There is no size large thus far in Asia, only small and medium. Often times, as was the case with the odd Nonya dumpling, medium costs 7 cents more than small.

Items are often described as MUST buys. Slurpee special at 7-11 is a must buy. The fourth t-shirt from the front on the clothes rack has a MUST buy sticker. Items aren’t for sale, they simply must go, and the store is pretty much ordering you to do it.

The best bartering tactic for market sellers is that last 5 Ringit (or Baht, or Dollar, or …). You negotiate, get to the middle, but by then they know you want it, so they just ask for a little bit more. They start putting the item in the bag. They have a resigned charitable look on their face. You’ve already invested too much. It’s brilliant.

Singapore’s mass transit ticketing system is bizarre: for each journey (or day of journeys?) you get a plastic card on which you pay a one dollar deposit, which you get back if you return the card. I guess it is more paper friendly, until you get behind an old lady in line who isn’t buying a ticket, but just getting back 9 bucks for each plastic ticket she’s returning, 40 seconds at a time.

Kuala Lumpur uses cool plastic coins as tokens on their MRT. Totally looks like a casino chip, says Maya.

When you hear noise, loud noise, that doesn’t stop, and sounds abnormal, your best bet is to go to it. Like tonight, when the loud noise turned out to be teenagers blowing plastic horns, as a procession of men and women, clearly part of an Indian pilgrimage or festival, bring offerings in yellow containers to the holy site, and we all know no pilgrimage is stamped official without fireworks.