India, Mumbai, Travel

2nd last day in Mumbai – Gonna miss it

25 Jan , 2007  

Hey guys!                                                                                                                                            Saturday 30 Dec 2006Let me recount what happened the last few days! Hmm on Friday, we didn’t do much but pretty much shopped around Colaba Causeway. The shopping here is really good, especially for the cheapo Singaporeans in us! Hahah..

The best bargain of the day belongs to Joanne, who managed to bargain an 850 rupees sunglass to like 150 rupees? Sugoi! (jap for superb!) The funny thing was that the bargain came totally unexpected!

Jo was looking at the sunglass, asked for the price and when told that it was a whopping 850 rupees, she declined as she only wanted to spend only abt 150 rupees on sunglasses. So we started to turn away after saying “No thank you”.

The shopkeeper then asked Joanne to name her price and she said it’s ok, as the sunglasses was way off her budget. He then said it’s okie, just name the price and she said 150. The shopkeeper then bargained down his own pricing of the sunglasses, but jo just said no, 150 and they kinda haggled a little where the shopkeeper then said ok, 150.

Honestly, both of us were a little stunned by it. Hahha. That was also the only item in which things were SO cheap lol. The things there are generally cheap though (after bargaining) and you really just have to stick it out!

I think the art of bargaining really depends on how much you like the stuff and whether you have the guts to walk away and not regret it. When I like a stuff though, I tend to want to get it (unless it is really expensive lah of course) so I don’t usually stick it out hahha.

Hmm and something strange happened yesterday. Feeling guilty and somewhat haunted by the image of the mother and child asking for money on Thursday, I made up my mind to donate some money yesterday! Not just to anyone lah but like someone who I think needs the money.

While shopping along Colaba, there was this girl carrying a baby who came up to me and Jo asking for milk for the baby. I gave her money (not much, like ten rupees which is 40cents sing. 30 rupees can get u a pretty good meal at a roadside stall! A roti/paratha prob cost like 5 rupees at a roadside stall? Cheap right! But cuz Jo and Ken and I always eat at restaurants for fear of running to the loos!) but the weird thing was she refused the money and asked me to get milk for the baby.

She then wanted to bring me to a store to buy milk for the baby and despite my best attempts to give her the 10 rupees she kept on saying she doesn’t want money, only milk for the baby. It makes me think of you know, like a scam kinda thing, where the shop works with these pp, then hike up the price of the milk and gives commission to these girls?

I just said no loh, since my repeated attempts to give her money was refused. Weird right? Joanne and I then walked on (Ken was off somewhere by himself) down the streets and she came up to us later and asked me back for the 10 rupees that she initially refused. So I gave her yup. Haiz but on hindsight it really makes me think of the hotel scammers thing.

Ever heard of the hotel scammers thing? It is written in guidebooks that when you reach at a hotel destination from a cab, and am not sure which hotel you’re staying in, or haven’t reached your hotel, there will be people outside your can wanting to direct you to other hotels instead. These people will then receive a commission from the hotels.

Want to know whether it happened to the trio of us? Yep it did! When our cab dropped us off at our hotel street, there was a guy hovering outside our cab who chatted with us and asked us which hotel we were staying in. He then tried to get us to stay at another hotel, saying tt our seashore hotel has no bath room.

What rubbish! Our seashore hotel has like 3 bathrooms okie (although it is shared by everyone on the 5th level where we stay, and sometimes u cant go pee cuz someone is like bathing inside). Hmmph. The nerve of these touts trying to cheat us! Luckily Ken called the manager (he’s called Kumar) of seashore hotel (when we were in Singapore still) and knew that there were toilets! Yay to Kenneth

Hmm think I should backtrack abit over here. Staying at Seashore Hotel was really great. Although it isn’t really like a hotel, more like a hostel kinda thing, the staff there are really really friendly, plus there is a v cute guy there who is 22, from Nepal and always smiles at me! I forgot his name though. Too diff to rem hahah. Seashore Staff

Ooh, that’s him up above! Cute right!

We also made a lot of new friends in India, par exemple, the staff from Seashore hotel, as well as the tenants/backpackers/holidaymakers staying there! There was this Japanese girl called Yuki-san whom Joanne and I ate breakfast with and she said I speak good Japanese!

bf-kailash-w-yuki.JPG 

Haha okie lah it is totally broken Japanese but oh well Yuki said she was happy to hear someone speak a little Japanese okies! And we also made a Chinese friend Yan Yan. We met Yan Yan at Elephanta caves and she is from China. It is her 2nd visit to India and she was with her Indian husband, whom she met last year while holidaying in India. Cool right. Maybe Joanne, me n Kenneth will all be attached when we get back. Say hello to summer flings!

stp63100.JPGThat’s us w Yan Yan

Then we also made a couple of Indian friends, there was this Indian man called James who treated the three of us to breakfast at Kahleash! And it all started from us staring at what food he was eating, wondering whether we could order the same thing cuz it looks delish! Anyways, although the food here is generally not too bad, quite nice in fact if you take away the ONIONS, CAPSICUMS, CHILLI, GINGER, SPRING ONIONS, PARSLEY, it is quite nice!

India is so friendly!

Okies gonna end here now guys…love you all loads

P/s: I bought a headphone w an attached microphone for talking and chatting on MSN lah but bloody hell it doesn’t work can! So angry! Now I cant talk to anyone! So jealous!

Lotsa love

Jasmine

Indian word of the day: Namaste: a form of greeting in India, smth like hello or the equivalent of sawadeka/kup in thai, where u also can clasp your hands tog

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1 Response

  1. Vanessa says:

    Your day in Mumbai sounds fantastic. Of course you speak Japanese well!!! It’s a really great eye-opener regarding the haggling, touting and all the ways people will actually lie and cheat to earn money…hmmm…

    Great to know you guys are having fun! Take care!

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