Haggling - my new favorite past time

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I awoke today a bit later than yesterday (6 am) and am finally refreshed. While Dave continued to sleep (until Deepak awoke him with a phone call about sightseeing), I went downstairs to write Wednesday’s entry and to do some research on the trekking weather. It appears we’ll be hitting temperatures around freezing at the worst. At least now we’ll have a better understanding of what we need as far as gear.

This morning and early afternoon were dedicated to just that - buying gear. After breakfast at the same place we had dinner last night, we set out to a few shops recommended in Lonely Planet. Along the way I stopped at a couple random shops and picked up a knockoff North Face fleece and baseball cap. The fleece seems to be in pretty good shape and has some thickness to it. This is the first baseball cap I’ve worn since playing high school baseball. I later realized that at 600 rupee I had probably overpaid for the hat. Unless something falls apart, that was by far my worst purchase.

We found the first two recommended shops and both were much pricier than expected. Either they were selling more authentic gear or they were pricing things to make it appear they were. For instance, Dave saw “35” on one of the 3 liter water bladders. He asked, “Is this 35 rupee?” thinking $0.50 seemed really cheap. “No, it’s 3,500 rupee” (about $50). Give me the name of the sucker who buys that. I have some swampland in Florida I’d like to sell him.

Since we’re mostly looking for cheaper gear that will last us a couple weeks and will likely not bring a lot of it home to keep, we opted to go a cheaper route.

The third store, called Shona’s, was similar with the pricing; the assumed proprietor noting that his gear is of much higher quality than the other stores. He was very honest, telling us that if we bought gear from him we should expect it to last well beyond the trek. We did, however, find some trekking pants there that seemed reasonably priced and purchased them after stripping down to our skivvies in the back of the store to try them on (at least I had skivvies this time, unlike when I bought trekking pants in Sapa and opted to just hold them up and see rather than expose myself to the customer base).

The proprietor at Shona’s was also really helpful in guiding us on the weather. He felt that down jackets would be overkill during the warmer days but a good four season sleeping bag would be necessary at night, as it would get very cold in the unheated teahouses and blankets could be scarce. He wasn’t pushing his product though, as he recommended renting rather than buying unless we really wanted a quality bag that would last for years.

We continued on and found another random shop in the area called Alpine Trekking Store. The prices there seemed to be much more reasonable and the worker loved us and, more so, haggling, We started off with counterfeit Oakley sunglasses for about $4 and I knew I found a place where I could stock up. Thick fleece gloves - “350 rupee, but last pair so 250 for you, sir” ($3.50 marked down from $5.00).

“How about the trekking socks?”

“Two pair for 400 ($5.80)?”

“Yes sir, for you.”

Dave and I then looked at some rain jackets. We asked where they were starting and at 1,200 rupee ($17) each they seemed high for our purposes, where we will hopefully only need them once or twice. As I inspected one of the jackets, Dave worked his magic.

“We really can’t afford to spend that much on rain coats. We just need basic coats. These are nice but we couldn’t go over 1,500 rupees for two.”

Sold. And it turned out that Dave’s was an upgraded version of the ones we had looked at.

I also picked up a pack cover for about $2.50.

All in all I stocked up on some gear that seemed to be decent enough for about $27.

We spent the next couple hours exploring shops for the last remaining items we needed - short sleeve trekking shirts, sandals for him and a long sleeve trekking shirt for me. After several attempts, I came upon one shop that had a long sleeve shirt that would do but it was much too expensive.

“How much?”

“850 rupees.”

“This is nice but I can’t do that. I need something more basic. The quality of this is much nicer than what I need.”

“How much would you pay?”

“Look, this is very nice and I’m sorry but I think what I am looking to pay for a long sleeve trekking shirt would be insulting to you. I really can’t say.”

“Okay. You tell me. It’s okay.”

“Well, for the style shirt I’m looking for I really couldn’t do more than 400 rupees.”

“No no, Too low for this shirt. Very nice.”

“I understand. Nameste.” (Thank you.) I turned and, in all sincerity, started to leave.

“Wait wait. 500.”

“450?”

“Okay. 450 rupees.”

I tried the shirt on and it was a tad small. It could have done but the next size up fit better.

“500 for the larger size.”

Dave playfully interjected, “Ha ha ha. Oh come oooonnnn.”

The shopkeeper laughed, too. “Okay okay. 450.”

“Danya ba. Nameste.” (Thank you. Good bye.)

We left there and continued to try and find sandals for Dave. They were all outrageously priced. We tried shop after shop and they were asking obscene amounts of money for them; as much as 2,200 rupees, the same price as bags. The lowest we could find was about 900 rupees ($13). This seemed insane as all he needed was a shower sandal that could be found in the US for as little as $2.50. We decided to head back to my guy at Alpine Trekking Store and see if we could find a bargain there. The price was right - at least relative to the other stores - but my guy didn’t have the right size. We parted amicably but will somehow find our way back there again, I’m sure.

