Monday, April 30, 2007
Arusha – round trip please part 2 (Snippets)
To be honest Arusha did not do much for me, as a city nor as an experience, not to say that there were not certain instances that were interesting or fun. There was nothing in particular that was wrong with it. The people were very nice, the stores were adequate, the taxi we took was quick and safe and the hotel was as comfortable as we could expect. I think that the fact that it was a city and that it was busy and crowded made me long to be back in Haydom. I enjoyed hunting down items that would make life easier and bargaining with the odd shopkeeper for a sniff of a deal. I found it interesting to see the differences in the state of various shops and the way the shopkeepers dealt with us.
My favorite shop was the Arusha Variety Store, where we went to compare prices with the London Bazaar located next door. The store was a U-shaped place with glass counters displaying household goods from towels and bed sheets to tongs and bread pans. The owner was a friendly man on Indian origin who had a nice local guy as his gopher. His Mother, wife and youngest daughter looked on as we browsed unfettered. Once we had taken a good look around we needed assistance to get a closer look at his wares.
We needed a whole slew of stuff for the kitchen and bathroom, and we had seen much at the London Bazaar and knew how much we wanted to spend. That amount most likely differed greatly from the fair price but we were oblivious and also to some extent, I suppose, desperate. The first item we came to, also the first on our list of necessary to continue, were bath towels. There were a number of quality levels and we settled on three of the softest, yet most durable looking and feeling ones. The shopkeeper commended us on our choice. We moved through tea towels, a kitchen knife, among other things before we got to the bread pans. I had seen some next door for about 5,500 each and the ones here appeared, at a distance, to have a posted price of 4,000. Upon closer inspection the tag said 14,000; too much of a difference. I pointed out the discrepancy to the shopkeeper letting him know the price next door. “My friend, my friend, my friend,” he said pulling one down from the shelf and tapping its bottom, “you do not know about the quality. Let me tell you about the quality. Notice the thickness of this pan; the ones next door are the local brand; low in quality. This is Teflon coated, theirs are not. This is direct from India and the one next door…pht…It is not as high quality, let me assure you!” He finished his rant, out of breath. “No thank you.” We said in unison. It was obviously no skin off his nose as he went on the next item we needed; pillows.
There were three levels of pillows, each with its own price and set of features, which our new friend did not hesitate to fill us in on once his gopher had retrieved them from upstairs. “This one was all cotton, this one feathers, this one poly. This one was 3,500, this one 4,500 and this one 8,000. You will not sneeze from this, this one is softest, the feathers of this one are divine.” He stated without taking a breath, “I recommend this one for comfort, this one for sleeping lightly and this one for…well, I guess they are all good for sleeping!” he continued, “Which would you prefer?” We settled on the middle model and then set our eyes on the coolers.
There were two coolers, a large one and a small one. Nicole thought that the large one was 70,000 when it was actually 75,000 so when I asked for a deal on the cooler, considering all we were buying, she thought we’d get it for somewhere in the high 60,000s. Our new friend at Arusha Variety store thought a moment and said, “72,000.” I thought this was all right, three grand is three grand. Nik on the other hand had an audible laugh and looked at him a bit sideways. She looked and me and said something like, “he can’t be serious, its only priced at 70,000!” We all had a good laugh when Nik found that the price had been 75,000 and as the gopher packed our things I asked the shopkeeper about himself.
I wondered how this man had come to own a store in the busy heart of Arusha. He had been there since 1974 when he began working with his father who had owned the store before him. I joked that he must have been 3 or 4, and he did not take this in the lighthearted tone it was intended. He made us aware that he had taken, “all the standards at school” and not wanting to continue his education, he had turned to earning money alongside his father. He downplayed making any real money in his 30 plus years in business and I played along. He asked us where we were from. When we said Canada his eyes lit up and he asked what city. We still call Victoria home and that was our reply. But, in the ‘it’s a small world’ vein, didn’t he have a sister who lives in Edmonton. We quickly talked about how we had been in Edmonton before coming to Tanzania and we talked about the differences in weather and culture before making our exit. It was a great experience, shopping at the Arusha Variety store, and I highly recommend dropping in if you are in town. Just don’t buy their bread pans.
