and honestly left empty handed even though I passed some produce stands that had lovely peaches and some amazing looking tomatoes. By the time I had concluded I should get peaches, I had no idea where I'd seen/smelled the best ones.

Some positives include no smells in the fish part of the market (no idea how they managed this) and the lovely scent of Svaneti salt everywhere.

Some vendors were more aggressive than I had hoped for, and we encounteted a cheese section that was overwhelmingly smelly. The market stalls were about 50% closed/empty around lunch time, so I'd recommend visiting mid-morning at the latest.

It is always interesting to visit these markets to see how and where the locals shop, and this market was no exception. I know that Gordon Ramsey had a lovely tour here, so maybe just like this...