The Milwaukee Connection Celebrates

Margie, Keiko, and I have known each other since our college days in Milwaukee in the 70s. We all married Thai men and came to Thailand to live. Our lives became busier with careers and children, and now, Keiko has a granddaughter. Margie and I have become bi-continental travelers as our children are now based in the US. Still, we manage to come together once a year. This year we went to Margie and Chart's new house in Nonthaburi. It's a two-story three bedroom house, the perfect size for empty nesters. Reposing underneath an end table in the living room was a tortoise made of carved and polished coconut shell. Margie's style always came with a touch of whimsy.

After lunch, Margie, Keiko, and I walked through the temple near their mooban (housing estate) and along the klong or canal.  It was like walking into another world; rural and quieter, where living by the water was a way of life. We ended up walking towards the Chao Phraya river where the river taxis make regular runs from the Bangkok side to Nonthaburi and back. Then we walked back along the highway towards Margie's house. It was a bit risky since there are no sidewalks so we decided to walk on the right facing the traffic.  A pick-up truck driver, impatient to be somewhere, drove up behind us on the wrong side of the road, giving us quite a fright. We got back safely nonetheless, hot and sweaty, so the mooban taxi driver gave us a lift back to Margie's house in his golf cart.

Afterwards, Keiko and I went back to town in her car and had another adventure. Or as Diana would say, we had a Senior Moment. Actually, I blame it on the poor signage. There wasn't a sign that said Bangkok though Keiko knew we simply had to find the Rama IV Bridge. We got turned around when we left the mooban and actually ended up going towards Suphanburi instead of Bangkok! After three turns around the u-turn bridges we managed to point ourselves in the right direction and get back to the city.

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