Not sure about cheaper than home, Fiona, but I really like some of the Himalaya Herbals range.

My sister loves the foot cream for hard skin.

I Ilike the Intensive Face Moisturing Cream (for very dry skin & winters) - great for days out walking in the cold weather.

Also another range - Biotique, especially the Bio Saffron Dew face cream.

With the increase in price of gold, I've not bought anything for a few years but I do think the price of silver has gone up a lot. I used to buy earrings as gifts (yellow or blue topaz, garnet, peridot, turquoise etc) but haven't bought much lately.

Maybe leather jackets/coats?

Designer goods (especially in Panjim where all the shops are in one place) such as Adidas, Lacoste, Levis, Pepe, Hidedesign bags.............all genuine, not the cheap copies on market stalls.
This area is located near Cafe Real, off the ferry, straight ahead to Mahatma Gandhi Road, turn left.

Cashew nuts, Haggle as packet price is rubbish, Panjim and Mapusa market.

Stainless steel dishes etc, two handled copper bottom kadais, spice boxes etc ....... always buy the best quality and haggle. They are always sold by weight (weird) so if the shopkeeper plucks a figure out of the air he is assuming you are a gullible paklo (whitey). As you have established his moral integrity, tell him so and buy elsewhere. A good area is Mapusa market, Panjim less so.

Fabric such as cottons and voile. Silk is tricky as many good fakes available. Shop around as proprietors expectations vary massively, as does quality.

Cotton and linen goods, excellent shop in Panjim, other end of M.G.R but cant think of the name........curtains,towels,bed linen, table cloths and mats etc

Titan watches, stunning quality at good prices, Panjim best, two showrooms with best on 18th June.. other quality European brands are more expensive than UK.

Ceiling fans, a fraction of the price at home if you have a room that gets too hot. Buy best quality and make sure you get short stem model unless you are a dwarf!

NOT loose spices, they are bug ridden and over-priced. Packet ones are better but not massively cheaper than UK asian supermarkets. For years I used a spice stall in Mapusa market,(proper shop), chatting away with the proprietor while buying, then one year he decided he no longer spoke English and produced a written list of vastly inflated prices, needless to say I left.

If you are presented with a written list in ANY shop, walk away. Its sole purpose is to hit you with inflated tourist prices without nearby locals knowing and maybe commenting.

Boil-in-the-bag/microwave curries, at least half the price of home. NOT rice, its cheaper in Asian supermarkets.

Pressure cookers, again, buy the best. And get spare gasket and weight

Fancy door handles and knobs (like kitchen cupboard ones) a few quid in UK, 50p ish in Panjim. needed over 40 for kitchen/diner so massive saving. Most shops one road back from MGR, and far end of town.

Most people know about medicines being cheap, but beware of small local pharmacies. A lot of them are simply shops and may be selling cheap copies. Better to use places like Union Pharmacy in Mapusa or Hindu Pharmacy in Panjim

A pretty eclectic mixture, but if you are filling space in cases for the return trip, useful.

Re silk, as Botany Bay says there are some good artificial silks around these days and if you want to be sure that a particular fabric is genuine silk or not the first test is

Does it crease badly when you scrunch it up?

If it doesn't, and especially if it is a lightweight fabric with a sheen, then it is almost certainly a polyester fabric. Lightweight silks such as Habbotai styles will crease very easily. If it is heavyweight fabric with a matt finish it might still be silk of a type known as 'Matka' or if it has a slubbed finish (commonly known as Dupion) and this doesn't crease quite as much due to the way it is spun and woven. Or it could be made of acetate which also tends to crease. So move on to Test 2

What happens when you put a match to it?

Ask for small piece of it, if you are buying from a bolt of fabric say you need the sample to check whether it matches something back on your room. Be careful but different fibres burn differently and smell differently. If it is polyester, passing it lightly through a naked flame will melt it before if flares up and it will smell awful. Acetate won't necessarily melt but it will smell chemically. Silk however, is very flammable and will flare up immediately and if it has any smell at all it will be similar to that of singed hair! The tricky one is if it is made of rayon (also called viscose), so if you are still unsure and think it might be rayon or viscose (which was first developed with a view to be a cheaper artificial silk) so move on to Test 3.

What happens when you sprinkle it with water?)

If it's polyester, viscose or rayon it will dry without any marking (it's important not to wet the whole thing). If it dries with water marks on it, it is probably silk but still could be acetate but you can tell if is definitely silk if you then wet the whole thing and when it dries there as no water marks on it. If it is acetate and you do this it will look dreadful - acetates always need to be dry cleaned for this reason. So always ask whether a fabric needs to be dry cleaned or if it can be handwashed (nearly all silks can be) that's your first clue as to whether it is acetate or not and if the shopkeeper is extremely anxious about the way you are waving that open bottle of water around then that's your second big clue!

SM

Wow, that was informative Sma, thank you.

