Taking extreme measures to escape Bangkok’s toxic air and breathe freely

Explosive decompression. Oxygen poisoning. Burned alive in seconds from a single spark.

It’s only been two minutes since I climbed into a metal coffin that wheezes like Darth Vader and have just realized that it has been locked from the outside.

“I can’t stop thinking about all the ways we could die right now,” I tell colleague Nicky Tanskul, whose knees are wedged into his larynx to fit beside me in the roughly 2-meter-long chamber.

But these were acceptable risks in our desperate bid to escape Bangkok’s horrendous air pollution, which I hold responsible for a sharp cough, scratchy throat, and perpetually moist nose that would be healthy for a cat. 

Unlike traffic or corrupt cops, air pollution is a side effect of life in Bangkok that cannot be avoided. So we set out to find places where one could be guaranteed clean breathing. 

It wasn’t easy,…