This Bonus Shot isn’t so much about the photo – though the local guy to the left with his finger buried up his nose is a common sight in Thailand and I certainly coulda cropped the picture just for that little treasure – I’ll leave the ‘why it is rude to use a toothpick without covering your mouth with your hand but it’s okay to take a detailed inventory of what is in your nostril in plain view’ subject for some future post – nor is it just an excuse to provide the obvious George of the Jungle caption: Watch Out For That Tree!, but rather serves as an opportunity to comment on the ubiquitous sight of Bangkok’s blind strolling the city’s streets, serenading the masses in hopes of collecting a few baht.

Even the best Thai voice warbling one of the syrupy songs the country tends to favor is not exactly gentle on the ear. And while the rumor is that when the gods take away one of your senses they improve another as a trade off, if you’ve ever encountered a blind singer in Bangkok you know it is not extraordinary vocal chords the gods decided to bless them with. So why is it that the blind all seem to make their begging career our of singing? A holdover from the 1970s and hopes of becoming the next Jose Feleciano?

I’m pretty sure there is no Thai word for ‘innovation’ and this is just another example of, well, the blind leading the blind. Whenever a local comes up with some gig that brings in baht, you can bet there’ll soon be hundreds of copycats. I get that. But they never seem to figure out when it’s already been done to death. The first time I saw the begging dog in full nose-to-the-pavement wai position, it was cute. Now it just pisses me off that I have to step over both a human and a dog to get where I’m headed. And that’s gotta be an even bigger obstacle for the poor blind guy singing for his supper.

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