MARKET MAYHEM IN KOLKATA
An extract from Dale Philips' YouTube clip

Dale Philip Intro: After spending a few hours relaxing in my luxury hotel I ventured out onto the streets. It was a stark contrast, leaving the spacious lobby where soothing piano music filled the air to be confronted with crowds of people and the loud and never ending "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP" of the traffic.

The Oberoi Grand is in the New Market area of Kolkata, where the streets are lined with vendors who have no shortage of potential customers. The area is very popular and it's obvious why. The level of competition that exists there drives the price of goods to bargain levels. Knockoff clothes are sold openly, even in front of the actual legit shops that sell that brand. Even those big brand shops are selling their wares at a deep discount as they are forced to compete with vendors selling fake versions right on their doorstep.

I had my bagged my first bargain at a juice shop. There were three juice shops that looked almost identical right next to each other. That sounds like a recipe for some good prices to me. A pint glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice was only 50 rupees and the vendor topped me up with an extra half a glass for free. Compare that to the video I made in Dubai where I paid over 500 rupees for about half the volume of the same drink. Just a 20 X value difference!!!!

I explored further, avoiding the local scammers and touts and found a Pani Puri stall. It looked like this was going to be a street food vlog. I actually had no idea what this video was going to be about when I made it but I just pressed record and decided to figure it out on the fly. I wandered back into the market streets and then decided it would be more of a market spree video than a food one. A 350 pair of knockoff Puma shorts and a 200 knockoff Nike t-shirt later and yer man was happy but further bargains and delicious food were still to come his way. I have one more video from Kolkata that I'll be making public before the end of the month. It's an hour long and full of fun and adventure.

Now watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkk2VS9YvQc

Stay tuned for his next instalment!