Something I've Been Meaning to Post

Unbelievably I've been meaning to put this up for about a year now, but I was waiting until I had uploaded them all to Flickr. Well, I'm still just uploading NZ, so I thought I'd just get this done now while I have a couple of minutes. My absolute favourite photo from Bangkok, if not our whole Antipodean trip from last January lies below the break here. The story is this:

We were on Khao Sahn Road on our last night in Bangkok, just having a couple of beers and watching the world go by. For those who've never been, Khao Sahn Road is backpacker central. It's quite tacky and tourist-geared, but definitely toward the younger, beer chugging set. So it's nice and cheap and there's a lot going on. Anyway, we were sat in the bar and I noticed a larger guy come in with a Thai girl.

Now, I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it used to be, but you still see what I might charitably describe as a number of "unlikely" pairings when walking around Bangkok. I'm sure many of them are perfectly wonderful love stories, but I get the feeling many aren't.

So this guy came in and sat down with this girl and they proceeded to sit in an increasingly uncomfortable silence. No conversation, the guy fidgeting and looking a bit miserable really. The girl looked everywhere but at him. This wasn't the vibe of a couple who have had a fight, but rather two people who just aren't clicking. This was great, I thought, a wonderful opportunity for me to get a photo of something which I had so keenly noticed around town over the previous few days. I got the camera out, all casual-like, sitting it on the table, turning the flash off. All the while chatting to Alex, I glanced down occasionally to line up the shot from the table-top, resting my hand on the camera like some kind of master spy. Brilliant. Looking at Alex, I gently pressed the shot button.

Now, the shot that I was expecting, that in fact I got on a second try, was this:



But the shot I got upon initial inspection, the shot that had me do a quick double-take, was this:



HOLY SHIT!

My initial reaction was of course - me being me - GHOST! Perhaps this woman was some kind of restless spirit, returned from the dead and luring this man back to God only knows where in order to exact her revenge on all men. A cunning ruse, unmasked by my trusty camera.

Or perhaps someone just walked past at the wrong time.

But still, I love it! I love the possibilities of it. I love the fact that no trace of the woman remains; that you can even see the back of her chair, she's so perfectly obscured. Fucking brilliant!

So now that's done. Hoorah!