Haggling

Everyone's having FUN

As I arrive at Bukit Bintang, there is a load of loud music and 100s of people out in the streets: there seems to be some sort of party going on! Funnily enough, it’s the BIG FUN festival! Are these people obsessed with FUN? Maybe it’s a government plan to ensure that the whole nation is brainwashed into thinking that everything is great if you think you are having fun! I should stop being so cynical really – it’s just a festival, and looks, erm, fun! I wander about for a bit amongst the crowds, taking in the atmosphere and sights, and then after a coffee and cheese and blueberry (indeed) muffin in Starbucks, I set off on my mission: to get a cheap GPS for when I need to drive.

I head to the Low Yat shopping mall which is about 6 floors of authorised and not-so-authorised dealers selling every electrical gadget imaginable and a great place to get my bargain GPS. I spot a place immediately I walk in and they are selling them for about 450-1000RM (about £90 – 200) so that’s a good point to start off with. I head into the labyrinth of outlets, squeezing through what appears to be millions of nerds to do some price comparison and bargaining. I was watching a few other people haggle, and the rough protocol appears to be:

• Chat to the seller for a bit, then ask their selling price
• Suck in air through your teeth at the original price, and ask what their best price is
• Pretend to do some calculations on your phone / calculator and look disappointed, followed by a ridiculously low offer, saying that this is your budget
• Laugh with the seller as they laugh at your offer
• Walk away
• Come back about 5 minutes later and ask the best price again: it should be lower
• Repeat the process until you are happy with the price, or the seller really looks pissed off and has lost interest in you (mind you, that is probably part of their process…)

I try this on a few places, and I the best price I can get for my Garmin 1350 GPS is 760RM – with a carry case (80RM) and a mains adaptor (150RM) thrown in. This seemed to be quite a good deal and I decide to check out the prices online before parting with my cash.

So, I head back to Starbucks (free wifi) and it seems that this was indeed a good price – the GPS without any of the accessories sell on Amazon for about £130 and I am getting mine for £140, plus accessories, which I am OK with – my budget was up to £150. However, I have to move from Starbucks, as the FUN has got to a level where it’s making my ears bleed, and head over to Coffee Bean instead, and clearly having a decaf was a mistake as they had to strip down the machines, and in doing so broke it. Ridiculous. Apparently it was going to take about 30 minutes to get my coffee! I demanded an iced-skinni-frappo-choco-mocha-do-dah instead for the inconvenience, which was more expensive (and much nicer than a dreary old decaf anyway)

I go back and buy the GPS then head back to the hotel, deciding this time to get a taxi from a more official taxi rank outside KL Sentral: this one was far better and only had the one door that didn't shut. Kris has the internet sorted at home, so it was great to catch up on iChat at last.