Pictures are worth . . .

. . . more than the words I can say, anyhow! My life is b-o-r-i-n-g to talk about these days, tho I'm reveling, you could almost say wallowing, in the boredom. Life is fairly cerebral, working on the Lap Lae, Kaeng Khoi translation and a couple of other things I can do at my desk, getting in a little swim here, gym there, occasional biking, and those great 2-hour Thai-style massages (price ranging from $7 to $14 for 2 hours, depending on what part of the city, mostly). You see, nothing to complain about.

Yet still the water comes. I watch the news, too. And my friends in the States see pictures and wonder how it must be. Well, here, and a huge part of Bangkok, is no different than before. But maybe in the next week or two (this is one of the problems, nobody seems to be able to predict) black crocodile-infested water will be swirling around my knees as I walk to the store. 

The crocodile stories are definitely going around. There is one that a little kid got eaten near my townhouse, tho I can't find confirmation in the news.  But what scares me more is the possibility of disease. This soldier in the picture here (click on it, you can see the caption) seems to me to be taking quite a risk. They're talking about leptospirosis, and I wonder why I haven't heard the word "cholera" much at all. Tee walks to and from work, after getting off the army truck (a free service in flooded districts), in knee-deep water, and washes carefully when she gets home.

Tonight was "Loi Khrathong," the Thai festival where banana-leaf (or other types) boats with candles are set afloat. Needless to say, festivities were somewhat more subdued than in other years, what with sewage and crocs floating around with no candles at all. However, the temple across the street put on a fair, and fireworks were bursting till late at night.

Through it all, you still see smiles. And laughter, and good humor. Especially interesting are the inventive ways people come up with coping. Here are a few--next time you're thinking about throwing out a plastic bottle, or even putting it in a recycle bin, maybe think about starting a boat-building project? That table looks a little too nice to be subjected to this, but in a pinch, what the heck. And for the bike trip up north, maybe we could hire this guy to carry our luggage. I was gonna travel ultralite, but this makes me think.

Okay, these are not the scenes I see every day. But, in this big city, they're getting closer and closer to my little domicile . . . suspense is the spice of life, I guess . . . but you know, I'd really rather keep my life just b-o-r-i-n-g for the time being, OK? More tamorra.

And tamorra it is, begorra.