Over fridge magnets

All of us have that one trigger point that would get us into a conversation. That topic that breaks the ice and lets even the shyest person to get talking. For some, its the weather, for others football or movies or books. For me, its always travel. 

A friend knows that too well. When he gets his other friends and I go quiet and try to hide myself; he will casually mention to others "Ask her how many places she has traveled?" and there! i am now forced to talk and after few minutes, the conversation becomes so easy! Now! that is how you get me talking. It has happened at work as well. 

I got into the habit of collecting fridge magnets from wherever I visited. Earlier, it was one magnet per city; then as they grew exponentially, I limited them to a magnet per country. This is how my fridge at home looks now.

Not many yet, but it sure is eating up the real estate.  

Recently, I had to call in a maintenance service to fix my fridge. The guy who came in to look into the issue was particularly interested in the Cambodia fridge magnet. I am wary of strangers; especially if they are in the house attending to a service call. Yet, I was able to answer all his questions about Cambodia. He apparently watched a documentary about Angkor Wat and has been interested to visit it since then. He wanted to know the flight charges, visa, how long to fly and how many days would he need. He was also inquiring about how much it could cost him. Some of his comments were interesting. 

"Why did the Cholas had to go that far to build temples?"

"We should pay to see the temples built by our own people!. Ridiculous!" - when I mentioned him about Angkor Wat park entry fees. 

I also shared a little about how the country now is Buddhist and these Hindu temples are all Buddhist temples now. A perplexed look, a sigh! Meanwhile, the work was done and off he went.