Bangkok
Thailand
2 May 2010
4:00 am
 
Dear "Parents,"

With assorted emotions, I just put Utami into a taxicab for her pre-dawn drive to Suvarnabhumi Airport and her flight back to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.  Are these the feelings a "father" has when he says "Goodbye" to his "daughter" as she heads back out into the world and he doesn’t know when or if he will ever see her again?

I met Utami five years ago in Kuta, Bali.  She was "happy to accompany" me on my trip to Java.  Two years ago we traveled together in Sumatra.  This year, for her twenty-eighth birthday, Utami decided to make her first "overseas" trip.  Despite her parents’ concern about the political situation here in Bangkok, Utami was determined to visit Thailand.