One of the more amusing parts of our Thailand honeymoon was going shopping. I guess I’m like most Americans in that I don’t have a opportunity to haggle very much when I go shopping in the States.
The local markets in Thailand were a different story. One of the major problems with being a tourist is that you pay tourist prices. For example, cab drivers would routinely try to charge us 25$ or 30% more than locals paid, and in Bangkok sometimes shopkeepers tried to charge us 40% more than locals would pay. Some of the first thing we learned to say in Thai was ‘Is there a discount’ and ‘Its too expensive’. Now, I’m like most people in that I don’t like being overcharged, so Miel and I learned to haggle very quickly.
On our last night in Hua Hin (a resort town on the gulf of Thailand), we set out to buy some souvenirs to give to our friends and coworkers. Intially, the market vendors wanted 1600 bhat (about 44 dollars) for 5 statues of the Buddha. After shopping around and negotiating fiercely (using a calculator, pidgin English and our few Thai phrases) we got the price down to 600 bhat (16 dollars).
Below is a picture of me with our statues!
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