Was walking behind someone on the overhead bridge earlier today on the way to the bus stop to catch a bus to school, when i noticed that there was a strange odour coming from the man walking in front of me. It smelt bad, but i could not put my finger on what it actually was until i caught a glimpse of something in his hand - a cigarette...
And since i've come back i've been assaulted by the same stench at least twice already, and have been faced with the same lack of recognition as to what the stink actually was. I've come to realise that in Thailand i was never, save for a very brief moment (and the offender in question was an ang moh for that matter, rather than a local), the victim of any second-hand smoke (and of course not of any first-hand smoke either) whatsoever, and in fact i could count on one hand the number of times i saw someone smoking. So in other words, i was so used to not seeing people smoking and not having their cancer-causing emissions blow past my nose while i was over there that i even forgot how vile the gases actually smelt, such that i've had nothing but rude shocks whenever i've encountered any inconsiderate smoker over here, since it takes me a while before realizing that the poison i'm inhaling is indeed cigarette smoke...
So congrats to Thailand from what i predict to be a good trouncing of Singapore in terms of lower mortality rates owing to lung cancer... Looks like we're many expensive taxes, public bans and graphic bodily depictions of lung cancer patients away from achieving those rates...
5 comments:
Hey! I was thinking that Bangkok has significantly higher levels of air pollution. As much as I love the country, I remember falling sick because of the polluted air, from vehicles, as well as cigarette smoke. You were not in Bangkok, were you? I guess anywhere outside a city's pretty decent! But Singapore. Yikes. Sigh!
Ok let me further qualify that statement then: make that Thailand save for any major urban agglomeration - after all, in the two months i've spent in Thailand so far, i think i've only spent a couple of hours in total in Bangkok itself...
And to add a geeky statement to that. Well, there really isn't any other major urban agglomeration in Thailand besides Bangkok because Bangkok is a well-known primate city. The next largest city is 60 times smaller than Bangkok. And that would be Chiangmai. Don't remember Chiangmai being that polluted. :)
and it is not exactly an urban agglomeration cuz that is too low on the urban hierachy, it is more of a conurbation on crack. ah geekiness is fun. *pushes up peenk specs*
Hehe i knew i'd arouse you geographers' interest with that term =p...
But just to clarify - so Bangkok is a primate city? Does that mean that it's overrun by apes (and of course i am not inferring evolution here)?
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