Woke up to an early morning rain yesterday. This made my motorcycle ride to the Skytrain station at around nine o’clock a bit soggy. It looked like it was going to be one of those depressing all-day drizzles, with no customers in my bookshop, but by early afternoon the rain had stopped, and the flow of book buyers had improved. Meanwhile, the weather has been getting warmer, making me think that Bangkok’s always brief “cool season” has come and gone already. I only hope the rainy season is still a few months down the road.
Last weekend at the bookshop we had a visit from Robert Carmack, the “Globetrotting Gourmet” and author of several books, including Thai Home Cooking and Vietnamese Home Cooking. Robert just returned from leading a food tour to Myanmar. In fact, I was there around time that he and his group were touring the country, but we managed to cross paths only in Yangon – and that only consisted of a phone conversation. Robert was in Bangkok for a few days to enjoy the food (of course!) and some Thai kickboxing (but only as an observer!) before flying back to his adopted home of Australia. He will lead another Asian food tour in June, this time to Japan. For more details on that trip and other “tasty bits” check out his website:
www.globetrottinggourmet.com
Like many cities around the world Bangkok has laws against smoking in public places such as office buildings, restaurants and stores. This includes my bookshop. In fact, the law requires us to post “No Smoking” signs both on our front door and inside the store. But that doesn’t prevent some idiots from lighting up. Last week there was a guy in our shop that lit up and took a few puffs (thank you for stinking up my store you jerk!) before he even opened the door and walked outside. I suppose I should pity people that crave their nicotine so much. But I’d prefer to whack them upside the head with a hardcover Robert Ludlum book. The smoker inside the store was bad enough, but this morning I had to deal with one inside the elevator of my apartment complex. Yes, that’s also against the law, but that doesn’t stop these people. I was riding down to the lobby when the elevator stopped on another floor. The door opened and this young Thai guy stood there puffing away. Seeing me staring back at him, he quickly put out his precious ciggie and got on the elevator. The door closed and he exhaled the filthy smoke inside the elevator. Thanks, dude! I don’t doubt that he would have continued to smoke if I had not been on the elevator with him. It’s happened before and I’m sure it will again. What can we do about these wretched smokers? Hanging is perhaps too harsh a penalty for smoking violations of this sort, but I would certainly support public flogging or caning.
