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Your Say Wednesday
For those of you unfamiliar with our Your Say Wednesday posts, it’s fundamentally our way of interacting with you! Each Wednesday we share your most memorable, funny and craziest travel stories. Think you have a good one? Well please submit it to us via the contact page in our menu and it could be featured.
I pride myself on being quite good at bartering (but also fair.) I’ve even had friends travelling with me ask me to do the bartering for them in an art shop – turns out bartering is sniffed at there, Oops.
But I had no intention of bartering when I stopped at my last African market in Ghana on the way to the airport. I was just killing time as I had no money left!
Two beautiful oil paintings drew my attention instantly. I loved the colours and the abstract images of women carrying babies and carrying water. The seller noticed me admiring the paintings, “How much miss?” I apologised and explained I didn’t have any money left, I was just browsing but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Well, what else can you give me?” At first I was shocked “ What are you implying?! I am NOT that sort of girl!!” But then I saw his attention drawn to my smelly trekking sandals. “What about those?” he said, pointing at my feet!
Now I had fully intended on sticking these in the bin at the airport, I even had flip-flops in my bag ready for a quick change. Surely no one would actually want these horrendous ugly trekking sandals which I had waded through rivers and mud slicks in?!
But he seemed genuinely excited by this trade (one pair of gross shoes and half a packet of biscuits) and as I left with my paintings, I saw him parading them up and down to his market friends! I guess one person’s rubbish is another’s treasure after all..!
73 Park Avenue 