Cotton and linen goods, excellent shop in Panjim, other end of M.G.R but cant think of the name........curtains,towels,bed linen, table cloths and mats etc

Just remembered, the shop is called Looms

No problem Botany Bay - I do a lot of dressmaking and textile crafts and you need to know these things if you go bargain hunting for fabric! It can be a lot harder to distinguish between silk and polyester damasks and brocades but as these tend to be quite heavy fabrics I'm assuming that they are probably not what is commonly available in Goa but if they might be on someone's shopping list I can provide more details on how to tell the difference between them too.

SM

In 2011 we bought yak fur lined coats, looks like sheepskin, full length for £75. So glad we have had them this year, everyone is envious. Bought matching hats and this year bought matching fur lined mittens. Best money every spent. We got them from the fur shop in Calangute, at the top of the road which goes down to Senhor Angelo hotel, opposite side of road to Ticlo, as you are walking down to Baga. Really nice man.

Wow! So many suggestions- thanks all- keep them coming as I'm sure it will be a handy thread. I must do some more serious shopping - OH may like a trip to Panjim as well. He does a lot of marathons and ultra marathons( running a 100 miler very shortly) and has constantly to buy running shoes. I wonder if there would be bargains for them?

We had a look at the trainers in Panjim Fiona mainly Nike and Addidas they didn't have the type OH was after but price wise not much different from here they started at around 3500. OH got the ones he was after in the sales once we got home for £40.

What he did get though was a couple if Nike tops...sweatshirt type zip up with hood and one without a zip with a hood these cost around £18 each the exact same ones were in Fenwicks in Newcastle for £45. These were from a small shop at the end of the parade Newtons is on in Candolim they also had shorts tshirts vests etc very good prices.

I love close up toothpaste the red gel type can't get here big tubes out there for around 40 rupees.

For those of us with Bad habits the cigs are cheap but you have to be careful where you buy them. I prefer Marlboro lights but buy L and M blue at Brunos for around £10 a carton there are cheaper brands. Spirits Romonov and other Indian vodkas approx 130 rupees a bottle a litre bottle of Smirnoff was 500 rupees in Newtons. Indian gins and whiskey are around 130 rupees a bottle too, the gin can be a bit iffy not sure what the whiskey is like.

I also love Lime Pickle I know you can get it here but the stuff you get in India tastes much nicer I grab a handful ofthe small 5 rupee sachets every time I am in a shop. I found a mix for Kulfi this year brought a couple back not tried it yet.

Sandlewood soap is another must along with Hystalon lotion which is great for prickly heat and other irritations. As mentioned earlier the Himalaya lotions and potions are very good I do t rate the shampoo or conditioner though. Lacame is another good brand and Garnier and Olay are available all over.

Happy shopping

botany bay wrote:

Titan watches, stunning quality at good prices, Panjim best, two showrooms with best on 18th June.. other quality European brands are more expensive than UK.

These are very good-looking watches. I think the Titan Edge is the slimmest in the world.

BrenLiz wrote:

In 2011 we bought yak fur lined coats, looks like sheepskin, full length for £75. So glad we have had them this year, everyone is envious. Bought matching hats and this year bought matching fur lined mittens. Best money every spent. We got them from the fur shop in Calangute, at the top of the road which goes down to Senhor Angelo hotel, opposite side of road to Ticlo, as you are walking down to Baga. Really nice man.

I'm surprised that they haven't yet copied the UGG-style boots.

Does anyone know what the stuff is that the Indians clean there teeth with before using toothpaste, looks like gravy granules ???

julie
I am really sorry that I missed your post up till now. Thank for the info- he may well end up buying some tops

found the thread Fiona

when I go to Goa I always bring back lots of nail polish only 20 and 30 rupees at Mapusa market nail art polish .is about £ 3 pound here for a bottle in goa its about 50p ..nail files are 1/4 of the price you will pay here as is clippers or anything for that matter RE nails ...one thing i will say is bring your own nail polish remover the ones you get in Goa are rubblish it would take a full bottle to take of your nail polish and thats only one hand ...colleen

Why would you want nail polish remover after paying good money to put the stuff on in the first place ? Is this a girl thing or just Irish

Where in Mapusa for Nail stuff, is it a particular shop.

I'll pass on the nail varnish. When I was younger I had lovely long nails. But in teaching it is not practical to have them long.

All the little shops sell the nail polish and nail art EssexGal you will find everything you need in most of them ....colleen

The Elephant shop near the Magnum hotel in Candolim sells MAC makeup.
I don't know if it is genuine or fake though.

I bought a really good facial wash last time, it's called Shea Herbals Aloepure and is aloevera & basil face wash for dry skin.

Not really cheap at 145 rupees but I took a faulty rechargeable torch back to Delfinos and (to my surprise) they said I could choose something for the same value in replacement.

We bought MAC makeup products from the elephant shop. Bought blusher which was very nice but found upon using the eyeshaw the colour on top wasn't the same as the colour underneath. Still nice eyeshadow though. Also bought eyeliner.