One of the blog rings I subscribe to is “I Bring My Camera Everywhere” – and I really do, because life in the Big Mango seems to afford so many picture-perfect opportunities.  Here are a few of the recent examples.

A reader once criticized me of trying to impose my Western standards on Thai culture, when I expressed amazement that a worker who was using a backhoe to tear up a street curb, let his toddler child play on the adjacent sidewalk with no apparent concern to the child’s welfare – especially his hearing!

Along the same subject line, I was bemused to watch a painter touch up the corner of a building adjacent to Thong Lor BTS Skytrain station, standing on a folder chair that was perched precariously on a  scaffolding, atop a concrete overhang above the sidewalk.

There just seems to be safer ways to get to that “hard-to-reach” corner that needs a dollop of pain.

. . .

Thais have a wonderful sense of humor and are surprisingly tolerant of “adult entertainment” venues, despite an otherwise conservative Buddhist moral code.  I was tickled when I was stuck in traffic a recent rainy morning and looked across the street to see this “massage” parlor – pictures of the massage providers displayed in the glass case outside the front door.

The name of the venue?  If you transliterate it, it would be spelled “p-i-m-p”.  Any questions about the type of adult entertainment you might be able to find there?

. . .

They say the world economy is going to hell in a handbasket and Thailand’s along with it.  The words is that Starbucks has had to close hundreds of locations across the globe due to declining demand for premium coffee beverages.

I’m happy to report that after lunch on a recent afternoon, the Starbucks in the lobby of All Seasons’ Place on Witthayu Road was jam-packed.

It was one of the busiest Starbucks I’ve seen in a long while and while there were several farang, you’ll be glad to hear that the majority of customers were Thai, who are quickly chasing after the Americans’ girth.

. . .

Speaking of Starbucks, Tawn and I stopped for a coffee at the Ploenchit Center location after lunch the other day.  He ordered a drip coffee and the manager insisted that he try one of their new blends.  So she brewed a fresh pot and gave him a sample in this cute little cup.

You all know that Tawn just loves cute little things like this.  (It is a surprise we didn’t return from Japan with more cute little things in our bags!)  I’m just amazed that he didn’t put up a fight when the Starbucks manager took the cup back from him.

Happy middle of the week!