Cambodian salesmanship

The beggar children get all passive aggressive when they realize you're not going to buy their water, postcards, photocopied "books," or bracelets. After lunch on Day Three, a girl approaches Phil and says, "You buy bracelet for your girlfriend." Not a question, mind you. And keep in mind Phil's a big fella. (He's the one holding the dragonfruit two posts down.) When he didn't buy one for Maya, the girl wanders off, but not before saying, "You buy bracelet for your boyfriend."

Next day, I told a girl I wouldn't buy her pack of 10 postcards.

"Why?" she says.

"I don't need one."

"You don't need one, you need 10," she says.

I laughed. "I don't need 10 either."

"You don't need 10. You need 20," she says. Cute kid.

...

Later that day, at a public bathroom, a boy asks Jenn to buy a Chinese lover's lock toy. "No thank you," she says. But he thinks she said, "Nothing."

"Nothing!" he shouts. "I sell you nothing! Nothing is $1."