Boat vendors. When your cruise ship gets stopped waiting in line to pass through the locks, lots of small boats come up. The boats use oars and I use the word “oar” liberally. The oar was literally a piece of wood. The vendors pull up to the ship and shout “Hello”. If you engage them, they will display their wares which consisted mostly of clothes. If you express even a little interest, they will put the clothing in a bag and throw it up to you on the ship. You look at the clothes and either negotiate for a price or put it back in the bag and throw it back down. They do not like it when you try to throw the clothes back down. The vendors will shout No, No and drop their price further. We were enjoying this. I haggled with a vendor and he would not meet my price. I threw the clothes back and walked away to sit at a table with Mary and Connor. A few moments later, we heard a thud on the deck. It was bag of clothes again with an accompanying “Hello”. It was like reeling in a fish. I stared at the bag for a few minutes and eventually felt bad for the vendor. I was worried he would not get the sale and loose his wares. I picked up the bag, the hook was set, and went back to the edge to throw it over. The vendor said OK to the original price and threw a money bag onto the deck. In went a few dollars and we now own an authentic Egyptian robe.
One family was really enjoying negotiating with the vendors. They kept negotiating as the ship went to the very edge of the lock. We were worried the smaller boat would be crushed in the shrinking space.
This form of commerce is with risk to the vendors. We saw several bags go into the water. We saw a bag get stuck in an unreachable area of the cruise ship. It was a very interesting experience.
Friday, June 12, 2009
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