Step out of a Bangkok train and your glasses immediately fog up, just like opening the oven to check your cake. The key difference being that we stayed in the oven for nearly 48 hours! En route to Paris and the beginning of a Camino pilgrimage, my cooking companion is my sister Susan. We haven’t traveled together since childhood but our time together has been natural and easy so far. Our brief visit to Bangkok was curated in part by Tao, a high-school exchange-student friend of Susan’s. They have met a few times since 1984, when they studied together in Year Eleven at Wagga Wagga High School. I expect that each encounter was as richly condensed as the last two days. When Susan and Tao met at Wagga High, in a class of 120, Susan was amongst four other girls transferring for senior education from a tiny class of 13 at The Rock Central School. Tao came on exchange from a school in Bangkok, so I expect that her class cohort might have been a bit larger. Susan and Tao are both very-clever-eldest-daughters who became First-in-Family to attend university. Susan studied Pharmacy in Melbourne and Tao medicine in Bangkok. Tao later took a PhD in Public Health from Harvard University. Both have given 35 years in service to their respective Health Departments.
Tao snapped the selfie from a speeding tuk-tuk after dinner out by the Chao Phraya River. The next morning Susan and I walked back to the river from our hotel in the Ratchathewi district, about 6km choosing narrow streets rather than the busy ones.
We booked a walking tour of the Royal Palace and Temples precinct, four hours shared with thousands in the humid heat. The tour guide’s condensed and pragmatic explanation of Buddhism was a highlight. Death and suffering are inevitable, so enjoy the moment and be happy. Don’t fight.
Witnessing Susan and Tao’s instant re-connection and deepening bond offered similar clarity… Love and friendship makes the risky ride more fun.
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