"Lady! You wanna buy magnet? Common lady, only two dollars - two dollars for magnet lady, okay, three for one dollar - common lady"
"Scarfs! Real cambodian silk scarfs, common lady, buy me a scarf, one for two dollars"
By the time the shy little boy comes up to me, I'm sick of being ambushed all day long at the entries and exits of all the temples with practiced sentences in English ('wanna buy', 'only one dollar', 'where you from', 'please lady')....
"Where you from lady?" he asks as I'm mounting the tuk-tuk. He's no older than 6 years old.
"Mexico" I snap back. I've found it's easier to get away by saying you're from a country they rarely hear of (mexicans are not renknown world travelers) rather than mentioning more common places like France or the US.
"I have coin from mexico lady" he tells me just as quickly. Hubby and I both can't help raising our eyebrows as we watch him dig in his short pockets.
Out pops a five peso coin from his pocket which he hold out to me and with the most serious business face I've ever seen plastered on a six year old he tells me "It no work here. can you change?"
I close my mouth which has been hanging wide open and now it's my turn to dig in my pockets.
"how many languages do you speak lady?" he asks me while I'm digging. I manage to croak "Three; French, English and Spanish" I finish as I point to the coin in his hands. Then I feel stupid because I get the strange feeling he already knows they speak spanish in Mexico. "And
you?" I ask.
He cracks a twisted silent smile which something tells me means "wouldn't you like to know!"
As I pull out the bill from my short pockets I feel I better check with him first. "is it okay if I give you a dollar for your five pesos?" I ask. He considers this for a second and then nods a quick,
"it's a deal" nod and hands over the coin.
I watch him run away from the tuk-tuk. Then I turn to look down at the most expensive five peso coin in history in my hans and I can't help it.
Damn! I really deserved that wake up call.
Fned.
Sent from my iPhone
1 comment:
I think I missed something. I don't get the "joke" that's on you. I thought you reacted just right! I mean how else would you change a 5-peso coin! What beats me is how he got it in the first place???? Or was that the joke? Does he perhaps carry around coins from lots of other countries, looking for generous exchange rates?
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