If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

In Bangkok, sometimes they have a fuel credit for their took-tooks if they take you to souvenir shops. On these days, the drivers will give you a good discount if you go into a store and look interested in their products for 10 minutes they receive the credit and you receive a cheap took-took ride.

We didn’t really know about this the first time we were driven to a store and we’re sure why the Grand Palace looked less like a Palace and more like an overpriced jewelry store. We walked in … and out and the driver was a little mad. He said “10 minutes” and then drove us to a suit store.

When we got there, we were met by a man with impeccable English and I moved too quick to asking about the price of a tuxedo, which was about 3000 baht or $100 more than anywhere else I asked and Tami and Colette had to find something to do. They sat down, opened a fashion book and tried to pretend to pick things out, while the owner asked them many questions and I wandered the store with my best “interested” face. After 10 minutes of page-turning/store-walking, the man told us to leave. I said “why” and he said that if we didn’t pay 500 baht for the air condition we were receiving, we’d have to depart. We departed. The driver got his credit, we got our discount; everybody won, except the ripoff store.

Found in , stories, thai guo 2 Comments »

When I began teaching, I was given a 2-book set with a set of cassettes that I constantly ignore. Also at my disposal, is a set of 200 to 300 8.5 x 11 photos portraying fruits and vegetables, sports and activities, and lots of other things. However, some of them are just ridicuous; one of these strange pictures comes with the word “German” and instead of describing it, you should just see it.

I haven’t met a lot of Germans in my days, but I’m sure some are women, some have straight hair, some shave their stubble and, oh yeah, I don’t think they always carry beers around. Do you know a German? What is he or she like?

Found in , china, teaching, wuhan 7 Comments »