Any Fool Knows A Dog Needs A Home

But there are either 120,000 or 300,000 (depending upon which paragraph in their Wikipedia entry you believe) stray dogs in Bangkok. Some are apparently rather nasty, but all the ones I’ve seen look happier than all Hell.

They often simply laze it away on the street.

They sometimes travel singly; but usually in small packs — and they look as though they’re having the times of their lives doing so. See how happy they look!

But I never see anybody petting them. I’m tempted to do, but don’t want to turn into the Pied Piper of Soi Dogs. I’m already that for kids when juggling. It’s actually pretty funny: they all make the same hand motion, whenever you stop to chat or shake their hands, urging you to continue. It’s so uncanny, one is tempted to believe that the gesture is taught in schools: “When you see somebody juggling, and the son of a bitch stops juggling, just make this motion, and they’ll be sure to start up again.”

The other day, one kid was calling out, “Yo, yo, yo, hey, yo, yo yo, hey…” to the rhythm of the catches. It just so happened, that it was a particularly long four-ball rally — one of my best ever — and his calls became more and more manic as the rally proceeded. Until, finally, I dropped a ball; whereoupn a big laugh was had by all parties.

From the Your Wish Is My Command Dept., commenter “your sister” (I have three, so it’s a bit of an ambiguity…) requests:

Hope your next video at the park includes you busting a move too!

Here are a few clips. Would’ve shot more footage, but it takes quite a while to upload here; so this’ll have to do.

In other news, I usually see exactly one fat-ass Thai per day. But last night, was sitting watching the street scene, and all of the suddenly about ten fat-assed Thais in a row passed in front of me! I was sure I had crossed to a parallel universe in which many Thais are fat-asses, and was about to conduct a test for parallel universe-ness. Except for two problems.

1. Don’t know how to conduct testing for parallel universe-ness.
2. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, the fat-assed Thais disappeared; have not been seen from again.

Also, it rained yesterday, for about twenty minutes. I had decided to take up the eating of watermelon in a gazebo in the park, as it looked like it might rain, and didn’t want to have to bother with finding cover smack in the middle of watermelon-eating. When the rain started, many people scurried into the gazebo too, and it was a big ol’ party.

Nice little gazebo. This water has to do with the sprinklers, not the rain; but the reflection effect is pretty cool.

Saw another amazing concert in the park from the Symphony Orchestra. Had not realised that the series runs every Sunday, figuring it’d be just once per month. But happened to be in the park, and noticed them setting up, and was struck with elation.

The first twenty minutes or so, this week, was the kids’ revue. Had finally decided that it was going to be all kids’ revue for this week, and was just thinking of getting up to leave. But then, they brought out the big guns, and a greatness ensued. More trivia, more gift-giving. Whole enchilada. Even had a guest trumpetist in from somewheres, and he knocked it for a goddam loop.

Oh, also noticed another best thing about Bangkok the other day, when I heard a siren. Namely, there aren’t any sirens! Now, of course, if I did hear one, that can’t be strictly speaking true.

But the event is so rare as to be virtually non-existent. Don’t know if there aren’t any emergencies in Bangkok — in a city of twelve million, this seems improbable. Don’t know if they use hovercraft to respond to emergencies — think I’d maybe have heard about this before now. Don’t know if they have different siren etiquette than in the States.

Just know that no sirens and no leaf blowers is some kinda wonderful!

After having read the following at Wikitravel, I don’t feel so badly about my orienteering debacles in Chinatown.

The area is filled with narrow alleys and obscure pedestrian-only routes, and is crossed by a few giant roads that feel like small highways. Finding your way around isn’t made easy as road signs are blocked by the bulk of neon-signs and other merchandise that sellers hang up to attract customers. The perfect map for the district still has to be created, so adapt to the situation and expect to get lost often.

Got me a ticket to ride. Have decided to head up to Chiang Mai after the Chinese New Year. Will be riding in a non-air-conditioned lower sleeping berth. About $15 for the 14-hour trip. After that, think I will pop into Cambodia and visit Angkor Wat; and from there, we’ll see how it goes.

My headphones conked out, and I went on a big wild-goose chase trying to finding a replacement pair.

Was told to look at Chatuchak market, and kept asking there. People kept pointing north, north, north to D.G. Centre (a shopping mall). In the info booth, was told I’d be able to find some on the second floor. After asking a thousand different vendors, and being pointed a thousand different directions, finally did find the one who sold such things, and they were just the stoopid in-ear variety that I hate (and that can be found on every street corner here).

Was told to look at MBK Centre (another shopping mall). Found some, but they were way expensive, and big and bulky to boot.

Finally, learnt that Pantip Plaza is the “IT” mall in Bangkok, so headed there. Yes, they do have headphones. Pretty much every pair of headphones in the city, if not all of Asia, can be found at Pantip Plaza. But about 98% of them come with microphones. For Internet chat, apparently. What is this shit? I mean, if it’s what the kids are into, you gotta feed ’em a bone or two; but no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ain’t it?

Oh, well, finally did find a somewhat-okay pair; quite inexpensive. They were on “hotsale”, as you can see.

Was reprimanded for having taken this photo. Why? It’s “illegal” to take photos. At least, that’s what they kept saying. Weird.