In the fall of 1999, I spent one night in Bangkok. Being a hard man, I was humbled.

I just couldn't resist the Chess reference - that song was all over the radio when I was a kid.

My time in Bangkok was short, rambling, a pure leaf-on-the-wind wander through the city. Bangkok was a stop over on my way to Bhutan. The one day I had in the city, I hopped a train first thing in the morning to the center of the city. I wandered absolutely cluelessly along the streets and eventually would up at the river's edge (somewhere near the French Embassy as I recall).

I chartered a boat that took me on a "cruise". I stopped at a snake zoo and had a very heavy boa constrictor on my shoulders for a time. And then was dropped off near the Grand Palace. I toured there for an hour or so, somehow got a car to a jewelry shop (I bought a small ruby for my girlfriend at the time, now my wife :), and eventually found my way back to the train station and my hotel. That's literally about all I remember.

In those days, I could barely hold a camera. This photo is one of the few salvageable ones.