Do numbers count?

As collectibles, I mean. Well, let’s assume they do.

I don’t know where to start but this is going to be mostly about Chinese numerology. All numbers from one to zero have their own meaning either from what they signify, their yin or yang quality or even the way they sound when pronounced.

To give you a crash course, two means easy, four means death, five means no and eight means rich, for example. A combination like “28” is therefore very desirable as opposed to, say, “58” or “24”.

Not that I am superstitious or anything. But I’ve had quite a number of accidents in a bronze 2000 Honda Accord with license plate number “1400”. First an irresponsible motorcyclist went against the traffic and slammed into the right rear door when I was making a legitimate turn. Then someone was desperate enough to steal the car’s fog lamps in broad daylight when I parked it some ten meters from a busy main road. But that was before an envious or jealous person in my neighbourhood keyed the hood across its width. There were two possible culprits and I couldn’t really tell who did it. Never mind that. The car was involved in a near-fatal accident in February 2003. It was a write-off. :(

Another more moderate example would be my bronze 1992 Honda Civic with license plate number “4602”. I had a few minor accidents in it but one of them was totally my fault. All of the other cars I had driven were blue and there was no incidence whatsoever so I thought I was just incompatible with bronze vehicles. However, as I learned more about these things, I came to realize that I have never had any accident driving vehicles with license plate numbers 2800, 288 and 6323 even for extensive periods of time. The finger now seems to be pointed to the number “4” and the combination “14” instead of the colour.

I’m taking the route Pascal once suggested about the existence of God. In the so called Pascal’s Wager, he said something like it is better to believe there is a god only to find out after you die that he doesn’t exist than to not believe in his existence then face eternal damnation in case you are wrong. Same thing here. Chinese numerology may be a ridiculous belief or something more real. I don’t really have to care much about that. If I have the chance to pick a number, I’d have no hesitation picking one that is said to be good for me. There’s nothing to lose. And so it all began…

After the passing of my bronze Accord, the compensation paid by the insurance company was spent on another car of the same model. This time it is satin silver.



My dad wanted to get license plate number “288” like his but the attempt was not successful even after four or five months. We were eventually given the number “882” instead which was fine by me.

The number hunting season came again when I bought my new Toyota Camry. The decision was all mine so I went for “328” which means “thrice prosperous”. At first I thought about “2888”, “8288” and even “3288” because they would have appeared more special to other people. But the textbooks say “328” and it was still available so I figured I should just take it.



For some reasons the number “328” is not yet known locally to be an auspicious number. There seems to be a strong demand for “168” recently, however. It means “the road to prosperity” and I understand that it is also popular in China and Hong Kong. To tell you the truth I prefer the “28” combination because I grew up with it. Anyway, with “168” being such a desirable number, my new house number certainly isn’t half bad then. It’s a coincidence. There was no way I could influence this.



And here comes my pride and the mother of all numbers…



My DTAC cell phone number 083-288-2888 (or +66-83-288-2888 when dialing from outside of Thailand). It is also a great conversation piece. Every time I write it down for people they would go “wow” and such. Not that they all understand its significance or anything. It is just the repetition of the number eight that triggers their response.

The funny thing with this phone number is that it usually causes confusion when given to someone verbally. If I say “zero eight three (pause) two eight eight (pause) two eight eight eight”, most of the time the other party would be convinced that I am just correcting myself with the last block. After a few weeks with this new number I realized the proper way to give it is to say “zero eight three (pause) two eight eight two eight eight eight” in one straight run. A kind person later suggested “zero eight three (pause) two eight eight two triple eights” which appeared to work out just fine, too.

Hmmm… If anything, all these ramblings go to show that I probably should be devoting more time to my job. Ha ha…