Gone Shopping

Just today I received a couple of sms exchanges asking me about places to shop. One was from a friend who is in Mecca performing Haj and the other was from an interesting lady who wants to shop and yet does not know what to shop. Pretty interesting huh…

I must admit that I like going out shopping. There are no specific things that I go for. However, most of the times I would end up with the usual stuff…clothes, shoes, crystal bracelets or cut fabrics. There were also times when I have ended up buying furniture for the house and a work out equipment which was to supposedly help me loose weight.

One time I was in Dallas, Texas and I had only about two hours to go out and venture the mall. Well….what do you know? In 10 minutes I was already in a cab heading to the nearest shopping mall and in about 1 hour I had managed to get some nice pants and dresses for my girl back home. I also managed to throw in a glow in the dark dinosaur jigsaw puzzle from ToysRUs. I was even early for my back to hotel pick up. Pretty cool huh?

Shopping has its ups and downs. In some places shopping is relaxing and hassle free. You can sort of take you own sweet time to look around and choose what you’d like to purchase. The sales assistants are around should you need help from them. Otherwise, you are free to move around to admire and appreciate the stuffs you like. If you hit the malls in big cities like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney, London etc shopping is a definite breeze.

However, if you would like to put your shopping skills to test, try shopping in the street bazaars or markets. Be it in the Silk Market in Beijing, Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok, Palika Bazaar in Delhi or Siti Khadijah Market in Kota Baru the key attitude to shopping here is to BARGAIN. If you are good at haggling prices and pretending to walk away when the price is not right, you are pretty much in good shape. Meaning…you will get what you want.

Unlike in the shopping malls where prices of merchandise are fixed, prices of stuffs in the markets vary. If the seller knows that you are a tourist or from out of town, the price will be higher. You could be paying double if not triple what a local would be paying. So bargaining is a must or else you may just be knocking your head upon discovering that you have paid more than you should be. Trust me…I have encountered such situations before. So to avoid getting “ripped off”…bargain and bargain hard. It may be exhausting but it is sure very rewarding.

Having gone through all these pleasant and some unpleasant moments of truth during a shopping stint…would I still want to do it again, one would ask. Of course, I would be looking forward to other interesting shopping rendezvous. You’ll get better with more practice and the reward may just be something that you will cherish forever. As the saying goes…you’ll never know until you try it.