Shopping in Nepal is hit or miss, and I’m referring to actually useful items instead of tourist trinkets. When we arrived in Kathmandu I wanted to get out and explore the city to track down some specific electronic gear (a PDA with keyboard) to take with me into the mountains. Kathmandu is really a large, bustling city, but I forgot that it is not as tidy and organized as some other cities. There are no department stores or even any mega-superstores in which to leisurely stroll around get a good view of the myriad choices. Instead there is a random pattern of small shops hidden away in winding alleys, and unless you know where you’re going you’ll get lost and trampled by all of the traffic. I asked Pema to take me shopping for computers and he said he knew just the place. Of course if you’ve been following my story you will remember the ordeal I had clawing my way through the jammed streets and alleyways to find a scant few electronics shops, but nothing I could use. Shovan here in the office claims that if you know where to go you can find anything you want and that they can put together custom components. That’s starting to sound like the Russian black market or something, but I’ll take his word.

Shovan also explains that you have to watch out about the prices they will charge you though. I’m sure it’s the same factor that you run into in America when you go to get your car repaired. If you don’t know enough about cars then the mechanics can make up fictitious maladies and pad the repair bill. In Kathmandu the pricing structure is very loose, so it’s the buyer’s responsibility to know about the product and to negotiate down to a reasonable price. For a tourist in Nepal, of course, the odds of a fair deal are stacked against you. In effect they charge you the “tourist” price, which is highly inflated, and the merchant is probably savvy to the fact that most westerners don’t think to haggle on the price. For myself I’m used to going to the store, picking up the item off the shelf with the price clearly labeled, getting in line at the register, and paying with no discussion of the price. Interestingly, while we were in Khumjung Pema asked me to buy a few groceries down at the market in Namche for him (just some tomatoes and sliced bread). I carried out the transaction just as I described and brought back almost no change for Pema. He said I must have paid the tourist price, he would have gotten it for at least 30% less.