Whiskey Tango Flashbacks

A brief exchange with the Great PanJAPdrum yesterday triggered off a memory of a blog he'd told me about -- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Check it out at your risk. Looking over the wares there, I realized that I too had a few WTF moments of my own. So here they are, for your viewin pleasure, a trip round the world, with a difference.


We start our eccentric little circuit off with this beauty from NYC's Lower East Side. Wasn't Chinese take-out supposed to be cheap? Or did the proprietors here just partake of an Honest Red Bean Bun?


Next, from sunny Auckland -- how nice to see a sign that practices what it preaches. Setting a standard by example, I say.


Then we have three gems from Kota Kinabalu, in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. All three involve interesting conceptual juxtapositions. The first is this logical conjunction of Hotel Full Hua with Soon Fatt. Of course.


Next, stretching it a *little* further, we see this obviously well-meaning instruction. Public health activists, warm your hearts out.


And finally, carrying the WC theme further, here's a radical idea -- co-ed toilets are good for mental health! Hah! Now they tell me.


Coming back down to earth, we find this stern reminder inside a taxi in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Yeah, and don't drink the brown unleaded. Limin'!


Next we travel all the way round the world back home to Hong Kong, land of the free (and 25% off), home of the brave (English-speaker). First with this injunction to take careful aim -- inside one of the largest Chinese products gift emporia in town.


Next is this astonishing concept of a shopping complex cum office building qua blindfold getting a facelift. Works on multiple levels, doesn't it? Feel free to take the elevators on this one.


And just in case you felt you were being short-changed by life, here's a golden opportunity from Pub Street in Siem Reap, Cambodia. See the temples, carv your name and animal on a stamp, how much more fulfilling can life get?


Pretty much, actually, This third Hong Kong beauty comes from a wedding I attended last week. It was a Chinese-French affair, but more than anything else the thing that caught my eye was that the cameraman seemed to have been making do with available technology. Giving the term acid flash a whole new meaning.


Finally, we cap off our flashback tour with this double-whammy at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Not only does the sign at the top right tell us about "Subway Phast Phood" (if you read the Hindi), there's also one at bottom left that reminds us that our travails are aught but an endangered species and we should be thankful we're not being packed off to Sariska or somewhere.

And so to bed.