Bang Bang

Lets get get one thing straight, we’re albino Bengalis not bang bang kokolees but man oh man what a show Bangkok is turning on for us.

But before we settle down with a Chang Lager and Dum sim here is the great Betty Chung’s bang bang. OK, she’s not Thai but we’re all Asian in this neck of the polished teak woods.

We’d considered staying on in Calcutta, illegal immigrants, on the lam, (or perhaps on the kofta), hiding under Rono and Keya’s kitchen table, flitting down alleys and behind food carts whenever West Bengal’s finest hove into sight.

But no, ever fearful of “The Man” and too rigidly trained by the Nuns and Brothers we sadly made our way to Dum Dum and Airbused ( NOT Boeing’ed) across the glittering Bay of Bengal, contributing oh so marginally to the sinking of the Sunderbuns (See Paul. R “Are the Sunderbuns Sinking” ? Screening soon at the Cannes Festival), and over Mandalay (where, apparently, the flying fishes play), to Bangkok, the Big Bang.

Wowsers dear reader, it has impressed us mightily. Beautiful people, amazing advertisements, incredible street scenes, great music, sublime good, cold beer, it’s a wonderful life. Here are some of them.

This little piggy went to market, though, on reflection it may have been better to stay home.

Ernst Blofeld May have been here ?

A shrine to Saturday Night Fever ?

A little Buddhist bloke with a big broom.

The Street where we live.

The House Band, bloody good they are too.

Daddy-Oh with the Andy Capp in the background plays about 27 instruments, including, we were delighted to see, the melodica ! We melodica players are a tight knit bunch and stick closely together on account of the violence that often surrounds us from people with small minds and sensitive ears.

This chap defied the convention that asserts that wearing brightly coloured clothing improves one’s mood, though perhaps this is one of his happier moments ?