Panji (Panjim)

Ok I am to the point where I want to be on my way home. I have a little more then a week and I will be home but I have seen lots and am really looking forward to coming home. Ah there is so much to do once I get home as well. I have found a place with a few friends and will be moving the day after I get home. So we will see how that goes. It is cool though cause I am looking forward to that. After that it is back to school for Con and back to work for me. I am looking forward to getting back to work as well and being able to get back into the grove of things. I am looking forward to hanging out with all of you that have been checking up on me and making sure that I am not dead or having an absolutely horrible time.

Ok one thing that I have found lots of fun is bartering you got it. I think that I have gotten the hang of it as well. I am not sure but the prices continue to get lower and lower. This bag that I bought the lady started out at 450rs and I was like great thanks I am going to look and maybe come back. So I started to walk away and the price was all of a sudden 350. I was like that is great and then she asked me for a price but I was like ah I am going to look around and if I see something else I will get it maybe and started walking again. She walked after me and went down to 250 and I continued to walk. 200 I hear from 10 feet behind me. But I keep walking. I walked by that shop 3 time the next day and the price went down to 150 I was like now that is something that is sounding like a good price but I walked right on by. Later in the day I did venture back to the shop and they tried to put the price back up and I was like no way you said 150 and they were like ok 150 then and then I was like no 100 and it went back and forth like that for a little while but I walked away with the bag for 120 which is like $3. I have gotten to enjoy it a little to much I think. It is going to be hard to come back to set prices after being able to bargain for almost everything here. I however have not gotten away from being ripped off. Ha ha I found though that you shop at shops that Indians are at and you listen to the prices that they are getting and then you have ammo to get you a better white person price. While I am on the suggest of being around shops I have to tell about the sellers on the beach that want your business. It is on the edge of annoying once you have come across the first 20 of them and I have to say that I only ever got sucked into looking at some of their stuff once. But I will put things in perspective to the prices here and the product. The product is all the same from one shop to another. There is not very much creativity in all of the shops but in some there are but on the whole it is the same stuff. If you walk into a shop or look at the stuff that the beach sellers are trying to show you. The prices however are very different. :) In the shops they necklaces are 25 to 30rs and on the beach they start out at 150 or 200. They make it look as if they are giving you a great deal at 50 but the truth is that it is still double the price. I had lots of fun with all of the prices dropping so much and always used it again on someone else. But that is the shops by the beach. I know that the place to get stuff is in Bombay because when you tell people that you were there and bought stuff there they always say yea things are cheap there. So I have not gotten much while I have been traveling because I am back in Bombay soon and will get lots of stuff there. Anyway I am off to enjoy the sun some more.