El Cheapo
12 Feb
GMail chat is wonderful. I was bugging “Ashwin”:http://www.ashwink.net/photoblog/ about India, forts and desert, driving between Rajasthan and Leh, and highway robbers, when we touched on the topic of my _connectivity_ (does that sound wrong or what).
Ashwin: “Man you are CONNECTED.”
Me: “Well hey, I’m Chinese. Anything to save money. I said to someone, if I’m an Indian-identified Chinese, then I already have two-thirds of the holy trinity of cheaponess.. I only need to be part Jewish to complete it!”
Ashwin: “I am feeling the need to blog this.”
My _Chineseness_ really shines whenever I travel. It rules out completely the prospect of ever starving, despite calamity or famine (you know, we eat everything). It also gives me the wonderful ability to make people insist on giving me even lower prices, when we bargain.
Man: “Bikini, 500 baht!”
Me: “400!”
Man: “250!”
Me: “Done!”
The same thing happens for motorcycle taxi fares, and other things. I know my parents will think I’m not Chinese enough, because if I truly was, I’d start my counter bargain at no more than 10% of the original price, and offer 50 instead. Because I’m so Chinese, when the Lonely Planet says, “during peak season, price of ride to pier is 30 baht per person. During off peak season, the _songtaew_ can’t be filled up and you have to pay to charter the whole vehicle to go to the pier, at 500 baht”, westerners think “OK then”, and I think: “If they don’t take me, they’ll have no one else to take.”
Then I say _Pang Pai!_ repeatedly, plead with doeful eyes, slip in my pidgin Thai, and then we go for 40 baht per person with just the both of us.
