On to Pieria he stepped from the upper air,
and swooped down upon the sea,
and then sped over the wave like a bird, the cormorant,
which in quest of fish over the dread gulfs of the unresting sea
wets its thick plumage in the brine.
In such wise did Hermes ride upon the multitudinous waves. The Odyssey – Homer

A well-dressed man in a formal grey suit came up to me to ask where I was from. It was my third day in Bangkok, and until then, I had been alone. I was standing in a wide open grassy area in Sanam Luang Park, no one around, and I was facing away from the Grand Palace when he approached.