Pay the price

One of our greatest frustrations here is the lack of takeout food. It's just not part of the culture, but there are times you really want to pick up the phone and have someone bring good food to your door. This is especially true when (like tonight) you get back from vacation and have no food in the house. Luckily, Gretchen remembered that we had a flyer from Cuisine Express, which delivers food for several local restaurants, including Lily's, which is a half-decent Thai restaurant. So we called and within the hour we were chowing on pad thai, pad see-ew and tom kha gai without ever leaving the house. The only problem? Guess how much it cost...nope, higher...a little higher...keep going. That's right, for two basic noodle dishes and one soup we paid a grand total of...70 francs, or $56. Granted, that included a 5 franc ($4) tip, which most folks here probably wouldn't do, but since the guy rode his bike up a big hill to get to our house and spoke perfect English, the American in me felt like I HAD to give a decent tip. But still, for comparison I looked at the menu for the Thai restaurant closest to our house back home, and the same exact order would have come to a grand total of $21...with tax and tip let's say a whopping $25. Half of what we paid here! And yet, would we do it again? I'm afraid we would. Supply and demand can be so cruel...