Summary

Through "Visitations," Bangkok Wakes to Rain opens with an unnamed female walking through the streets of Thailand's capital. The woman's age is indeterminate, and the third-person narration describes her as possibly "a child," or "a few thousand years old" (4). She knows Bangkok well, as, since her primary school days, she has walked its streets. Hence, she is familiar with the sparrows that tussle over fallen crumbs, the thick crowds of humans and stray dogs, and the yelling vendors who advertise their street food. As she explores the streets, she knows that eyes watch her every move.

She comes to an apartment building that she lived in as a child. As she enters the lobby, she muses on how much it has changed in her lifetime. Over the years, building management had added a coffee nook, replaced the gray walls with exposed brick...