Visit to the Post Office

I wanted to send some magazines to Australia for work, so I headed to the local shopping mall and to the postal company there. I handed over the magazines and explained I wanted to send them to Australia. One of the girls behind the counter took them and found a box they would fit into and then pulled out a knife and started cutting up the box. In the meantime another girl took the magazines and weighed them and after checking on her table, she told me it would cost 1750 Baht. I agreed. The box had now been cut and re-folded and the magazines now snuggly fitted perfectly into it. It was then all taped up. I know that shouldn’t be that exciting, but even that level of craftsmanship (cutting up and folding a cardboard box) nowadays seems beyond the ability of most Australian workers.
The girls weighed the parcel again and discovered that it was only just in the 1750 Baht range, so they cut the box open again and cut out some unnecessary bits of cardboard until it weighed enough that they could charge me 1550 Baht. I didn’t ask for any of that, they just kindly did it themselves. During the whole process they smiled and were pleasant as is generally the way of people here. I paid my discounted money and left a satisfied customer.
Going to the post office in almost any other country in the world is a pretty mundane task, but the Thais have an amazing ability to sometimes make mundane tasks quite enjoyable. I hope Thailand doesn’t change too quickly and I wish the Thais would teach the rest of the world some of their philosophy.