First, let me mention how hot it is. As in ice cream just isn't an option here hot.
OK, 100 miles north or north east of where i sit now, this would NOT have happened.
As you do from time to time, I needed to buy bread, so into 7/11 (convenience store chain) I go and take a loaf of bread off the shelf, proceed to the check out counter with cash in hand, wait in queue and then my turn, pass the money, get some water as well and wait....... the check out clerk, looks at the use by tag on the bread and then replaces the loaf with a fresher one.
I didnt ask him. No legislation requires him to do it. He didn't make a big deal of it either. To him it was just important to be fair.
I am in a Malaysia. Langkawi actually. Kuah if you really want to know. Email me for the longitude and latitude :-)
North and North East of me is Thailand.
There, I would be charged extra because of my white face (well slightly sunburnt face, did I mention the heat?).
In Thailand, the rip off is an art form. Practiced from an early age. From the moment you arrive at the slightly new airport and are harassed all the way from the point of baggage collection to rent a taxi, until you leave by the same portal, the smiling faces always seem to want to sell you something. Always more expensive than it should be, but what the heck you're on holiday eh?
Having based there for quite some time, one gets guarded whenever approached on the street by a stranger (no not in that kind of way). My hand automatically covers my wallet. Thailand, land of a thousand smiles.
Back to Malaysia. The melody of the Mullah drifts through the heavy humid air. Languid. Oh yes, here the state religion is Islam.
I am approached on the street by a stranger. He says hi and asks where I come from. My hand flexes and covers. Guardedly I respond. Turns out he's a tourist like me, and just wants to chat. Nice guy, nothing to sell.
All over town, people say hi to each other, even old tourists like me. No one yet has tried to sell me anything. No one yet has been anything other than very polite and friendly in a genuine way. 100 miles to Thailand. 20,000 miles of cultural change.
I blame Islam for this, or maybe its the heat.
Salam Malam
