Introducing Chester: Raconteur Extraordinaire

My good friend Chester, who lives on Silom Road near the Chao Phraya river, is a bit camera shy, and always starts whining whenever someone points at camera at him. "Get that damn camera out of my face, will ya?" is his usual plea.

But once you get past that shyness, Chester's a fun dog to hang out with. He's an exceptionally gifted storyteller who likes to embellish his tales with sensational details.

One of Chester's favorite stories is about the time he caused a miscreant mongrel that had been bullying the local street community to lose face. This bully, who went by the nickname of Jaws, would always drop by with several of his mangy mates to steal food and terrorize any dog that was unfortunate to get in their way.

But one day, when the bullies showed up and demanded food, Chester was ready for them. The previous night, he'd found some scraps in the trash and managed to cobble together a chicken pie. Then, he found some prik kee noo -- the ferociously hot chili peppers used in a variety of Thai dishes -- and ground them up and incorporated them invisibly into the pie.

Anyway, when Chester presented the pie, Jaws immediately dove into it, finishing the whole thing in about 6 seconds. But then, the chilis started kicking in, and before long, Jaws was reduced to a howling, squealing shell of his usual bully self. As he lay on the ground writhing in pain, me and the rest of Chester's buddies erupted in laughter, and Jaws' mates ran off with their disgraced leader in tow.

The moral of this story is: Don't mess with guys like Chester -- it's the nice guys like him that you have to watch out for if you ever get on their bad side.