We spent a good 2 and a half hours climbing the stairs of Eiffel, lounging at the cafe situated on the 1st floor and just soaking up the sun, while enjoying Paris's landscape from up above. When we finally got down, we spent another hour enjoying the view from the foot of the tower, taking lots and lots of pictures.
We were goofing around attempting to take pictures of each other pushing the Eiffel tower when from some distance we saw an Indian man, in his early thirties, approaching us with a big smile. On one hand he was holding a giant ring; tiny Eiffel tower keychains hanging from it, making a clinking sound as he walked. On his other hand were miniature Eiffel towers in different metallic colors and sizes.
'Uh-oh, good Lord, please turn us invisible, I don't want to have to deal with another one of these direct sellers.'
There are a lot of people like him, hanging about the queues at the entrance and around the tower that will try to sell you Eiffel memorabilia. Sometimes their persistent and pestering can be quite annoying but well, one has got to make a living one way or another.
"You dua orang dari Malaysia?" he asked in perfectly fluent Malay.
From his stories we learned that he originated from India and has worked in Malaysia for 5 years prior to his arrival in Paris. He said he loves Malaysia, its people, its food, everything. We can definitely relate to that, we are fans of Malaysia too! His plan is to collect enough money to open a business in Malaysia and settle there for good.
While he was lamenting about how it is pretty hard to survive financially here (something we have learned the moment we stepped into a supermarket when we first arrived in Paris to find some shampoo and toothpaste), I was eyeing the Eiffel tower model in the biggest size that he has, contemplating whether to buy it or not. You know, to use as a decoration for my future house.
"You mau yang mana satu? Yang ini atau yang ini? Ambikla, saya kasi murah-murah sama you," he said, picking up on my interest.
"Kalau yang besar ni, kalau jual dalam kedai luar sana, 20 lebih diaorang jual tau. Selalu I jual 12 Euro, paling murah la, you boleh cuba tanya orang lain, tak dapat punya. Tapi dengan you orang Malaysia I bagi special price, 10 Euro saja," he went on. What he didn't realize was (or maybe he actually did), I was already sold by then.
I decided to test the skills that my mother has tried to pass on to me, and tried to haggle over the price. Apparently, I did learn a bit of the art of haggling from her when I managed to bring down the price to 7 Euros.
I opened my wallet to pay him and I thought about how profit he is actually making everyday what with the competition with hundreds of people selling the exact same thing all around Paris. With the higher than average living cost in Paris, it must have been hard to just get by everyday. And here I am, running around on vacations around Europe using money that I haven't really worked that hard for, that got me questioning the ethical side of my conduct concerning the money that's wired into my bank account every month.
So I handed him a 10 Euro note and asked him to keep the rest of the change. He didn't expect that of course, so he gave me 6 Eiffel keychains which cost about 1 Euro altogether.
My friend looked at me, rolled her eyes, let out a small sigh and said, "Barhh. You're easy."
Oh and by the way. Buying an Eiffel tower model that stands 30cm high would not seem like a really good idea when you still have several other cities left to visit and you need to fit the tower into your suitcase without wasting too much space. Honestly, I felt my IQ point has gone a few number up trying to figure it out.
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