I had waited more than two years for this moment, and when it arrived, it was almost bittersweet.
This week, I got on a flight to Bangkok, a place I fell in love with at first sight decades ago and stayed in love with through the passage of time.
I had visualized it so hard — the moment when I would stand in front of the immigration officer at Suvarnabhumi Airport and say, “Sawasdee kha”; that when that moment finally arrived, I of course would fumble and mutter, and she would look at me oddly, smile and say, “Welcome back to Thailand.”
The passage to the kingdom was as smooth as silk. The Singapore Airlines flight was “100% full,” as the check-in agent had gleefully boasted when she told me I couldn’t have my customary aisle seat. The economy-class meal of pork and century egg congee was served in a paper box marked “Sustainable,” an example of how this airline is rethinking its…
