The Umbrellas of Kandinsky
Imagine yourself under the canopy of brightly coloured umbrellas which are so ubiquitous on Thailand's beaches (and Puerto Vallarta and Queensland and Bali and Cancun and etc etc etc). It's a brilliant sunshiny day and light filters unorganized through the cracks between the 'brellas. Squint your eyes into tiny slits and look up towards the sky . . . let your mind go into wandering mode and see an abstract light array above your head worthy of Mondrian or Kandinsky.
I love these umbrella displays: Lying under them ~ with the deck chairs lowered down as they usually are ~ reminds me staring up into the ceiling of a planetarium, but even more luxurious and erotic as the only (pleasing) distraction comes along every so often in the form of a Thai man's perfect ass as he wanders unthinkingly through your vision field. Except for that single charming (and welcome) intermission, one's mind conjures up the surreal in the form of light, colour, and ~ what used to be ~ a beat up old umbrella on Hua Hin Beach.
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The Kiteman of Hua Hin
Hua Hin's beach has a late middle-aged Isaan man standing all alone on some rocky outcrop trying to sell airplane kites. They come in the form of double winged WWl biplanes (the Famous Fokker Fighters?) and I called him the Red Baron ( which took a bit of explaining for the Beloved, lying bemused beside me trying to figure out what the fuck I was on about :blackeye: )
This dude was so expert at flying these contraptions ( or as his wife said sarcastically over breakfast: " ... tirak, why don't you go fly a kite today, koop khun kaaaa ... " ) that he seems to have neglected the "selling" part of the equation: For 5 days of beach lying (and observing) I never once observed him accomplish what looked like a sale .... though there were a couple of Thai kids up the beach away trying to get a couple airborne, so I assume he makes the odd deal once in awile.
But, "mai pen rai" as they say.
The real pleasure for him on those days in April was mostly in the joy of dive-bombing the passers-by and the crowds huddled under the umbrellas. Needless to say, with that never-changing dour expression on his face I was thinking that if this guy could invent a tiny working order Bofors Machine Gun to mount on the nose of his Fokkers he'd like nothing better to create havoc and terror under the brollys by strafing the general area and getting a huge kick out of watching the fat westerners in their thong Speedos and cellulite thighs dropping their Heinekens and their heaping plates of khao pad gai and furiously commence to digging sheltering bunkers in the gorgeous white sand of Hua Hin beach
(This is where my sweet little Canon S1 with it's wonderful 10X optical zoom thing comes in handy)
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Originally Posted by JakeNasty
