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From walking around, I had already learnt that "reparim" means "repair," so it was easy to figure out this sign. I carry two pairs of glasses. In Cairo more than three months ago, a hinge on one fell off, with the tiny screw lost on the sidewalk. To insert a new screw, this man charged me just 20 cents! (I gave him a buck.) After hundreds of commercial transactions in Albania, I may have been overcharged, and only slightly, three times. That is outstanding. There are more dishonest merchants in Vietnam or Egypt, for example. In South Korea or Japan, they're practically all honest, but their prices are also higher.

On the same day in Batam, Indonesia, a cop tried to solicit a small tip from me, then a man picked up money I had dropped next to my bar stool. Smiling in amusement, he gave it back to me.


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