Sibling sans rival(ry)

Way before Covid hit, we've already outgrown shared bathrooms and toilets. Goodbye, backpackers' dorms. Those were for your twenties. The spoiled Marses now prefer the privacy of their own tabo and timba. And way before Covid, we were foolhardy with our lungs. In this episode, Gudang Garam makes its comeback in our conversations--as a thing of mention, not as the ambient smoke of the conversation. We were social smokers once (everyone plays down their tabagisme); it pretty much went that alcohol joined in the socialization, too. It's still a wonder we could recall the nights we were dead or swirling drunk. But hey, this is the vacation episode. One of us can't have gone to Cuba and Manila malls without knowing what hedonism really is...