Currently in Bangkok, which is a city that if you spend enough time in it, can create a case for running screaming back to Texas all by itself.

It's actually not as bad as some of the places in Vietnam or Cambodia in terms of people trying to rip you off, but when I travel by myself, I'm a sitting duck for tourist traps.

Today, when I was walking along by myself to visit some temples, a kid approached me with some birdseed. I didn't want it, so I refused it about eight times in as many variations as I could imagine.

"No."

"No thank you."

"I don't want it."

"Go away."

In Thai, all of these translate to "Keep bothering me," which is what the kid kept doing. Eventually he set a bag of the birdseed down on my shoulder, which I left there as I kept walking. Foolishly, I thought that this was one of the very few cases of a local just inviting a tourist to take part in a local custom or tradition.

In the tourist-birdseed racket, this is known as "Setting Up the Mark".

Eventually I fed the birds for a minute, and was suddenly accosted by an old Thai woman who demanded that I give her money--150 baht^{*, **}. I was kind of upset, but not really surprised, so eventually I angrily gave the kid 20 baht^*** and told him I was very disappointed in him for trying to rip me off, especially on a Sunday, which is God's day, and in front of all these nice monks.

The look on his face^**** said he knew he had done wrong.


* Or $3.75
** This is known as "Making the Mark Pay Up After You've Swindled Him".
*** Or about $.50
**** Blank