Pillows
So as you read above, pillows were very near the top of our shopping list. In Haydom, we had pillows but they were not very comfortable. We thankfully, brought Abby’s pillow from Canada but had left ours behind due to space concerns with our luggage. So the two we bought at the Arusha variety store were a very welcome addition to our possessions. The hotel pillows were rocks in bags and made sleep very difficult. So when we returned to the hotel the new pillows were taken from their plastic and tested. Nicole found them not very comfortable at all. I tried one and after about ten seconds I looked at the girls and said, “what is that smell,” with my nose turned up. They didn’t know, and I soon realized it was the pillow. There would be no sleep on these, at least not without nose plugs. We thought it may just be the plastic smell from being inside the bags but it did not go away after hours of airing out. Nik tried to sleep on one that night and had a fitful sleep and awoke with a sore neck. So the hunt for pillows continued.
That afternoon I went to the London Bazaar and an electronics shop (for a surge protector) and found that the London Bazaar had its own trio of “quality pillows”. The owners of the London Bazaar were a no nonsense father-son team. The father had been there the day before when we had spent a bunch of money on kitchen items and was more willing to give me a deal. The son would say a price and the father would slash it by 5,000 shillings without my saying a word. Perhaps he could see I hadn’t slept well or was hoping for future business, either way I was happy and again took the middle of the road model. It had an actual label, poly-fill and was hypoallergenic; all qualities I valued. It also felt soft through the plastic. I loaded the pillows in the taxi with a sideways glance from Godlisten, the driver and we headed back to the hotel.
That night Abby and Nicole used the new pillows and while Abby was happy with if it was much too tall for Nik. I had joked with the London bazaar family that I would bring them back after a night of use if they were not up to par, but the reaction told me that would not be acceptable, so we decided to find Nik a good one, as she had not slept a full night since we arrived in Tanzania. We later stumbled on a bedding store near the Shoprite and though their pillows were more expensive it was obvious at a glance they were also of superior quality. So we picked one up for Nik and sleep has been coming to her ever since!
My favorite shop was the Arusha Variety Store, where we went to compare prices with the London Bazaar located next door. The store was a U-shaped place with glass counters displaying household goods from towels and bed sheets to tongs and bread pans. The owner was a friendly man on Indian origin who had a nice local guy as his gopher. His Mother, wife and youngest daughter looked on as we browsed unfettered. Once we had taken a good look around we needed assistance to get a closer look at his wares.
We needed a whole slew of stuff for the kitchen and bathroom, and we had seen much at the London Bazaar and knew how much we wanted to spend. That amount most likely differed greatly from the fair price but we were oblivious and also to some extent, I suppose, desperate. The first item we came to, also the first on our list of necessary to continue, were bath towels. There were a number of quality levels and we settled on three of the softest, yet most durable looking and feeling ones. The shopkeeper commended us on our choice. We moved through tea towels, a kitchen knife, among other things before we got to the bread pans. I had seen some next door for about 5,500 each and the ones here appeared, at a distance, to have a posted price of 4,000. Upon closer inspection the tag said 14,000; too much of a difference. I pointed out the discrepancy to the shopkeeper letting him know the price next door. “My friend, my friend, my friend,” he said pulling one down from the shelf and tapping its bottom, “you do not know about the quality. Let me tell you about the quality. Notice the thickness of this pan; the ones next door are the local brand; low in quality. This is Teflon coated, theirs are not. This is direct from India and the one next door…pht…It is not as high quality, let me assure you!” He finished his rant, out of breath. “No thank you.” We said in unison. It was obviously no skin off his nose as he went on the next item we needed; pillows.
