Easy in the Big Mango

All flights completed and a taxi ride from the airport, I was snug in my bed at my favorite guest house in Bangkok a mere thirty-two hours after leaving Seattle. Mercifully, I slept until 6:30 this morning.

The first order of business was finding a friend who is also passing through the Big Mango. I located his guest house, we made arrangements to rendezvous later, and then I set out on foot. Summer has arrived here and it is Hot! (Think of Robin William;s weather report in "Good Morning Vietnam."

I walked across the heart of the Big Mango, heading for the amulet market to get prezzies for one of the Brothers of the Leaf. By the time I had shopped, dealt with a fiery plate of Gaang Pla, and caught the Chao Praya express back down the river, things had gotten, well, sauna-like.

And there, standing next to me on the railing of the river boat, was a man I recognized. He was the German Gent who was on the same boat I traveled on up the Nam Ou in Laos. This was two years ago. He was almost left behind at a piss stop on a jungle sandbar when the boat headed upriver, leaving him waving and yelling as he emerged from the brush.

I left the river, walked back through the edge of Chinatown to my guesthouse, and showered off the heat.

The rest of the afternoon was spent, well, the picture pretty well sums it up.