Nguyễn Trọng Tuyển in Phú Nhuạn district, Saigon(photo by Sarah Grant)
I'm lucky to know people who travel to Southeast Asia. While I've spent several months in Thailand, my friends and colleagues from graduate school have committed themselves to academic work in the region. This means that I, and you, are privilege to a new kind of gross. I don't know if it's the chokingly hot weather, different health standards, exploding populations, or what, but there is some great gross stuff in that part of the world. Of course there are also areas that are painfully clean, like the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok, one of the fanciest malls I've ever seen. But what you see above is the carnage of a mass rat death. Who knows if these cunning scavengers unwittingly nibbled on some poisoned pork or if they died at the hands of an angry shopkeeper with frying pan (I can't help but picture a cartoon person running around chasing a smiling cartoon rat). Either way, they have found some peace together, at the foot of this dusty tree. I look forward to more gross stuff coming from Sarah in Vietnam, and from Luke and Kelly (of the condom canal) from Bangkok. Remember: take your camera with you all the time so you don't miss golden opportunities like the one pictured above. And send the pictures to me at grossstuffinla at gmail dot com.
