Posted by jenna on Friday, 16. October 1998 at 08:07 Bali Time:
In Reply to: SHOPPING again, a long one. posted by Geoff on Thursday, 15. October 1998 at 19:41 Bali Time:
My husband and I discovered a very successful bargaining tool on our recent trip to Bali. Its the old good cop/bad cop routine. In this case it played out like.."honey I think thats too much, lets go" and "I'm sorry..its very nice but my wife says no" Usually they stop you and accept your price rather than losing you out the door. But only do this if you are really willing to walk out without the item (happened once or twice).
In general, we felt that we got very good deals using this technique and it made me feel less awkward about not increasing my price beyond what I wanted to pay (i could blame my husband!).
I'm not saying its honest..but it worked.
And while I'm at..here's two more "tricks":
1) we found a good way to say no to the many people offering transport. They would say "transport" and my husband would ask "helicopter?". They would laugh and we would go on our way.
2) My husband quickly developed a liking for the whole Megawati excitement. So he got a t-shirt, some stickers, etc. The locals thought it was hilarious to see a tourist with Megawati stuff on. It led to some interesting conversations!
Basically, the Balinese were just so kind and had such a great sense of humor that we did our best to joke around with them rather than being standoffish or intimidated.
jenna