“Buy me gold, show me you love me.” My old girlfriend was desperate for 2 baht. It was 1999. Gold cost 5500/baht or 15.16 grams. The dollar was 42 to the Thai baht. The math says one baht = $130US.

“Gold special to Thai. Word Siam mean gold in Sanskrit and Buddha have gold skin.”

“Buddha was a human.” I explained how in the movie GOLDFINGER a girl painted with gold suffocates because her skin can’t breathe.

“Buddha not James Bond girlfriend.”

“Yeah.” I really wanted to say, “Neither are you.”

Instead I drove down to the nearest gold merchant on Pattaya Tai. Their shops are easy to find with the red store front. I bought an ornate 23K or 96% pure gold necklace. She was happy for a month, then hocked it to pay for her ‘brother’ to get out of jail for ja bah. I didn’t buy her any more gold, since it isn’t my job to bail out ‘family’ members for drugs. She left me a month later for an Italian. It was a lesson and one farangs learn all the time, although nine years later the schooling is almost three times more expensive.

Yesterday gold prices in Bangkok hit a record 15,100 baht.

Throw the dropping dollar and the price for one baht of gold is $468.

Yikes.

Saying I love you in Thailand is serious now and the Gold Trading Association president Jitti Tangsitthipakdee predicted the price will push over 16,000 thanks to the ersatz war between Iran and Israel, as investors remain commodity junkies due to the Wall Street meltdown.

The price could hit 20k by Christmas if GW Bush serves a third term.

At that price the Buddhist monks at Wat Trimitr could hock the five ton Golden Buddha for almost $90,000,000US.

Or 100,000 2-baht necklace for the girls of Pattaya.

Happy faces for a month.