US$1 Cambodia
It seemed to me that some street traders in Cambodia have an odd interest of exchanging whatever goods or services they own for one US dollar. I bought a conical hat (i.e. leaf hat), drunk juice from a coconut, had my rented bike fixed, and took a tuk-tuk (i.e. an auto rickshaw) to town each at the price of US$1. A pack of cards was sold at US$1 while two same packs of cards were sold US$1 as well. It was an incident that we were not sure whether it was amused or not. That day, my mates and I were having breakfast from a food vendor when two local boys approached us to sell packs of cards. They were about seven or eight years old. Very lovable. One chatted away in clear English. The other was very quiet. After having looked through the cards, MH picked one pack of which only one card she liked; whereas, Miki bought a whole random pack on the basis of her sympathy for the quiet boy. US$1 was handed to each boy. They ran off but quickly came back to offer us 2 packs of card for one dollar only. We realized that we had paid double the price but we couldn’t have helped finding the mischievous boys amused. After we made it clear that we wouldn’t be tricked into buying any more, they switched. They asked to buy back the snack I brought from Vietnam. Guess how much they offered me for it! US$1.
Read the rest of this entry
nightcactus 