Bargaining with Cabbies
Trip Start
May 04, 2007
1
10
19
Trip End
May 20, 2007
Nizwa,
Oman
Saturday, May 12, 2007
The castle was built around 900 A.D. on the site of a preexisting fort. Some of the original walls can still be seen. The main fort structure was built in the 17th century to fend off the Portuguese. The whole place was very clean and it had obviously been recently restored. Oman has made a push to restore and enhance cultural landmarks throughout the country for the past few decades.
We checked out the different rooms and views from the tops of the many towers. Most of the rooms had little more in them than some books or maybe some pillows. There were even some employees or possibly locals who were napping in some of the rooms. That really didn't seem like a half bad idea as the day grew hotter.
Eventually the sun was out in full force and we were ready to head back to Muscat, however the next bus wasn't scheduled for another 5 hours and we were ready to be there now. Stores were shutting down and there was no place that was even slightly cool to sit. We just had to get back to Muscat.
As we didn't want to get ripped off we ducked into a local pharmacy and asked him how much a ride to Muscat should cost. He said 4 rials, or about $10. This seemed very very low to us, however it would be a good bargaining chip.
After some bargaining and a driver who spoke questionable English Rachel pointed out to him that if he didn't take us then he would have no one. He kept arguing that if we found more people then the price per person would go down. No amount of telling him that there were just two of us and it would remain that way would stop his argument. After a bit we settled on a fare that was about $8.50 for each of us. Getting back to our ice box of a hotel room was worth every penny.
I was getting a bit sick of only having Rachel to talk to, not to mention we had run out of things to say to each other. I'm sure she was getting sick of me as well. We found what Lonely Planet called the best expat bar. It was in the Intercontinental Hotel and a somewhat expensive cab ride. Still we went hoping that it would be trivia night.
It was really interesting to see traditionally dressed men drinking beers and playing pool. We never did find anyone to talk to and spent most of the evening in silence. However, one traditionally dressed Omani man did send us drinks.
Almost as soon as we had opened the door to our room the phone was ringing. It was our Omani cab driver. For some reason Rachel ( who's best subject is not math) gave him twice the fare and he wanted to return it. Something like that would never happen in NYC, they would just think that they were getting an extra big tip!
