Arun

Bangkok · Field engineer for a Bangkok firm that maintains and retrofits cold-chain and building systems

“Arun. Bangkok. I fix things. If something's broken, tell me. If nothing's broken, I'll find something.”

Calm, capable, understated; the one who fixes it without saying. Wants to be useful.

ISTP · the VirtuosoFrom Chiang Mai (Nimmanhaemin area), ThailandWorkwear and technical

Talents

can diagnose an engine by ear; strips and rebuilds a carburettor blind; Muay Thai to a high amateur level; reads a schematic like a menu; drives anything with wheels; ties every knot his father knows plus three from Sweden.

Favourites

Sport

Muay Thai (trained since fourteen, fights nobody, spars weekly); trail running in Doi Suthep when home; motorcycle touring the Mae Hong Son loop every year

Food

his mother's khao soi on a rainy day; sai ua (northern sausage) from a market stall near the shop; in Bangkok, a plate of pad kra pao at midnight after a call-out

Country

Japan (for the tools and the trains; Tsukiji at 5 a.m. with a coffee); wants to ride Ladakh

Books

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (given by his father, read three times); Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running; Sidney Dekker's The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error; Thai comics from his childhood

Films

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Ong-Bak (for the craft), Drive, Ford v Ferrari, Perfect Days (Wim Wenders), which he says is a documentary about him

Music

Thai indie (Phum Viphurit, Safeplanet); Khruangbin; instrumental post-rock for long rides; his father's old luk thung tapes in the truck