What Goes Around Comes Around

“A person should not go to sleep at night until the debits equal the credits” wrote a friend as his facebook status. The instant thought that I gathered was then many would be sleepless because as ordinary human beings not all of us care about equaling debits and credits. But later it reminded me of nature’s own mechanisms of equaling debits to credits. It may just be that I notice some things more than others do and hence there have been events in my life that have made me rethink nature. Although I cannot remember all of them to put down in this blog, there are few recent ones that I can account here.

As taking a taxi to work is the most convenient, if not the cheapest, I usually take taxi in the morning and take the boat/motorbike in the evenings. One of those mornings, it so happened that the taxi meter said 112 baht and I gave him 115. The driver did not give me 3 baht change back. I did not mind it because 3 baht is only 10 cents in US dollars. Later that day, I went shopping because I needed groceries for the weekend cooking ceremony (as I usually cook only on weekends). Although the supermarket is only 6-7 minutes away from my apartment, I decided to take a motorbike taxi from the supermarket because my bag was heavy. The motorbike rider asked for 20 baht but I offered 15 and he agreed. When he dropped me off to the apartment I realized that I only had 12 baht change with me and a 500 note. The bike rider did not have change, so he only took 12 baht that I had, saving me 3 baht. It was amazing how I lost 3 baht at one place and gained exact 3 baht at another on the same day.

Sometimes it feels like the universe is conspiring to put me in debt but I have become more cautious because I have begun to understand that debit must always equal credit. For example, the boat conductor (not sure if that’s the right word to use) does not ask me for fare often and hence I always buy the boat ticket in advance to avoid any probable greediness. Even then, the lady at the pier has once given me two boat tickets with extra 6 baht change. When I was telling this story to a friend, she was like, “that’s great, now you can use that ticket to go back home.” To which I replied that I had returned the extra ticket and change and she said that action should bring me good karma. Another instance is of couple days ago when my friends and I were walking to a restaurant for lunch from work and I found a 100 baht note by a phone booth. I got so nervous that I gave it to a vendor nearby who was selling noodles on the street and to my surprise she took it without any hesitance.

As crazy as it may sound, I do believe that debit and credit must always be equal and this maybe the reason why I do not want to burden myself with credit because I know that I cannot get away with it. I guess this is why they say, "what goes around comes around".

Where Creativity Knows No Bounds :)

Among many other things such as cheap food and clothes, fresh fruits, vegetables and smoothies at every corner of the road, there is another thing that stood out to me in BKK. People here are very creative and by that I mean majority of them, be it a local vendor or a great dress designer. It is hard for anyone here to starve to death. I have seen toys, hats and purses made up of recycled soda cans. I have seen amazing motorcycles and scooters with so many businesses being carried on them. The first one that I saw was a whole vegetable shop being carried on it. Then it was a fast food noodle shop. Finally, I got to see the motorcycle taxis, where men are in orange shirts and they take you to places faster than any regular four wheeler taxis. I am yet to ride one of those taxis though.

I found a soap in Jatuchak market that had built in body scrubber, no need to get an external one. When it comes to clothing, I am sure we all have seen how creative and cute BKK designs are. I came across one of these scarves that had beads and crystals sawn into them. So along with your pretty scarves, you can also show off the fancy jewels without having to wear them separately. I am sure the Western countries will soon have them imported in large numbers. I also saw a pair of bra with detachable covers so that if you wanted to wear low cut clothes without revealing your bra then you could just attach those cute covers on top of your bras. In addition, dresses with shorts styled skirt can be found easily which are very convenient to wear. I also saw fancy umbrellas shaped like wine bottles, cartoon characters and Japanese dolls.

Creativity knows no bounds here: Yesterday, I saw rows of men standing on the high bridge of the King’s river and fishing with rods that had its strings at least 500m long. As the fishing was done deep inside the river, they could find fish at a higher frequency. The men used binoculars to confirm if they had caught any fish at the far end of their fishing rods. BKK is a city, which gets light rainfalls pretty often. Although the rain usually starts and ends within 2-5 minutes, it certainly causes discomfort for vendors that are selling fruits, vegetables, meat, etc on their carts. Hence, the vendors walk around with emergency plastic covers that they cover their carts with in case of rain and still continue with their business. To those who are looking for niche, come visit BKK and go back to start up a great business!!!