Kovan Wet Market

Across the street from our condo complex is the Kovan Wet Market. Actually, there’s a lot more then that -- there’s also a hawker center, the Heartland Mall, a Kovan subway station, and the former bus interchange.

The wet market is one of the more entertaining areas near our condo. Its covered against the rain and all powerful sun, but its outdoors. And its not called a “wet” market for nothing; be careful what shoes to wear. You'd think that sanitation would be a problem, but millions of people shop from the wet markets in Singapore (and no doubt elsewhere around the world) without any ill effects. Having shopped mostly at western supermarkets, however, its quite a new experience.



As you can see from the quick video, there are dozens of different stalls selling sell fresh fruits and vegetables, together with fish, poultry, and other meat. They will butcher your meat for you on the spot. We went to get fruit, but we spent some time watching the fishmongers set up their stalls and prep and sell their fish. Being the squeamish westerners that we are, we did not buy any fish or meat.

We did have to haggle over the prices. Everything in Singapore has three prices, from highest to lowest: the tourist price, the expat price, and the local price. We can usually avoid the tourist price, but we never get the local price. We'll be walking away thinking we got a good deal, as overhear them quoting next customer about half of what we paid.

But at least we're not paying in US dollars.