The Market
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
1
5
17
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Beijing,
China
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
In the morning, we packed up and made our last batch of eggs. Then, we headed to the "highly anticipated" Drum Tower. I say this because every morning, we would wake up and I would say that we could start the day off at the Drum Tower. Since we had yet to check it out, we made our way 200 meters down the street. It was pretty cool. We climbed another 200 some odd stairs to the top. I tell you, the Chinese don't really cater to the disabled or lazy. We saw a drum performance and then climbed back down. Then we were off to the market.
So, we heard that you can really haggle with these people. But we didn't know how much. We got to the Pearl Market and they had everything from "iPhones" to "Puma's" to "pearls". We first hit up the watches. They started off at 580 for a watch, which was just way to much. We each ended up talking them down to 110. But at the end of the day, we think we could have done better, but at the time, $14.00 sounded great for a "Gucci" and "Rolex" watch. Nathan's watch has since broken - shocking, right?
Then, we checked out the electronics. Frank wanted to get Gladys a nano for Christmas, so he got her a high quality here for $12. They showed us the "iPhones" they have, but Nathan and I stayed strong. We checked out the touch screen cameras. They were awesome. They weren't really willing to come down from 1200 yuan, but this was at the beginning of the day sop we weren't at a prime haggling yet. I think we could have got it down to 680 easy and I am going to try once we hit Bangkok. Once we started making our way to the other floor, we got hassled by everyone. "Hello hello hello, come here lady". After walking down the shoe isle and getting hit with shoes, literally, we needed a break,. So we hit up the Colonel for lunch. I love KFC. After we were refreshed, we had a new game plan. Stick together and play off each other. And go 1/4 the price they say. It worked like a charm. Nathan is the best haggler ever. He got a tea set originally 200 something and got it down to 40. Frank walked away with some "Puma's" and a "Gucci" bag for 180 yuan. I got a "Dolge and Gabanna" purse for 130 and it has since broken. I can't believe my $20 purchase didn't hold up. After awhile, it just became a game to see how low we could get them. Sometimes, I didn't even want something but thought it was fun haggling. At the end of the day, I walked away with my "gucci watch", "D&G" bag, chop sticks, magnet and speakers $55. Nathan got "Rolex watch", "Swiss" bag and tea set for $40 and Frank got an "iPod" shuffle, Buddha, "Puma's", "Gucci" bag and a watch for $45.
After an exhausting 4 hours at the market, we made our way back to the hostel. We needed to confirm our flight and get our bags. Once back, we all logged onto the computer and didn't have confirmation emails for our flights so Frank called. Meanwhile, we have to leave in 15 for the train. He comes back from the front desk not happy, "i can't talk to anyone right now". By anyone, he meant me b/c I somehow became the blame for this whole train, plane or lack there of mess. In order to book our flights, we had to fax a copy of our passport and credit card, which we did. I guess they never got them so we re-faxed. We called to confirm they received them and they couldn't read the fax so they couldn't book the tickets. They said we could take pictures of our stuff and email it to them. Sounds odd, but we did it. We left for the train station 30 minutes after we wanted to and still didn't know if we had the tickets.
We jumped into a taxi and took us to the train station we bought the tickets, which is where I assumed our train would be leaving. We got inside and started reading the board where they listed the train numbers and the line they were on. We didn't see Z19. So we went upstairs to the information desk and just our luck, we were at the wrong station. Fantastic. We had a little over an hour til our train left. We asked how long to the other train station and she said 40 minutes. Frank is panicking at this point. We jump into another taxi and were off again, only this time headed to the right destination. We got there and I have had enough of these rude people. One girl kept trying to cut Nathan and I in line, so my whole mission in line was to not let her by. I won. We made it inside, found our train and grabbed some McDonalds. Frank and I ran into this market to get snacks for the train and I looked outside at Nathan. All these people were starring at him. They would just walk by slowly and stare. It was bizarre. When Frank and I joined him, it got worse. It was rather strange.
After McDonalds, we boarded the train and were off to Xi-An, just hoping we had a way to Shanghai.
