The Naga's Journey is set in modern-day Bangkok, a city that is degenerating rapidly, both morally, in its acceptance of a flourishing sex trade, and physically, under constant threat of a flood of such great magnitude that its potential for destruction is unprecedented and believed not just to have meteorological origins but spiritual ones as well. Against this backdrop the novel tells the tale of an unlikely friendship between three people whose lives and backgrounds could not be more different; the trio become friends after being thrown together by a dramatic event that occurs at the public cremation of a notorious celebrity. Their individual responses to this event reveal that they are each trying to avoid confronting their past relationship with the deceased.
The human element of the novel is influenced by the influence of the Naga, a powerful element of water with the ability to either nurture or destroy. Its unpredictability means that it is impossible to tell which of these it will do, until the end of the novel when the city floods, and tragedy ensues, but this too seems to bring the friends closer together.
Born into a wealthy diplomatic household, Bunnag left his native Thailand after graduating high school to study at prestigious Cambridge University in England. He double majored in Chinese and Economics, and five years after graduating was one of the founders of a therapeutic center just outside Cambridge. The center offered traditional Eastern meditation and t'ai chi with a Western leaning that made their teaching accessible to those who did not have a background in traditional eastern thinking. Bunnag has also written a number of books about t'ai chi and meditation.
