This made my day: Singaporean man buys milk powder for driver's son while holidaying in Bali

While on holiday with his friends in Bali, a Singaporean man decided to treat his local driver to a small gift after seeing how frugal the latter was.

The 36-year-old surnamed Zheng told Shin Min Daily News last Saturday (March 11) that he and his friends had planned a five-day trip to the Indonesian island, though he did not specify when it took place. 

To facilitate their travel, the group hired a driver through a tourist website. With no concrete itinerary, they also asked the driver, Suana, to bring them around the area. 

On the first day of their trip, Zheng and his friends drove past Mixue — a chain dessert shop also available in Singapore. 

Zheng casually asked if Suana had tried their ice cream before, and the latter said that he tried to once but lamented that it was too expensive. 

One serving of ice cream from the dessert chain in Bali costs 16,000 IDR (S$1.40). 

"After that, when we went for lunch, we invited him to eat with us, and he chose the cheapest meal," recalled Zhang. 

While they were grocery shopping at a local supermarket, Wang noticed that Suana was hesitantly looking at a tin of milk powder, which cost 108,000 IDR. 

Seeing how much he looked like he wanted to get it, Zheng decided to buy the tin of milk powder for Suana. 

"I later found out that he wanted to get it for his 15-year-old son, who is malnourished. He wanted to have his son drink the milk together with his meals," Zheng told the Chinese daily. 

He also found out that Suana makes only $60 a day as a driver working 10-hour shifts. 

"He helped us realise how fortunate we are to be living in Singapore," said Zhang. 

To help Suana out, Zhang also left Suana's contact number on his Facebook page, encouraging Singaporeans to engage his services. 

Hawker waives payment for diner with insufficient cash 

Just last month, a woman visited a wanton noodle stall at Yishun Ring Road to buy food.

In a hurry to pick up her son, Sun Meilan realised that she did not bring enough cash to pay for the four packets of wanton mee, which cost $4 each. 

"I only had $7 in my wallet," said Sun, adding that the hawker did not accept payments via PayNow. 

But instead of getting angry, the hawker looked at Sun's "panic-stricken face" and told her in Chinese: "You can pay me back next time when you come over." 

ALSO READ: This made my day: Man forgets to take $13k meant for brother's funeral, returns to find it safe with bak kut teh stall

claudiatan@asiaone.com