New Market

Sitkale onek sobji pawa jay. In winter season, a lot of vegetables are available. This includes lettuce which is generally a hard find. So, Sarah and I were dying for some salads. We asked one of the kitchen staff to give us an idea about what the correct price should be before heading out. If we hadn't who know what ridiculous prices we may have ended up paying when the shopkeepers see a white face approach. We decided to go to new market to buy the vegetables. (Short aside: New Market has everything. Its like a massive outdoor/indoor WalMart. Clothes, Shoes, Books, Office Supplies, House decorations, Luggage, Meat (overly fresh), Vegetables, Fruit, etc.) We had been to new market before so we knew the produce was good there but hadn't purchased anything on that trip.
We hopped in a CNG after damadami (bargaining) for a decent price. He took us all the way to the vegetable part of the market which was of course very helpful because New Market is sprawling. With an idea of the prices in our heads, we headed in. We bargained like crazy. It was so much fun and we ended up getting most of the vegetables at the local price. Our favorite purchase of the day, however, came from the fruit sellers. I really wanted to buy a pineapple. So I saw a shop that had a lot of nice large ones. We walked over and I asked how much for one pineapple. "Oh Eksho bish (120), madam (I hate being called madam.)" Sarah and I both instantly broke into laughter. Oh no, no, no. So I asked why the price was so high and was told this is a very big and very sweet pineapple. Really? At one point a worker said the store was fixed price so we pointed to the next store and said well that ones not so we'll go there. After multiple times walking away from their store, we finally got the price down to 30 Taka! The price we had wanted to pay. By the way, thirty taka is less than 50 cents.
So, we had our hands full with all of our purchases. Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, lettuce, a huge head of cauliflower, carrots, and one "very sweet" pineapple. We went to the main road to get a CNG and there were none available. So, I asked Sarah if she would be willing to ride a rickshaw back to the guest house. The weather was beautiful, we had nothing planned for the afternoon and rickshaws can actually be quite a nice ride. She, as always, was up for the adventure. We and all of our vegetables piled into the rickshaw which we took us halfway home. Then we switched rickshaws and took a different one the final leg of the journey. It was an epic day. We felt so successful and very national. The best part was that the total experience including travel and the cost of the vegetables was around five dollars.