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The clipping this text was read from
The clipping this text was read from

40 story office buildings, all jumbled together in Bangkok’s seeming lack of a zoning code.

Whenever I write of Thailand, and of Bangkok in particular, the negative and the positive seem so intertwined. The rainy season has started early this year, and due to the inefficient planning by uncaring officials here, there is much flooding. (I cannot decide whether they are more corrupt here than in the U.S.; 1 think perhaps the U.S. has more “legal” loopholes with which influential people can get what they want, whereas here politicians just do'what they want). As Carl and I came out of a restaurant last night after a huge, downpour, we found the street flooded. In our new “miai pen rai” mode of Thailand we merely splashed down the middle of the street (I always wear my Tevas in the rainy season) past the disconcerted tourists trapped on higher ground.

Last year while Rappahannock was having its flood mode, Bangkok had the worse flood season in 50 years. Here it lasted three months. I have personally teetered on a plank walkway past people eating at a

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