Bargaining at the Night Market

I went to the night market tonight after going to mass. It was the Sunday Evening, or as one of my friends from IU would say, the "last chance" mass. The night market was rather slow tonight. I think it is a combination of several things.

1. It was Sunday night and there aren't as many people out at the night market as on other nights.

2. I went fairly early, 6:30 or so. The night market opens about 6pm and closes about midnight. So many people probably won't even show up until later.

3. With all the problems from the last few months, tourism is down and I think this is hurting the markets and other aspects of Bankok's economy.

I did pick up some Thai silk and a wooden elephant, both of which I had to bargain for. This is something that I am rather uncomfortable with, since I don't enjoy haggling or arguing over price. I would rather see a price, pay it and move on. But they tell me that bargaining at the night market is expected, so I engaged in some bargaining.

I'm not sure if I got a good deal or if they still took me for a ride, but I do know that I talked down the lady selling the silk from about 4oo Baht for two pieces to 225 Baht. Again, its possible that I overpaid with that still, but I feel I did alright with the bargaining there. It translates to about a $5 difference.

For the elephant, I'm pretty sure they still got a steal off of me. They were asking 250 Baht and I talked them down to 175 Baht. A couple dollar difference, but I still think I paid a little too much for that item. Still, its not like it was really expensive anyway.

It was interesting seeing all the vendors and activity, as slow as the market was. There was a stage with performances, a beer gardens with food vendors set up all over the place. I could imagine the place would probably be really busy at times, but this was not the time. I will email the pictures to Dr. Cheryl and send the items through the mail.

Aaron