Goner

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Assume that you would plan a trip for a long time, and finally travel halfway across the world to a place where you have never set your foot. Inevitably you would collect a number of memories, take mental as well as digital pictures, let it sink in, tell the stories. Despite the modest time frame of two weeks, Thailand is a land with innumerable impressions just waiting to be taken in by the traveler. So, which memory would end up at the very top of the list? The amazing beaches and the nature? The beautiful girls? The culture? The great food? The big city life of Bangkok? Nope, not for this traveler.

For some reason, I tend to remember the animals. They won’t tell you any stories, they won’t invite you to their home, they won’t be able to help you if you’re lost. On the other hand, they don’t try to sell you time share apartments, they don’t spike your drink, they don’t curse you out because you’re a tourist. They just try to survive. Especially dogs fascinate. Where you find humans, you find dogs. In Thailand you in excess. Bangkok is infested by stray dogs. Dirty, skinny, and in most cases rather non-cute mixed breed dogs. They sleep during the warm days, hunt during the nights. It’s literally a “dog-eat-dog” world, where the smartest and the strongest survive. Standing at a crosswalk I cannot avoid observing one particular stray dog who was probably not the strongest and certainly not the smartest dude around. Rush hour in Bangkok means lots of cars in the streets, in an everlasting stream of traffic. Should be the very first lesson for a street dog to avoid close combat with moving vehicles.

This particular dog missed that lesson. Coming out from the alley, the dog simply walks right out in the street. The first car misses him. The second car passes him. He makes it to the third lane, where the minivan does the job. The vehicle cannot (or would not) possibly stop for a dog. Hits him head on. The fender hits the dog in the head, the front wheel runs over the legs. There is a cry. The dog was not only able to produce a cry, but amazingly enough survived the collision. Screaming he gets up and runs back into the alley. For certain severely injured, probably fatally. He’s a goner. Should he miraculously survive this hit, he doesn’t have the street smarts to last long. Gotta be smart, dawg.

It only took a few seconds between the moment the dog left the sidewalk until the van hit it and I watched the dog run back off the street. There was no one to blame except for the dog itself. Yet, this is the impression that I will carry away as a most vivid memory from Thailand. The dog is a goner, probably dead by now. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

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