The Rules for Bargaining While Traveling

Life on the Mekong River

It is a Competitive World Out There

Everything is a competition.

There, I said it. You know this is true. I know this is true. My wife tells me I am crazy and always fights me on this point, but in doing so, she just strengthens my case.

Everything is a competition.

If you are relaxing, swinging gently in a hammock, I want to be MORE relaxed, swinging even MORE gently in my hammock. If you are doing something ridiculously uncomfortable in the pursuit of adventure, then I want to do the same thing . . . but during the rainy season!

And if you suggest that you will take me and my family out on your boat, to watch the sunset from the middle of the Mekong River, while rural life happens all around us, and you say you can do all this for only $8, well then the games have begun.

The Rules of Bargaining While Traveling

This was how I found myself one evening in Vietnam. I wanted to take my family out for a trip on the river. We had bought snacks and drinks to bring on a boat, and we knew right where the little old men waited by the docks, hoping a traveler would hire them for a ride.

But I carefully hid the fact that we not only wanted a boat ride, but that we had prepared for it. We walked casually along the strip by the docks, pretending we were simply out for a stroll and a boat ride was the furthest thing from our minds.

Why? For the bargaining! There was no set price for a boat ride. The cost of a ride was whatever price you agreed on before setting off. I didn't want to seem too excited for the ride because then the boatman would have the upper hand and would demand a higher price.

A boatman approached us. He asked if we wanted a ride. "No thank you," I said. The boatman suggested that it was the perfect time of day, and a ride would be very pleasant. I told him we had other things to do and had no time for a silly boat ride. Then he offered a price.

Bargaining rule #1: don't be the first to offer a price. That always puts you at a disadvantage.

I just said, "No thank you," and kept walking. The boatman called out a lower price.

Bargaining rule #2: the walk away strategy works! When you don't hear a price you can live with, just walk away. You do have to be willing for the seller to actually let you go. But in our case, there were more boatmen and we were going to be in the town for a few more days. So if this man didn't end up taking us, it was no big deal.

Finally, I turned around and engaged. I offered the man about a quarter of his new offer. He laughed at me, but now we were bargaining for real.

Bargaining rule #3: never engage in bargaining if you have no intention of buying at a "reasonable" price. Once I started bargaining, the man then knew I actually wanted a boat ride, and all we had to do was come up with a mutually agreeable price.

I bargained hard. I used the walk away strategy a couple more times when the man wouldn't come down to meet me at all. In the end, I got the boatman to agree to a price I was happy with by a combination of stubbornness and telling jokes.

Bargaining rule #4: the seller is not your mortal enemy. It may be a competition, but it should be lighthearted competition. Have fun. Make the seller laugh, and you are likely to get a better price.

The Thrill (and Guilt) of the Deal

My family and I piled into the boat. It was a large boat for the five of us. We had plenty of room.

We got to see life outside of the town. Kids played volleyball in open fields. Cows stood about in pastures. Men and women worked hard to finish the day's tasks in the rice fields before dark.

And at the end of it all was a glorious Mekong sunset.

I sat back, put my arm around my wife, and enjoyed the evening. And about that time I realized that I am a horrible human being.

The cost of this whole outing: $2.

I had bargained the boatman down to $2! And why had I bargained so hard? Because everything is a competition. I like bargaining! I like the game of it. I like the thrill of a deal and the agony of a rip-off. I like the story I get to bring home.

And then I started wondering if $2 even covered the fuel we would use. I decided that if the boatman would lose money on us, he wouldn't have accepted the deal. But I still felt bad.

The boatman tried hard to get $5 out of me, but I hadn't budged. And I didn't budge, because that would have been losing the game. I had won the game, but I didn't feel good about it.

The boatman probably thought I was nuts when I handed him $5 (the amount I insisted I wouldn't pay) instead of the agreed-upon $2 when the ride was over.

Or who knows, maybe tourist guilt hits lots of people and the man is used to seeing people pay more than they agreed on. Maybe he counted on it.

Either way, $5 was still a good price. And I felt a little better about myself.

And, most importantly, Because travel, I had an absolutely beautiful evening in a boat with my family.

A local chilling at the end of the day on his boat