Buying fruit

Buying fruit here puts me in quite a dilemma: Should I try to save as much money as I can by haggling or should I just pay the extra money to a person who carries fruit on their shoulder for 13 hours a day?  Although it may not sound that much, "unhaggled" fruit can cost up generally around a dollar more per kilo than market prices (maybe even more, though I will be honest and tell you I totally made that number up based on a few converstation between tourists and fruit sellers).  If I buy 3 types of fruit once a week, in my ten months I will have lost about 120 dollars, which could have been invested in much more important things such as shoes or mirrors to celebrate my vanity and thoughtless consumer lifestyle.  And remember, this is 120 dollars in VN, which can buy 960 loafs of french bread (banh mi).  Though if I'm buying in bulk I could probably haggle the price down...Hell, I spent 130 dollars on ALL food one month when I only ate on the streets.

Still, that 120 dollars is probably towards the high end for me considering 1) I am "Vietnamese"ish and have a basic knowledge of the language--others might have to pay a "white/non-Viet" tax which might shoot that price way up and 2) I don't eat 3 kilos (6.6 pounds?) of fruit per week, though maybe I should.  But, overall, I think I get fairly good deals with maybe a couple of 1000 tacked on here and there.  Not to sound like a Richie Rich, but that amount (~5cents per 1000) is not worth haggling over and as I hinted in my first line, it's not like I'm dealing with Bank of America or AT&T CEOs who jack my cash, lose it, and give themselves raises and a new penthouse, these are people who roam the street from 6am to 11pm trying to sell fruit.

I really don't understand people who clearly have money (fancy suits) or foreigners who have enough dough to buy a plane ticket to Hanoi fighting over 20 or 30 cents (Oh, then they take a pic of the fruit seller with their 400 dollar camera.  Oh my, poverty is so more exotic over here).  Yes, you must be careful in VN or you will get ripped off but I think many translate that as you must squeeze every last penny from the price.  Financially smart, yes, but if you do the math, fresh fruit is still much cheaper than the US (and probably less than wherever you came from).  Example:  From what I remember, I brought ginger in the states and for the size of my thumb, I paid about 20 cents?  For 3000 dong (15 cents), I got a stick of ginger the size of my hand.  Whoa, Whoa lady, how about 2500 dong?

Buying bananas is especially troubling--I have two banana people.  One is a deaf-mute little person, whose sales benefit a deaf-mute school (or so the sign says), and the other is an older woman about 80 who can barely walk and spends all day sitting on a corner selling bananas.  I been to both and I know I am being ripped off and by "ripped off" I mean 25 cents more than it should be--this ain't my first banana-buying rodeo.  Still, if you do the math, I'm getting some darn good bananas for about 30 cents a pound, which is just a bit cheaper than Texas prices when I left in August (~47 cents/lb).

So here is how this converstation went down:

Banana Seller: For that bunch, 20,000 dong.

Me:  Okay, Imma let you finish in a second. [I then interrupt her sign language by slapping her hands]  Listen, you deaf-mute little person who sells crafts and fruit on the street to help fund a school that teaches blind, deaf, and mute people skills for living, I don't know who you think you are, but you are a despicable person.  I, a person who has been blessed with all of my five senses and a decent monthly stipend that can very well afford this transaction, am appalled that you would take advantage of poor people like me and try to steal every dong I have worked for.  You make me ill.  How about 18,000?

BS:  Okay.

Well, I have a secret.  That didn't really happen.  I fabricated that story so my blog would be more interesting.  I brought the 1.3 kilos of bananas for a dollar and ate them.  Probably because I have a soul and heart.

tony