What Is Night Market

Night markets or night bazaars are street market which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets. Night markets are commonly known as Pasar Malam by the locals, which literally means night market, “pasar” being related to “bazaar” in Persian or also the meaning “market” in Malay, and “malam” meaning “night”. A pasar malam is a street market in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that opens in the evening, usuallyin residential neighborhoods.

What Is In the Night Market

Night market brings together a collection of stalls that usually sell goods such as fruit, vegetables, snacks, toys, clothes, movie discs and ornaments at cheap or at least reasonable prices. A night market often takes place only one to a few days of the week, as the traders rotate around different neighbourhoods on different days of the week. Haggling over prices is a common practice at such markets.

Why People Like to Go Night Market

Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night.Most of the people like to go night markets because of convenience, cheaper price of items, shop for leisure, temptation of local food where you might not get it from restaurants, and strolling. It is very common to find the night market or the street market in Malaysia that usually opens from evening till night. Night market is usually located in residential areas. You are able to find the night markets only one to a few days of the week at one residential area. The traders will also be selling their things around different neighborhoods on different days.

Night market is a one stop place whereby many stalls sell goods such as local food, fruits, vegetables, toys, clothes, shoes, and many more at cheaper prices, where at least the items are cheaper.

Night Market In Malaysia

The good thing of night market at Malaysia is, you can see the night market’s stalls are selling different things by our main three ethnics, which are Malay, Chinese and Indian. This is one of the reasons why more and more tourists start to hit the night market at Malaysia, as they are able to see the culture of Malaysia, goes with the traditional food from different races.

As we are pacing up the trend of advanced technology of lifestyle, same goes as the demand of food. A combination of traditional Malay food in the modern life, we have even more tasty delicious food yet maintaining the traditional taste of recipes when we pay a visit to the Malay night markets.

During the olden days at the Malay food stalls, most of them are just selling the traditional food such as satay, nasi lemak, kuih, spicy rendang chicken, lemang goes with the delicious rendang beef. Normally the traders will cook at home or restaurants first, and then only they do food packing and sell to the customers.Some Malay traders do also sell some Chinese or Indian concept of food. For example, you can see some Malays are selling ‘yong tau fu’ or ‘muruku’.

Situation At Night Market

Night market is not a strange place for today’s city life. It is almost as same as the wet market. The difference is the market starts in the evening whereas the wet market starts in the morning. Besides that, only every Monday and Wednesday, the place is swarmed with people. On other days, the field is just gathered by a few cows grazing on the coarse grass. Night market is a spectacular and colourful market.

From one end to the other, one can see a dense mass of human heads moving about restlessly under the bright neon lights of the hand-carts and stalls. These temporary stalls sell all manners of useful household goods, food and drinks. Night market is a colourful place. There are many types of fruit and vegetables, such as red tomatoes, orange carrots, green capsicums, etc, which are sold. There are all kinds of clothes and materials too. There are different kinds of coloured plastic goods and so on. All of them add up to a marvellous view under the bright moonlight.

The field at the night market is crowded by people from all walks of life. Cars spill over everywhere from the parking area to the roadsides. In such condition, only the early birds will get parking spaces. Motorcycles and bicycles going in and out. The crowds of people are walking about and the loaded carts on the middle of the path make it even more difficult to move. It is closed to traffic jam during peak hours in town. It seems like the whole community is there. Furthermore, it is also a noisy place. All around, customers and hawkers are bargaining.

The din is earshattering. Nevertheless, everyone is in good mood. The shouting and bargaining are enjoyed by both customers and hawkers. “Apples! Four for $1! Cheap sale! ” come the cries of one hawker. Then another hawker suddenly cries, “Apples! Five for $1! Come on! Cheap sale! Cheap sale! ” Obviously, there are already a number of people examining the fruits. There are people laughing and children crying. Just two stalls away, the loud music of cd vendors comes along cheering up the situation. The stall is also brightly illuminated. No doubt, it is doing a roaring business.

Then a few stalls away, traditional medicine sellers promote their medicine. They use a microphone to speak and a loudspeaker to spread their voice. Becauseof that, a big crowd of customers will take a look and buy their products. All of that bring a festive atmosphere in the night market. There are loud and happy music like clashing ofcymbals and beating of drums, children’s laughter, hawkers’ call and teenagers’ giggling. Everyone is in a holiday mood – enjoying the tasty food and drinks and unwinding after a hard day’s work.

By about 9 p. m. awkers begin to pack their things into vans. Some of them remain to get some last minute selling done. “$1 only, Madam! This is the last one. I sold for $2 just now but I want to go home now. ” In this way, many sales transactions are closed. Furthermore, most vendors have a hard life, trying to make both ends meet. They really need to make some profits each night. Although the night market is very crowded and noisy, but the hawkers and customers will come back again and again because the night market is where things are cheaper as there are no middlemen to make a profit for themselves.