About Camarines Norte | The Value of a Whisper in Mercedes

Whisper is to speak softly using one's breath without one's vocal cords, especially for the sake of privacy. In this town of Mercedes in Camarines Norte, your whisper will be your big shout to discounts when buying fish.

When going around the fish port, you will see these fishes and other sea products strewn on the floor inside these plastic tubs. Each seller will be shouting, calling your attention, showing you their wares of how fresh they are. Among those they shout are the prices for the same and if it strikes your fancy, simply go up to them and whisper in their ear how much you like to buy them for. Its a haggling situation but instead of doing it at arms length, you do it in whispers. This way you can get great prices without other customers knowing how much you got it for. Thereby ensuring that the seller can still sell what's left at a price he or she wants for them.

This was a fun exercise as this is not your usual form of haggling. If you are new to haggling, the bulungan exercise is ideal for you. You will just have to muster up the courage in approaching the seller's ear then its downhill from there. Much more conducive for you more than haggling prices in public, eliciting reactions from those who can hear both of you.

We did this exercise as our host told us, what we buy from here will be sent to our selected restaurant and have it cooked there. Talk about freshness.