After picking up a headlamp, which would be put to good use later that evening, we headed up to get some short sleeve trekking shirts at a shop near our hotel we found last night. They were advertised at 300 rupees ($4) each, and were already less than everywhere else, but we opted to go lower with a bulk discount. Dave did the talking.

“Six shirts. 1,200 rupee.”

“No no no. Too low. No profit.”

Jestfully, “Ahh, that’s a good price for these. We buy six!”

“No no no. Too low. 1,800.”

“Not for six. Lower.”

A few more exchanges and we settled on 1,600 rupees for six shirts. That worked out to about $4 per shirt.

We left there and, after Dave had to go back to get his sunglasses, continued our search for sandals. After several more shops we reached our final one, where Dave tried on about six pair until he found one that fit. They were still much more than we would have guessed but it seemed to be the best deal in town. Incidentally, some of our problem could have been lingual as the sandals he was looking for (flip flops or thongs) were referred to here as “slippers”.

We came away today having done a pretty good job in keeping our cost down, though it was more challenging than either of us expected. I had budgeted about $100 for gear and came in around $90 so far. However, I still need a water bottle or two because of the bottles freezing and breaking at high altitude and will probably rent a sleeping bag for the same reasons. Even so, this shouldn’t break the bank.

We stopped back at the hotel to drop off our new purchases and freshen up then set out towards Durbar Square for some touring and a late lunch. We walked for about five minutes and came across some temples that we thought might have been the place. There were also another several westerners in the area, probably equally confused. Dave talked to a young local kid about where we were while I met a girl named Jenny from Luxembourg. She also had no idea where we were and was looking for Durbar Square. My map of this area is junk and hers wasn’t much better. Dave decided to gainfully employ his new friend to escort us to Durbar Square.

We wound through several crowded streets and Dave engaged with his new buddy “in the most stimulating conversation I’ve had in days.” We got where we need to be and paid our new friend 100 rupees ($1.40) for his services. Dave was thrilled “to help support child labor.”

We toured around Durbar Square for about an hour, taking in the various temples and dodging the advances of numerous tour guides for hire. One guy approached us at least three times, finally admitting that business is very slow and telling Dave that you can’t blame a guy for trying.

We went up one temple and into another. The latter had a “living goddess” that would only come out when all cameras were off. As she came out, one guy snapped a photo, causing a stir from one man that was with her and that ended the show. The workers searched the guy’s camera and I waited for him to just smash the thing against the ground and throw a wad of 100s (in rupees, of course) on the ground Sonny Corleone style.

We continued to walk around and Dave pointed out that the temples here are more social centers than places of worship. That was clearly the case as people just hung out and chatted. Unlike the ones I had seen in Southeast Asia, meditation and prayer were nonexistent. Behind the last temple we saw were the results of their congregating - a huge pile of garbage on the ground.

At this point it was close to 4:00 and we still hadn’t eaten lunch. We opted to go to nearby Freak Street where we dined on dumplings, curry and korma chicken with rice and some more world class Everest beer at Diyalo Café. The dumplings and sauce were much better here, with a hint of spice. The chicken korma I had was also really enjoyable. It’s tough to say whether the food was so good because of the quality or if we were just that hungry. Following lunch, we grabbed some chocolate banana cake at the nearby (and somewhat famous) Snowman Café. The place has a pretty interesting vibe, especially since the power was out as the city rolls power on and off to conserve energy.

On our way back to the hotel, Dave spotted smoke up ahead. Next thing you know a bunch of guys in fatigues started running towards it. There appeared to be a fire. I thought it would be a great idea to go see it. Dave didn’t seem thrilled with this; I was the instigator as we went to find it. As we got closer, there were locals everywhere, looking on in awe. Cops started to move us away and we found a different, less crowded spot to view. It was a pretty large fire as we even began to spot flames. I was convinced we should rush in and help like Johnny and Ponyboy. Dave wasn’t. As we left, people continued to flock to the area. This would be the highlight of their month.

We made it back to the hotel just after dusk and intended to have a quiet evening. The highlight was doing laundry in the shower. Dave washed some of his clothes first then I went in. I had just started when the power went out. There I am, nude with a bunch of soaped up wet shirts in my hands standing in the shower - which is to say a corner of the bathroom - in the pitch black. I managed to hang the shirts up and get the door opened to get Dave’s headlamp to finish my job. I can’t say our clothes our super clean but they must be better than they were, especially my nasty white shirt that I’ve worn for four straight days.

I wrapped up and after some reading went to sleep. Tomorrow we finish up in Kathmandu and finalize our preparations for our trek, which starts Sunday.

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Photos

Breakfast
Dave and his unwanted breakfast companion.

My guy
Our favorite salesmen.

Alpine Trekking Store
Best deal in town.

Dump truck
A man hauls a basket full of rock.

Dave
Dave and our escort on the way to Durbar Square.

Durbar Square
One of the many temples.

Trash
Heaps of trash behind one of the temples. This isn't the cleanest city.

Newspaper reading
Locals read a variety of posted newspapers behind one of the temples.

Fire!
Locals gaze in amazement at the building fire.