Posted: Jan 15, 2000
An interesting night tonight. I arrived at the bus stop as the sun was disappearing over the powder-blue horizon, and waited for my bus to come around so I could complete the night's transfer of public transport to public transport. Little muslim girl with the hijab shyly asked me if I had a quarter. I delved into my pocket, producing loose change. Two dimes and a quarter was what she got and she thanked me and went to make the evening's phone call. Suddenly I notice that one of my nickels is a 1-baht coin. You know, from Thailand. It has the prince on one side wearing his glasses and the Temple of Lights on the other.
The other day I was walking out of a Subway (restaurant, not public transport) and examined the two-cents' change I received after miraculously scraping enough change and Sub Club cards out of my wallet for a footlong vegetarian sub. One of the coins was a 1947 Maple Leaf penny. I took it as a good omen.
Even though it takes about 25 Baht to make a canadian cent, I considered the baht an equally good omen, as well as a lucky find, and put both treasures into my nifty-coin box. The bus driver let me off at the right stop this time.
It occurred to me as I walked the remaining way to my house that whoever gave me the baht probably thought she was giving me a nickel. 125 bahts make a nickel, so I'd really been cheated out of 124 bahts - basically the whole nickel. But whoever gave her the coin bilked her out of the same amount. Maybe it was a Thai student who lacked a nickel when buying a muffin and coffee, and bought them with a baht instead. Unknowingly, maybe. Maybe not.
It occurred to me that I didn't care and that a baht was the perfect addition to my embryonic coin collection.
You'd think I might make thai food to celebrate. But no, I made vindaloo in my little beige curry pot instead. I don't really know any good thai recipes, but I suppose I could learn some. Coconut milk, lemongrass, peanuts, yum.
Ahhh, the mysteries of life.
D.