What's it all about, Alfie?

A few months ago I got put in touch with a cousin whom I haven't met since we were young children. Among other things she asked me was why I decided to retire in Thailand. I gave the usual answers: when I was on active duty I was stationed in Thailand and married a Thai lady; the cost of living, including basic medical care, is much lower here; I love the food; I grew up in Ohio and Michigan, and I hate cold weather. But this morning as I was standing on my front porch, I realized there was another, more important reason. Butterflies.

Growing up in the United States, I basically knew only what we call the Middle West. I was a child of the suburbs, but spent time during summer vacations at my grandparents' farm in Iowa. My grandparents were interested in bird watching, and I learned a little about birds from them. But I don't recall ever seeing a butterfly that was any species other than the black and orange Monarch.

Back in 1973 I was reassigned from Thailand back to Washington, D.C. For the next several years I used my annual leave to come back and visit my wife in Thailand for 30 days at a time. On one of those visits, Lek decided one day to go fishing. We packed up a lunch to take along, with a couple of bottles of beer for me (it was before I quit drinking alcohol). Walking through the uncultivated meadows to the stand of woods where her fishing spot was, we passed a small tree. I guess it was only about fifteen feet high, and the foliage formed almost a sphere, maybe seven or eight feet in diameter. When I first noticed it I couldn't understand at first why it seemed to be covered with jewels. After I got a little closer I could see the whole tree was covered with butterflies! Certainly hundreds, maybe thousands of them! The glittering effect was caused by their wings opening and closing. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I have never seen anything before or since that struck me more.

I can't tell now whether the butterflies on that tree were all of one species or not, but I am sure they were not all Monarchs. This morning as I look out from my porch I can see eight or ten butterflies. Three are fairly small, a bright yellow. One or two are a little larger, very pale yellow, almost white. There are a couple of small, dark blue ones. And there's even one with the same black and orange coloring of a Monarch, but smaller than the ones I remember from the states.

There are also a variety of birds living nearby. We've got a flock of a dozen or so pigeons. They're the traditional grey and black, less variation that pigeons I've seen in cities. There is also a flock or doves that comes around from time to time, and a flock or two of sparrows, maybe thirty or forty altogether. There are also some swifts that come around in the morning and evening. I can tell they're swifts because of the distinctive shape of their wings and the lack of the swallow tail.

But it's the butterflies that really warm my heart.

Almost two weeks ago I woke up to a surprise. I don't like surprises anyway, and I especially don't like them when I've just woken up and haven't even had a cup of coffee. In this case the surprise was that her relatives were free to bring two pickup trucks to Bangkok and move us to Nakhorn Sawan that day.

I had thought we were going to move after New Years, but Chawinee had been sick for almost a month and submitted her resignation to the University earlier than I expected. Suddenly, she wasn't all that sick. When I showed I was less than happy with the news, she pointed out that her relatives weren't free to come help us just any old time that was convenient for me, and if we had to hire a truck or two trucks (and lots of trucks are available for hire in Bangkok) it would cost us thousands of baht, and I ought to be glad to be getting away from the pollution and traffic, and...

Well, I confess she did almost all the work of packing up the stuff we had accumulated in almost two years. I mostly browsed the Internet while we waited for the relatives to come, only packing the stuff that I knew I would be wanting soon after arriving. The relatives arrived about 9:00PM, and the superintendent of the apartment brought a couple of his friends and we got the two pickup trucks loaded in about an hour. I suppose professional movers (and I'm not sure there are any in Bangkok) could have done it faster, but it was impressive all the same.

So we are now living in the outskirts of the provincial capitol of Nakhorn Sawan province, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) North of Bangkok. More about that later.

Quick Catch-up

After years of ignoring this blog I've realized it might be a way for me to share thoughts I've been having, whether anyone else reads them or not. But I think I want to change the title of the blog because I'm no longer active in the Bangkok nightlife. In fact, soon I won't even be living in Bangkok. After New Year's Day I'll be moving to Nakhorn Sawan, a large town about 250 km (150 miles) north of Bangkok.

I've just created this blog. I don't have any real interest in it, but I'll try to get back to it soon to put some (hopefully) worthwhile/interesting information on it.