In bloom on my soi.

Despite being a lane off of Bangkok's busiest road, my soi has the atmosphere of a rural Thai village. Every morning a woman sets up a charcoal grill, and by the time I set out for work the air is smoking with the delicious scent of roasting fish and barbecued chicken. Men and women gather on the shaded wooden benches, chatting, playing checkers, or taking naps in the mid-morning heat. As the temperatures of the dry season have risen, the dok khun tree above this soi has exploded with draping yellow flowers, making the setting more exotic than ever.

*This post was inspired by an entry on the same tree at bloom in Laos, on the wonderful blog Mekong River Tributaries.