Haggling...

Haggling in Thailand was not what we expected. I did my research and Kady and I are both seasoned Mexico-travelers. But the haggling just wasn't going the way the books said it would go.

Neither of us are comfortable with the idea of an item not having a pricetag. You're going in blind; you can't look at the tag and have a private emotional reaction to whether or not it's worth forfeiting your hard-earned money. Someone pulls a price out of the blue and now you've got an audience watching you run the conversion numbers in your head.

Something might have cost two cents to manufacture and they're laughing at their 250% profit as you walk away five bucks poorer. Plus, they probably just sold it to that jerk over there for a buck. As a teenager I came to terms with the fact that there will always be someone prettier or smarter or better at anything than me. But I just can't make peace with the fact that someone might get a better deal than me.
This was the first time in our lives we'd ever been allowed to "walk away" in a haggling situation. It was strange.
K or S: "How much?"
Vendor: "450 baht"
K or S: (eyes wide because we are actually a little horrified) "Oh, expensive. Mai me thang (I don't have much money). 250 baht?"
Vendor: "No, fixed price. 450 baht."
K or S: (thinking, but there's no price listed, slowly returning the item.... walking away... slowly... slowly.... the end!)
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

At least in Vietnam, they seemed to have a better idea of the understanding of how haggling works. Below is a conversation between Kady and a teenage girl selling books (these books have been copied from originals or copies of originals and rebound, i.e.- bootleg books):
Girl: "100 dong"
Kady: "I only want it if it's 40 dong"
Girl: "2 for 130 dong"
Kady: "I don't want 2. I don't even have room for one. But I'd take it if it was 40 dong"
Girl: "One for 90 dong"
Kady: "No thank you; it's a very nice book but I don't want it."
Girl: "80 dong"
Kady: "No thanks I don't want it"
Girl: "70 dong"
Kady: "No thanks, I don't need it; I'd take it for 40 dong but no problem, no thank you..."
Girl: "2 for 120 dong"
Kady: "No thanks" (smiling and shaking head NO)
Girl: "60 dong"
Kady: "No, only 40 dong"
Girl: "You have to come up a little because I went down!"
They settled on 50 dong, mostly because it was pretty adorable.

Kady and I have no idea how we're going to adjust to prices back home. No more than we know how we'll adjust to the painted lines on the road being more than a half-hearted suggestion.