Sawadee Ka, Y’all

I had a rare moment of clarity today not enhanced or attributable to cannabis use:

If I am going to feel more at ease here in Bangkok, I will have to be more outgoing and chatty and sociable and that must include interacting with Thai people.

In the hour I have been outside today so far, I have had a dozen interactions with Thai people, ranging from the tuktuk ride up the main road to arranging tests at a clinic to ordering a smoothie at an office-tower kiosk to an exchange with a security guard who congratulated me for my meager Thai to greeting and asking “How are you?” to a trio of groundskeepers at the park by me.

As basic as much of it was, it made me feel — for lack of a better word — happy.

And I am just going to have to keep doing it. I will have to make even the barest connections and most passing acquaintances in order to feel just a tad more a part of this place.

A deeper dive into the “why” of it all another time.

Video: I recorded these monitor lizards crossing a path I frequent.