Tall white guy, they know who I am. They've seen me or someone like me a thousand times. I'm as predictable as a macaque monkey, with double the sex drive. Getting near me is nothing but trouble. I drop a coin in the bowl of the beggar squatting before a large Buddha decorated with bits of gold leaf and spent incense sticks.
Sewage gas threads the haze of the leaded exhaust fumes, the sky darkens.
Like angry bees, the mopeds buzz past, driven with the determination possessed by those who have nowhere to go. Me, I'm in no hurry. I'm going to get what I want. I take dinner down by the water under a string of colored Christmas lights. No waitresses, only waiters.