What we bought

For most of my stay in SE Asia and during my travels with Doug I have resisted making purchases. Not hard since I am not much of a shopper ever. How many t-shirts does one need?

Kuching offered attractive options: pepper; sago; beaded and woven products produced by the indigenous tribes; spices for some favorite foods (including laksa and fish assam; a new cloth bag (as an alternative to plastic)to add to the 30 or 40 bags we already have;t-shirts (to give away). Today we added a container for cooking spices and a sieve for cooking noodles. Consequently we have replaced the pounds we lost when we delivered books and clothes we brought to Malaysians. In a very small way we have contributed to the economies of Malaysia and Singapore. As far as the malls go, both countries seem to be doing well without our purchases, although this is somewhat deceptive, for example, we have learned that hotel occupancy is down.