There were three levels of pillows, each with its own price and set of features, which our new friend did not hesitate to fill us in on once his gopher had retrieved them from upstairs. “This one was all cotton, this one feathers, this one poly. This one was 3,500, this one 4,500 and this one 8,000. You will not sneeze from this, this one is softest, the feathers of this one are divine.” He stated without taking a breath, “I recommend this one for comfort, this one for sleeping lightly and this one for…well, I guess they are all good for sleeping!” he continued, “Which would you prefer?” We settled on the middle model and then set our eyes on the coolers.
There were two coolers, a large one and a small one. Nicole thought that the large one was 70,000 when it was actually 75,000 so when I asked for a deal on the cooler, considering all we were buying, she thought we’d get it for somewhere in the high 60,000s. Our new friend at Arusha Variety store thought a moment and said, “72,000.” I thought this was all right, three grand is three grand. Nik on the other hand had an audible laugh and looked at him a bit sideways. She looked and me and said something like, “he can’t be serious, its only priced at 70,000!” We all had a good laugh when Nik found that the price had been 75,000 and as the gopher packed our things I asked the shopkeeper about himself.
I wondered how this man had come to own a store in the busy heart of Arusha. He had been there since 1974 when he began working with his father who had owned the store before him. I joked that he must have been 3 or 4, and he did not take this in the lighthearted tone it was intended. He made us aware that he had taken, “all the standards at school” and not wanting to continue his education, he had turned to earning money alongside his father. He downplayed making any real money in his 30 plus years in business and I played along. He asked us where we were from. When we said Canada his eyes lit up and he asked what city. We still call Victoria home and that was our reply. But, in the ‘it’s a small world’ vein, didn’t he have a sister who lives in Edmonton. We quickly talked about how we had been in Edmonton before coming to Tanzania and we talked about the differences in weather and culture before making our exit. It was a great experience, shopping at the Arusha Variety store, and I highly recommend dropping in if you are in town. Just don’t buy their bread pans.
Pillows
So as you read above, pillows were very near the top of our shopping list. In Haydom, we had pillows but they were not very comfortable. We thankfully, brought Abby’s pillow from Canada but had left ours behind due to space concerns with our luggage. So the two we bought at the Arusha variety store were a very welcome addition to our possessions. The hotel pillows were rocks in bags and made sleep very difficult. So when we returned to the hotel the new pillows were taken from their plastic and tested. Nicole found them not very comfortable at all. I tried one and after about ten seconds I looked at the girls and said, “what is that smell,” with my nose turned up. They didn’t know, and I soon realized it was the pillow. There would be no sleep on these, at least not without nose plugs. We thought it may just be the plastic smell from being inside the bags but it did not go away after hours of airing out. Nik tried to sleep on one that night and had a fitful sleep and awoke with a sore neck. So the hunt for pillows continued.
That afternoon I went to the London Bazaar and an electronics shop (for a surge protector) and found that the London Bazaar had its own trio of “quality pillows”. The owners of the London Bazaar were a no nonsense father-son team. The father had been there the day before when we had spent a bunch of money on kitchen items and was more willing to give me a deal. The son would say a price and the father would slash it by 5,000 shillings without my saying a word. Perhaps he could see I hadn’t slept well or was hoping for future business, either way I was happy and again took the middle of the road model. It had an actual label, poly-fill and was hypoallergenic; all qualities I valued. It also felt soft through the plastic. I loaded the pillows in the taxi with a sideways glance from Godlisten, the driver and we headed back to the hotel.
That night Abby and Nicole used the new pillows and while Abby was happy with if it was much too tall for Nik. I had joked with the London bazaar family that I would bring them back after a night of use if they were not up to par, but the reaction told me that would not be acceptable, so we decided to find Nik a good one, as she had not slept a full night since we arrived in Tanzania. We later stumbled on a bedding store near the Shoprite and though their pillows were more expensive it was obvious at a glance they were also of superior quality. So we picked one up for Nik and sleep has been coming to her ever since!
