Like after a good vindaloo meal. But they’ve built a fence around it now, so it feels a bit less wild, I would imagine.

They see so few non-locals there, that ripping off strangers hasn’t really developed into a thing. If you see someone else pay whatever for something, you can easily get that same thing for that same price. Otherwise lots of things have a fixed and posted price. Other items can be bargained for. Or you can just ask what the price is, and they’ll let you continue on your way without any further discussion if you don’t like the price. Then you can ask for the price at another stall selling the same thing, and quickly figure out if you’re being quoted a reasonable price or not. I was generally able to buy stuff at prices much lower than I was expecting.

It’s busy and crowded, but in a good way. No pushing, no aggressive behavior, just trade done as it has been done for centuries. Like in past times, many of the goods for sale are from China, but unlike before they’re now mostly made of plastic. Fortunately, there’s still lots of spices, textiles and more local handicraft, too. I really enjoyed it.

I stayed quite a while, and did as much as I can. :) I got a long-term place to stay and used it as a kind of workation. The bandwidth is great (5G), and there’s a good mix of heavy storms and awesome weather, so it’s good to stay a while to be able to wait for the good days. Some people visit for a week, and all they see is a blizzard and plane delays. But when it’s good, it’s excellent!

It’s basically a mining town when it comes to looks, but the surroundings couldn’t be much more beautiful in its polar way. And the transition between relative civilization and utter wilderness is incredibly narrow there.