7:30 Sunday morning in Bangkok. The sky is a comforting shade of blue, my air conditioning has been humming all night so I am pleasantly insulated from the heat and humidity, and I have fixed a cup of instant coffee, sugar and milk powder and all. I stand on the 4^th floor, a change from Taiwan, where the hotel skipped the number four in its numbering, and in gazing out the window, I stopped at a stream of water cascading out of a hose in the unfinished building next door. There were on crane operators or foremen present, so I initially pegged it for an accidental leak. Then, mid-conversation on my mobile, I stopped and exclaimed, “Oh! They’re bathing!” And indeed, three or four wet brown bodies were using the abandoned flow for their personal hygiene, in view of anyone who happened by their window, although I, too, would think this a relatively safe hour for public bathing, as anyone awake now may well deserve such a sight for the insolence of early rising.