(05/05/12) - Maths 101

The Thais are doing their best to break the stereotype of Asians who are good at math.

Last night I was on the internet for 78 minutes, at 1 baht per minute and the guy just looked confused, started hammering the calculator, phoned a friend, then announced: 160 baht.

I could feel the school teacher in me rise in my oesophegus and said "no, try again". He looked panicked and called all his friends over.

Soon there were four guys, two with calculators, one looking at his watch with his lips moving and one just pointing at the scratch pad.

I didn't want to be condescending, so I let them nut it out for a bit. Eventually they looked like they had a consensus and showed me a number on the calculator: '4'.

It meant nothing so I told them "it was 78 minutes and at one baht per minute, it is?"

One looked hopefully at me and said "102?"

I said "no - it's 78 baht" and gave them a hundred. When they gave me 10 in change I said "more", so they gave me another 20.
I resisted the urge to give them 8 back as it would only scare them. I thanked them and left.

This morning I went to the reception of my hostel and asked for another 10 days. At 280 baht per night I thought it would be easy.

Same deal. Lots of whacking of the calculator and puzzled frowns. I clenched my fist in empathy for this happy-go-lucky fellow.

At one point I could see him look at the calendar 5th of May and then multiply 5 x 10.

I was grinding my teeth is good natured patience when they, (for there were now three of them), announced "3,500 baht".

20 minutes later they arrived at 2,800 for 10 days, then put down my checking out date as the 12th.