Bargaining was one of the highlights
for me in Katmandu. Every where you walked in this crowded city you were
surrounded by swarms of people trying to sell you something. They would
offer everything from the "best knives made in Nepal", to
jewelry, to drugs, to women. Often we would be walking along and some
shady character would come up to you and ask in a hushed whisper if you
wanted to purchase marijuana, hashish, or coke. When we first arrived it
seemed like the peddlers could sense that you were new in the area and
they would try harder to sell you something. Often we had stubborn
sellers follow us for up to 20 minutes. We would repeatedly tell them
that we just weren't interested in what they were selling. Then they
would lower the price and continue to follow us. Their heckling became
so bad that if you moved your eyes slightly to glance at them, you were
soon surrounded. Apparently the vendors near our hotel started to
recognize us because towards the end of our stay we weren't hassled as
much. Many of the peddlers offered genuine antique items. Their antiques
were not more then a year or two old.
I would have a lot of fun with these people in trying to get the price
as low as I possibly could. I tried not to become emotionally attached
to an object therefore I was able to freely bargain and walk away if I
felt the price was not low enough. Often times they would start the
price at many times what it was worth. Then if you were seriously
bargaining you could have the price lowered by 5 or 6 times the original
starting price in a couple of minutes. If you were not able to have a
good time with these people, they would soon get on your nerves. They
were like swarms of mosquitoes coming in for an attack.
Many of the vendors in the main tourist attractions could speak various
languages. I started speaking Spanish to one lady, and then she started
speaking much better then I ever could. She told me that she fluently
spoke 6 or 7 different languages.
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