Travel Mug Envy

Last week, I was sitting in a taxi during my morning commute when the taxi driver, who'd been silent the whole trip took a long look at my travel mug. After about five seconds, he pointed at it and started saying "coffee?" in Arabic... the conversation switched over to French about midway through.

"Yeah, you put coffee in it and close the lid"
"Where did you get this?"
"In America"
"Can you get this in Tunisia?"
"No"
"How much does it cost in Dinars?"
"Um, probably around 20 Dinars"
"Can you give it to me?"
"No, otherwise I'd have to drink bad coffee in the morning"
"When are you leaving Tunisia?"
"Um, June I think"
"OK, then in June I am going to call you and you are going to give me your American coffee cup. Can I have your number?"
"I don't have a cellphone" (blatant lie on my part)

Eventually, he wrote his number down on a piece of paper, with my promise to call him in June.

This is a big market Tunisia! Get on this, lots of Taxi drivers need something for their coffee and mint tea on the go!

On another note, travel mugs are very American. Just the idea of drinking your scalding hot beverage on the go is a very American phenomenon. However, even when my French friend was visiting me stateside, one of the items on her list was a good stainless steel travel mug. And that's the land of pausing for a coffee.