Kill Three Birds With One Dollar

The photo shown above is one my favorites from the trip so far. I bought a new hat again. It was a cowboy hat with a very open stitch that a let a fair bit of sun through. I paid $4 for it. It didn't didn't leave space for me to shove my sunglasses up to my forehead when I didn't want to wear them. I realized I could rest them upsidedown around the back of the hat and they were reasonably stable. The one morning I woke up in Phnom Penh, I caught an early van that brought me to a bus that would go to Kampot. I would get off in Kep. I lost my sunglasses somewhere that morning before the van. I think I bumped my head on the rear hatch and the glasses fell off and I didn't realize.

I was happy to finally lose those sunglasses. I had had them for 6 years and they were embarrassingly scratched up. I was hanging on to them because they fit well, I liked the way they looked and they were unmatched by any other pair in keeping the wind out of my eyes. They were Oakley Fives, and I actually had another pair for 5 years before this current pair. Oakley doesn't make them anymore. For two days down in Kep, I borrowed a pair of fake Ray Bans from the hotel guy, but when I arrived back in Phnom Penh on the middle of a hot sunny day and a woman with the same rig shown above approached, it was a sign that it was time for new sunglasses. Timing is everything. I tried on about every pair she had and settled on the glasses that were most like my old glasses. We agreed on $3. I think she started at $5. I've been satisfied so far.

As a side note, I was never happy with the cowboy hat. I felt I was giving off the wrong vibe and I wanted to be rid of it. When I got to the Kep Seaside Lodge, the tuk tuk guy and the hotel guy were joking around and the hotel guy told me the tuk tuk guy liked my hat and wanted to buy it from me. I adopted their whole routine of stating a price that was clearly way too high, then being genuinely shocked at the insult of his first offer. When we reach something reasonable, I look around to make sure no one is around to witness this embarrassing deal, a deal that could get me fired by the boss. We settled on $2 so I came out with a $2 profit(I mean loss). I cut my losses and went back to wearing my old hat.

Back to the story. I completed the transaction with sunglasses lady. I probably could've paid less, but it really takes time more than anything to get the price down. I didn't feel like it. Of the hundreds of people, many of whom are children, who solicit you, you will only buy from a small percentage. It isn't feasible to buy from everyone, no matter how much they need money for school. (If I buy nothing from a child, it does not mean I don't want them to learn.) The ones who get me are the ones who are persistent, the ones who follow me for a quarter mile and give me no choice but to buy their cheapest item at the lowest possible price.

The man in the picture above had seen me buy sunglasses from his coworker. You would, at least I would, think that an individual who just purchased sunglasses would not be interested in another sunglass purchase immediately following. This man thought the opposite. He followed me the area where the picture was taken, the area where I was waiting for the next bus, one back to Siem Reap. The bus wasn't ready to go. I had nowhere to go so he worked on me. He showed me everything on his little body tray. Glasses, knives, wallets, oils, etc. A local guy waiting for the same bus was encouraging me to buy glasses but also encourging the vendor to give me his best price. At one point, Local Guy tried on a pair of the glasses and they looked good. The bus was about ready to go, now about 20 minutes later. We agree on $1 for that pair of glasses that I hand to Local Guy. Vendor is happy with the sale(maybe), Local Guy is thrilled with his new, free glasses and I'm happy with a nice photograph. $1.

Here's local guy with his new frames.

_________

Back in Bangkok, again.

Things went bad this morning. I hatched a plan with the Thai Indian visa lady back on March 26 to come back to Bangkok last night and be ready today to drop off my passport by 10am and pick it up at 4pm and be all set for tomorrow's flight. Today, the Visa office was closed. I walked to the Embassy nearby and find it closed. Good Friday. Personally, I know nothing about Good Friday, but it would've been advantageous had the visa lady been aware. No visa, no flight tomorrow. I'm devasted about everything, India, the wedding, the lost money. I had made it into the embassy where I was told that a man was coming back from the airport would be able to help me. I returned after some delicious street food, which I was able to eat in a good mood because I tought everything would be fine, and found that man who was not able to help me.

I set to work in a an internet shop using my very handy new Skype account. I managed to change both my flights for free. I will now have several weeks in India. Everything turned out alright and I'll see the whole wedding. I just have to figure out what to do for 3 days here(maybe air conditioned blod posts). I haven't gotten that far yet. At long last, I will see some Muy Thai boxing this evening with a couple people I met on the border bus yesterday.

That's about it I suppose, besides the great time, warm weather and hundreds of stories. Cambodia was terrific.

Mom, I called and you didn't pick up. I understand, it was right around your breakfast time. No big deal.