Haggling....

So I eventually learned - that the larger shops in Bangalore are fixed-price. So there's no bargaining. I was kinda looking forward to doing some. But we did stop at some smaller shops and I got a chance to do a little. Converting in my head was a little difficult because I was starting to get tired from the jet-lag. My Math skill seemed to have left me since we landed.

I decided to try my haggling skills while looking at some jewelry. I asked the shopkeeper how much for this? He paused for a moment and said 8500 rupees (that's $197). Clearly - he was judging me, and adjusting the price. After showing me other similar pieces for between 7000 to 10,000 rupees I ran away after repeatedly saying I'm not interested - they just don't take no for an answer. The final price they shouted out as I was leaving was $50. So lesson learned - markup in those small shops is HUGE on jewelry.

At the next shop - I did some haggling on clothing. He wanted $15 for each shirt - I tried to apply the jewelry markup rule, and offered $15 for 2 shirts. He let me walk away at that. So mental note -- clothing in the haggle shops give you about 30% of bargaining room for clothing, and 75% for jewelry. But I'm sure that also depends on how the individual shop keeper.

At the third shop - my head wasn't in the mood to haggle - but that didn't stop them from unfolding beautiful giant silk Duvet covers. Yes there were pretty -- but Duvet covers??? That was the last thing I was looking for -- and I wasn't in any mood to fly back with Duvet covers and pillow cases.

Maybe something else in silk - but not something that large.

Now I'm getting a feel for how much stuff costs.