Day 8 - Monday 23rd of June - Paloleum

Just another day - Monday

Laura, Kirsty and Emily were leaving today. A few of us met them while they were having breakfast. They were having some problems organising how to move on to the next location and I was sad to see them go. We left them to their planning after swapping contact details and Facebook names, etc.

We went for breakfast up in the main street today. The now usual pancakes and fillings were ordered and consumed, complimented by a pot of milk coffee. We had decided we were going to do some clothes shopping afterwards. As soon as we paid the bill, around 100rps each we walked across the road to the first shop. The first thing we noticed was the selection was pretty dire. Secondly it appeared all the clothes were secondhand. I found a very colourful pair of shorts and a moment later Ian had found a matching shirt. Aidan was looking for shorts also. For anyone that has being to India th next bit you will probably be able to connect with. India as we all know is a 3rd world country. €1 is equivalent to 67rps (ATTOW). Waiters in Goa get approx. 2rps per hour. A 3km rickshaw ride can vary between 20rps to 150rps depending on where you are and how much you are willing to fight for it or if it is on the meter. Every business person in the tourist areas begins with an opening price. For anyone that has seen “The Life of Brian”, the haggling scene is pretty much the same here. You are suppose to haggle. Now, for anyone that knows me, haggling comes second nature to me. I do it in Dublin all the time. Nevertheless, I find it easy in Dublin, because most of them are rip off merchants. While India is a different thing. The colour of our skin tells them straight away we have a lot more money. A museum in Mumbai made this very apparent. Entry fee for Indian was 10rps while foreigners was 250rps. Can you imagine asking foreigners in Dublin to pay 25 times the price for entry to places. So with all this in mind you constantly feel you are going to be ripped off. Its just really hard to work out what is insulting and what is the correct level of haggling. After Mumbai we had discussed that sometimes you needed to divide between 4 and ten times the price. So here I was now with three pieces of clothing and the haggling begins. They opened with twelve hundred and I counter offer with 300rps. After two minutes of “too much, you must be joking” and “this is secondhand clothing” I bullied the man to 500rps even though he was insisting on 550rps. Yes, I'm standing there fighting over 88 cent at the end. Now, after a while with out noticing this is what happens to you while traveling in India. You will sometimes haggle over 20 rps. Around 28 cent. I know people in Dublin who wont even pick 20 cent up of the ground if they walk over it or drop it. You start thinking of rupees as your own currency and if someone owes you 50rps you'll remind them of it, and perhaps even feel a little bit bad if they don't pay you. So, I left the shop feeling I had done alright with my purchases. Wondering whether they were laughing at how they had made or had they taken the offer because they needed the money. Five minutes later I took 20rps out and walked back in and gave it to the man and said, “In Good Will”. If you do visit India the money thing can really be draining after a while especially with the insane fluctuations all over the country.

The rest of the day went by with so more shopping. Brand new clothes for 100rps a piece :) Relaxing in the sun. Reading books. Bidding farewell to the three girls as they moved on in their journey. Discussing what we were going to do tomorrow. As someone said to me before leaving, it gets to a point were the only thing you have to do is work out were you going to eat each day. After our bit of shopping thats pretty much all that happened on Monday. We decided on the other British bar/restaurant. The Smugglers Inn. Our new Irish man Greg was now very much of our family and he joint us for a delicious meal of burgers and the sort. By the time we were finished we were too late to see a movie and we resided to get an early night. The boys were feeling a night off from the boozing was perhaps needed. We went back to the bungalows sat around chatting for a bit. Eoghan and Aidan went off to C & D. I think I was asleep by midnight.