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 into comfortable seats to cushion our approach to the culture shock awaiting us at Heathrow.

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