VRIJDAG MARKT

In English, it is 'Friday Market'. On every Friday this square is full of hawkers selling from clothes to your daily needs. The price is not necessary cheaper than other shops in town but definitely branded goods will not be sold here. Only here we can get 'fresh' fish since there isn't wet market in Ghent. The nearest wet market is in Ostende, another town by the seaside about 40 minutes away by train. Early in the morning you can see long trailers are turned into wet market. Various kinds of fish & seafood are available. For us, Malaysians, fish like mackerel is well known but unfortunately, in our currency it is very expensive. Other fish are named with Flemish therefore we do not exactly know what they are. We will buy whatever fish that is cheap. One more thing here, if you like kari kepala ikan you can get the biggest fish head you could ever imagined freely. We also like to shop biscuits or wafers since for eg. you can buy 3 packets for 5 euro. On Saturday only clothes are sold here but on Sunday it turns into "pet market". This place is also used for any activities organised by the StadGent, the local council here from time to time.
Vrijdag Markt can be easily spotted by the presence of statue of Van Artevelde, one of the leader here who is pro-British few hundred years ago. His hand pointing towards England. 2 big prominent artistic buildings here are owned by the socialist party. The other surrounded buildings are mainly restaurants but also shops. You can find Carrefour Express here too. One of the shop that we commonly go is Sun Wah, a Chinese grocery shop selling various kinds of food products from China, Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore & other Asian countries. You can even get lempuk durian here.....beside others. Rice here is quite cheap as well. The price here is quite frequently fluctuating. As a Muslim, you have to choose which one is halal for you. There are other Thai shops in town where you can get things for Malaysian cookings. As far as we know, one is in Hoogstraat and the other one which is relatively new is near St Pieters station.