Finally out of Bangkok

Feb 11 2011 under bhutan, thailand | 2 Comments

I refused to write one word stating that I was on my way back to Bhutan until I was actually there.

For a while, it looked as if the story of my return would have to be about a night’s stay in a cell in Paro. With a visa far from ensured and hundreds of dollars tied up in a prepaid flight, I was considering attempting to return to Bhutan without permission, and work the rest out from there. If I was allowed to board the plane, I figured I could cross my fingers for a congenial escort to the Indian border.

Thankfully, I have a much less interesting tale to tell.

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Working in Bangkok (for now)

Feb 3 2011 under thailand | 1 Comment

I haven’t felt like writing much lately. I find it difficult in a city like Bangkok, where foreigners are too easily confined to artificial neighbourhoods where pleasure is the only thing that counts.

Attempting to put together a few simple sentences in a cafe a couple of blocks from Khao San Road, I feel like I’m trying to write a novel in the lobby of the MGM Grand. How do you find inspiration in a place that seems created to rob the customer of the need for imagination? While the spectacle of a great waterfall can so easily spark one’s intellect, exhibitions on display in Bangkok threaten to overwhelm creativity.

You forget that the people around you are human.

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There are worse places to be stuck

Feb 1 2011 under thailand | 1 Comment

Ko Samet, Thailand.

Stranded in Southeast Asia. Still trying to sort out a work permit for Bhutan.

More photos at my Flickr stream.

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Unexpectedly in Bangkok

Jan 26 2011 under thailand | 2 Comments

Bangkok. Nowhere else is it so easy for a young man to find trouble.

Like Singapore at the turn of the nineteenth century, Thailand’s capital city not only allows for the breaking of certain laws, it flaunts its industrial illegality as a local culture that is to be celebrated.

A relentless influx of tourists well aware of Bangkok’s notoriety for vice has made drug abuse and excessive alcoholism seem compulsory. Hard liquor is served by the bucket, psilocybin is sold over the counter, and euphorics can be found mixed with however dangerous a substance is desired.

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