Brooks, teaching at a Bangkok university, enlists the company of three Buddhist monks acquaintances to accompany them on a day trip to the sacred city of Ayudhaya.
En route, the Americans are appalled that an apparent madman, standing at the back of the bus, screams at the top of his lungs throughout the journey.
Only later are the Americans disabused of this misapprehension: the man is an essential employee of the bus company, whose duty is to warn the driver of road hazards.
Disoriented and exhausted at day's end, the American is dropped off at his hotel: "When I said good-bye to Yamyong, he replied, I think with a shade of aggrievement: 'Good-bye.
'"[3][4][5] The origins of the story dates from 1966 when Bowles sojourned in Bangkok, Thailand while under contract to Little, Brown publishers to write a book for an international cities series.
Though Bowles never completed the project, he based "You Have Left Your Lotus Pods on the Bus" on his experiences in Bangkok, written in 1971 at his residence in Tangiers.
[7][8] The story is a quasi-journalistic examination of the cultural differences that separates a pair of well-to-do American tourists in Bangkok and a trio of Buddhist monks who consent to take them on a day excursion to the sacred city of Ayudhaya.
"[9][10]Novelist Gore Vidal reports "the day is filled with splendid misunderstandings" and cites an incident in which the Americans observe a raving lunatic at the back of their bus, who screams and gesticulates throughout the journey.
When one of the Americans inquires as to what the man was saying, Yamyong explains that he was an employee of the bus service, alerting the driver to approaching highway hazards: "Go into second gear"—"We are coming to a bridge"—"Be careful.