My family and I have very rustic/ vintage/ Victorian taste in crockery, furniture, upholstery. artefacts or even curios. Before travelling to Goa we asked around for recommendations to shop at for similar items, given Goa's rich Portuguese history we definitely wanted to pick up a few things. However, a few known contacts told us otherwise, they mentioned how Delhi was better etc etc. Honestly, they were wrong. Goa is a treasure chest. Though it is important to keep your eyes and ears open. We drove past several vintage stand alone shops in Arpora and Assagao, these were extremely quiet lanes, in the middle of nowhere, we got lucky.
If you drove around more you would surely find other shops like these. A few tips to keep in mind when finding crockery in a new place:
First, keep your agenda for your holiday in mind clearly. Make a mental note of what all you want to do vs. can do. Goa for instance is a place where I know 80% of the tourists come to party and make merry, our holiday was different, we didn't want to drink, we instead wanted to detox. We wanted to experience local food and shop for vintage artefacts. This way you can budget your holiday as well accordingly by knowing what you want to spend on.
If shopping for crockery and artefacts is one of the priorities, then make sure you make time for it, some places need to be planned with respect to the distance, and at some places a day may not be enough
Make sure your research goes beyond google, search for keywords in Goa like vinatge, Portuguese, ceramics, Mario Miranda - words which are best associated with Goa
Walk into relevant stores and seek guidance. I walked into several bathroom fitting stores, tile shops and even restaurants to ask them where to buy plates and lamps. The relevant stores are in similar line of business and will be able to guide you better. Hotels also purchase a lot of their lamps and furniture locally, so feel free to walk up to the local staff at the hotel you are staying at and ask for help.
If you are from Delhi, avoid telling people in Goa that you are. Whenever I approached someone, they asked where I was from. I initially started by saying Delhi, only to realize that even the cab drivers will try acting sly, the recommendations you will get will also be of the higher end stores if you are from Delhi. This changed positively however, when I started to tell people that I was from Coorg or even Mysore. And knowing and speaking Konkani, their local language is winner.
We found a few reasonable priced stores, these are below. You may also find rustic, casual home stuff at Mapusa Market.
Goa Ceramics Nerul
TerraVida
Marcou Artifacts
Casa Macao
Mario Art Gallery
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