Thailand and Taipei
Bangkok:
" I was alone and slowly limping down a side street near Khao San Road, the gritty, crowded, budget-backpacker ghetto of Bangkok with fifteen crippling blisters on my feet. Every inch of my body was dripping in sweat even though the cruel mid-day sun had long passed. There are two temperatures in Bangkok, hot and hotter. I was there during hot, and couldn’t imagine how hot hotter was.
Over my head was a beautiful paper sun parasol, more Japanese-looking than Thai, painted with white dancing cranes, bonsai-like pines, and round red suns. I’d bought it from a street vendor outside the high walls of the bedazzling Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. But the stench of uncured varnish on the paper umbrella, heated in the unrelenting sun and mixed with the thick, ochre pollution in the air, was anything but beautiful and it had teased up a slight headache. My lower gut was threatening to explode, again, and I nervously wondered if I might have to find another filthy pit toilet, hopefully without a line of tourists."
Hover over pix for captions. Double click to see larger image.
" I was alone and slowly limping down a side street near Khao San Road, the gritty, crowded, budget-backpacker ghetto of Bangkok with fifteen crippling blisters on my feet. Every inch of my body was dripping in sweat even though the cruel mid-day sun had long passed. There are two temperatures in Bangkok, hot and hotter. I was there during hot, and couldn’t imagine how hot hotter was.
Over my head was a beautiful paper sun parasol, more Japanese-looking than Thai, painted with white dancing cranes, bonsai-like pines, and round red suns. I’d bought it from a street vendor outside the high walls of the bedazzling Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. But the stench of uncured varnish on the paper umbrella, heated in the unrelenting sun and mixed with the thick, ochre pollution in the air, was anything but beautiful and it had teased up a slight headache. My lower gut was threatening to explode, again, and I nervously wondered if I might have to find another filthy pit toilet, hopefully without a line of tourists."
Hover over pix for captions. Double click to see larger image.