Taxi, Mademoiselle?

Me: Combien pour Anjohy, trois chemins?
Driver: Anjohy? Because it's uphill, but because you are très belle, I give you good price. 5000.
Me: Vous rigolez, monsieur. It shouldn't be more than 12 500.
Driver: Ahhhh.... (he squints up at the mountain) 4000 then.
Me: 15 000, sinon I go to your neighbour.
The driver flicks the latch on the back door in silent acceptance of my final offer.

This bargaining may seem bizarre at first since I just insisted on a price three times higher than the driver's first offer, but Mada operates on two currencies. Fmg are discontinued but better understood by locals. Ariary are worth five times more and are a government response to currency devaluation. When negotiating, I try to talk in Fmg because it makes me seem like I've been here for longer and am thus less likely to be taken advantage of. The driver uses Ariary because it allows him to move in larger increments. Across Tana you can eavesdrop on these seemingly senseless interactions. And across Tana, residents are exceptionally quick at dividing by 5.