Friday 16th November
The first thing on the agenda was to pay another visit to the hospital to see the physiotherapist. She did a few tests and concluded that I had particularly tight hamstrings and they were prone to being pulled. So, she gave me some exercises to do and sent me on my way.
Without little else planned, I decided to bite the bullet and do a bit of shopping. There are many stalls and shops throughout McLeod Ganj that sell some interesting, Tibetan-influenced wares. Not a favourite activity of mine, shopping, but it would have been a shame not to pick up a few souvenirs while I was here.
You get a lot of calls from traders as you walk by their stores, even if you don't show any real interest in anything, stuff like 'Hello, mister' or 'Would you like to see more?'. So, kind of like Amsterdam but without the neon lights and the PVC.
The shopkeepers really go all out to sell stuff, and they can get pushy to the point where they can be a complete pain in the arse. I agreed to go into one place out of sheer guilt, having been given a sob-story by a shopkeeper who complained that he wasn't getting the same amount of trade as the others, as his shop wasn't on the street front. I promised him two minutes of my time, eventually inching my way apologetically out of the shop fifteen minutes later. Another guy looked like he was going to cry when I told him I wasn't going to buy anything, pleading with me that I could maybe bring him luck for the rest of the day if I changed my mind.
The whole concept of haggling is something I'll have to get used to. I sometimes feel guilty about asking for money off something that doesn't cost that much in the first place - or, at least relative to what we would pay for a similar product at home. The guide books suggest haggling down to much lower than the asking price but the traders know very well that goods and services are cheaper for western tourists here. Maybe that's why they play the guilt card, thinking that's a particular weak spot. Sometimes it's just not worth the hassle.
My plans for the next few days will hopefully be a bit more active than the last couple. I hope to fit in a few hours trekking tomorrow but it won't be anything too strenuous. After a couple more days I think it will be time to pack the bags and hit the road again.
