Maadaaaame!!! Maadaaame...

When people say that the Thais are a group of friendly and accommodating people, they aren't far from the truth! They genuinely are some of the nicest people I've ever met! Of course, I'm sure that there are good and bad sorts everywhere (we did encounter one such foul mouthed gentleman), but, in general, the people of Thailand are friendliness and hospitality personified! This was evident wherever we went. Barring the umbrella seller who yelled at us in Thai when we declined to buy an umbrella from him (I must admit that the umbrella was beautiful, though! All traditional and reasonably priced, we made a mistake by not taking up his offer!), all the other people we came across spouted smiles, with words, as sweet as honey, to match!

When we went shopping in all the lovely street markets, Pratunam being the most notable among them, the shop girls went out of their way to be nice! The number of compliments I received that single evening was enough to make me feel like an Empress! They also had this cute way of pulling my arm whenever I walked away, not being happy with the price they quoted! Musical intonations of "maaaadaaaame, maaaadame..." still ring in my ear! "Hello, madaaaaame!" in a singsong tone is how they usually seemed to greet foreign women! Of course, each of them is armed with a simple calculator, which comes out every time a customer starts to haggle! As most of them barely spoke any English, they used the calculator as a handy tool to convey the best prices they were willing to offer!

If you're a pro at bargaining, Thailand is the place for you! Start to bargain and prices fall straight from 400 Baht to 250 Baht to 100 Baht and so on! Whether ultimately you pay for what the item is worth or not, you definitely get a kick out of having been able to reduce the price so much!