Battling Bagan’s Best Barterers

When you travel through South East Asia you’re bound to run into a few hardline sellers. People who are so direct, so aggressive, it almost brings you to buy a souvenir just to appease them. In Vietnam, for example, we used to walk down the Hoi An market strip to “you buy from me?” cat calls.

We thought it was over the top – but really it was just the tip of the iceberg.

In Bagan, we met our most insistent sellers to date.

It started out as a usual evening. Vicky and I were temple hopping like usual tourists. As we approached the Shwezigon pagoda, a Burmese woman in her mid thirties came over and struck up a conversation.

“Where are you from?” she politely asked.

“America” I replied.

“You’re so pretty!” (she was of course talking to Vicky) “How old are you?”

“24”

“Wow, I thought you were only 20”

Only a few days before someone had remarked that Vicky looked 31, so this was a welcome compliment. Burma tends to be a pretty friendly country and I didn’t want to jump to the “what’s she getting at” conclusion. Maybe she was just looking to chat…believe it or not, sometimes people are.

She led us to the pagoda, making chit chat along the way and instructing us to remove our shoes (as one does before entering a Buddhist pagoda) outside. She introduced herself as Din Din, and even pinned a butterfly ornament to my shirt.

“How kind!” I thought.

A butterfly ornament was, after all, just what my ensemble was missing.

Another woman came up, equally as inviting as Din Din and with an equally charming name – Moo Moo. Before I even knew what happened, Vicky and I were separated. Moo Moo had led her away, and we were both seated at each of their respective shops. Quite forcibly, I might add, though I do think if push came to shove I could have taken her. She showed me a wide variety of souvenirs; small Buddha statues, bamboo bracelets – basically a lot of things I didn’t need and had no intention of buying. I tried to make some small talk to be polite, hoping Vicky was doing the same and not trading in our life’s savings for jade elephants.

“Where do you get your products?” I asked

“This jade elephant would go great in your home. Bring you good luck.” she replied

I could see this was going nowhere. I got up, thanked her, and quickly signaled for Vicky to do the same.

We spent about 30 minutes at the temple before heading out. We went out the back way so as to avoid the unpleasant interaction of having to tell Din Din and Moo Moo, “No No” a second time – but we couldn’t find our shoes. We looked around but they were nowhere to be found, until there, in the distance, I recognized my sandals in front of Din Din’s shop.

She had brought my shoes back to her shop!

You can probably guess where Vicky’s sandals were.

Lucky for me, Din Din was preoccupied with another victim errr customer. Vicky wasn’t so lucky, but I had trained her well, and she was steadfast – no elephants of any kind.

On the walk home we had a good laugh about all that had transpired. If it sounds like I’m making light of the situation, it’s because I am. Truth be told, I don’t really care for being treated like an ATM and always trying to be aggressively sold things I don’t need.

But I get it.

The fact of the matter is that had they not come up to us at all there is no chance we pay either of those shops any attention. Regardless, I’m still never going to buy something I don’t need, but if they “hassle” ten tourists odds are that one will buy something, and that’s a whole lot better than none. Can’t fault them for that, I suppose.