Bangkok: huge, pulsating, beautiful

BANGERS at daybreak: it was Chinese New Year in Bangkok.

Strings of crackers cackled like mini machine guns outside our guesthouse window.

Jet-lagged, and refusing to rouse myself, I thought this is what it must be like to wake up in a hotel in Damascus, Cairo or Cote d’Ivoire. But I knew there was no danger. Bangkok isn’t a dangerous city, unless you’re a local gangster or a foreign fool.