“Queue” Photograph

A few years ago there was a competition in my home country, England, to come up with the best five-word slogan to describe the national character. I forget the winner but my favourite entry was “Sorry, is this the queue?”. We Brits are born with it in our blood and even if I want to cross the road I check to see if there’s a queue first.

On the other hand it is not nearly so deeply ingrained in the Thai persona and I have been in danger of losing my temper at poor queuing etiquette many times in thi country. But then on seeing these folk forming such an orderly bus queue I was actually a little disappointed. I felt a slight yearning for more anarchy and had a sense of Thainess slipping away.

Of course, if I had actually been part of the queue I would have been so happy I probably would have worn a big grin on my face.

Photograph taken at Victory Monument, Bangkok, Thailand