We are Back.

All good
things come to an end and so did our short stay at Sri Panwa. With so
little to do and only the simplest and most basic of decisions to be
made our time there passed at nothing like the snail’s pace you might
have imagined. It was soon over, our few things were packed and the tuk
tuk to take us to the car was at the door. Then it was the ride to the
airport, the flight and the drive through Bangkok’s legendary traffic
to the kuti at Khun Jung’s for our last night.

Again there were visitors, that evening and the next morning. In the
afternoon of our last day we drove over to Wat Sraket to pay our
respects to Somdet Keo, then went to get me measured for a new pair of
glasses before calling on Sulak Sivaraksa for tea. Sulak is described
on the cover flap of his autobiography as a prominent and outspoken
Thai Buddhist social critic and activist who throughout his tumultuous
life has endured death threats, exile and gruelling legal ordeals - and
somehow has thrived. Of course I have known of Sulak for years and
people have thought we ought to know each other but we’ve never quite
managed to meet until that afternoon. Ken, another Thai former Warwick
student, succeeded in arranging it and I’m very grateful to him for
that. Sulak was very welcoming, very gracious, fascinating to listen to
and generous - he presented me with a stack of books to add to the
boxes we had already.

Back at Khun Jung’s we hastened to get ourselves ready and then off
we sped to the airport where Thai Airways staff were waiting to speed
us through check-in and care for us all the way to Heathrow. Khun
Tipvadee, looking younger than ever, was there to see us off. So were
Pie and Mark, who was looking forward to getting off back to Korea in a
day or two. And Tahn Dhammabhojo, now Chao Khun Chonnyanamuni, with the
young monk who hopes to join us in England in the summer, were also
there to speed us on our way. Once through Immigration, we were sat in
tall futuristic buggies that raced us as near as could be to our
Departure Gate, from where we were ushered onto the plane and our
comfortable Business Class seats that delayed the inevitable culture
shock for a few more hours.

If you’d like to see some of the photos you can look here.

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