In the Land of Smiles

6:30am, awake for a while in bed I decide to get up, having decided that getting up early, or earlier than before, is now part of my new Thailand life… The back hurts still, I’m blaming the bed, the mattress, but certainly not old age as I am still so very young in this aging aching body. I’m telling myself that swimming will help, it does actually, but I am forcefully willing myself to heal the lingering morning back woes. And so I walk the sixty odds steps to the swimming pool of our residence. In my swimming trunks, flip flops flopping on the already warm road to the pool, I pass the always barking dog of the old Swedish woman two houses away, I can’t believe this mutt still barks at me every morning, doesn’t he know me by now, it’s almost been a year, O well… Birds everywhere, almost always in pairs, topping the electric wires above, O this one has such a long tail, doves, funny looking black birds with white sleeves, even the pigeons look better in this part of the world… Music is pumping on my temples, waterproof bone conduction implement, I wouldn’t, couldn’t swim if I didn’t have music motivating me. I don’t like the swimming, you see I’m forcing myself, almost every day, for 30 minutes, about a kilometer of water each time… It’s a daily chore, I do not find it pleasant, it’s torture almost and I’m willingly subjecting myself to it, hoping this ritual will be “good for me”. Also, and without any proof or logic to it, I think that by obligating myself to this morning ritual, somehow this will expiate my excesses or sins if I have any during the day and I will be forgiven and rewarded in this life as I do not believe in any after ones. So, here we go again, I am transported by the ever randomly changing tunes in my head, heading to the outdoor shower at the end of the pool, setting the smart watch for the swim session and finally dipping in the water. OOh, it’s so nice, 32 degrees, 98.6 for you Farenheit lovers, thinking and smiling to myself that I’ve drunk tea of this temperature, but here we go, my next half hour is starting.

Before I start my swim, I inhale the sweet scents abounding around, the pool is surrounded by magnificent trees with these beautiful white and odorous flowers, the same ones we see everywhere in Hawaii, in fact they make leis with these delicate and fragrant flowers, have you been laid today? I think they’re called plumerias. I look around me, dozens of palm trees sway in a gentle breeze, I’ve always loved palm trees, so exotic and tropical for me, a boy coming from the dreary vegetation of the east of France close to Switzerland, and way north of the famed and southern climated Côte d’Azur where in awe, I saw my first palm tree when I was about 10 years old on a trip with my long lost grand father, but that’s a trip for another story coming up some day… Bougainvilleas of pinks, oranges and flamboyant reds abound all arranged around the gorgeous grounds. Somehow these sights soothe me as I positioned myself for my first lap… The coming up efforts now seems worth it. It is early enough that the sun peering through the silver clouds above is not yet too bright, I can look straight at it without fear of losing my vision, it has today a sort of milkish golden hue as it is just now peeking its majesty over the land. Now in my routine, varying strokes as always, I am counting down the laps. Concentrating on the form, following the sun trail on the water surface, I am plunged way deep into my thoughts. Looking down at the bottom at the small square dark navy blue tiles, then up and sideways, breathing with half an open mouth, I can see the top of the palm trees and the traditional Thai pointy roofs of some of the houses in the complex. This makes me happy, I have all this time for myself, unencumbered and free to think, rehearsing in my mind future chapters of my elusive book to come, literally thinking literature… When I am done with the exercise, I realize again that it indeed did do wonders after all, coming back from the daily splashing, all showered and ready to affront the day, the back is all better and I’ve got a new spring in my step as they say. All is well with this world.

Our little heart of a dog, Lulu, welcomes me back home as usual like if I was a revenant as all dogs are taught to do. The lovely wife is on her treadmill, yes we are taking care of ourselves as we promised each other to last as long as possible together. I’m now preparing my healthy breakfast in our lovely home, a rental of course. Very comfortable, no stairs, with a beautiful garden in a gated community, this house fits all our wanted criteria for this relocation. I say we relocated, not yet immigrated, even if in my mind I’m already a permanent resident to this kingdom. I half jokingly say to all the new friends here that we are refugees from California. On that fateful November day in 2024 when the orange turd was elected, we vowed to get the hell out of the country. Everyone in the world knows whom I refer to when I mention this colored excrement. We did not want to live under such hate and chaos, and this was the perfect excuse to live in a different country, at least temporarily until a new administration restoring sanity would be sworn in. The love of my life was also adamant in our convictions, so we made our move. Beautiful Thailand was chosen for all its appeals, and everything fell into place. Luck had it so that nothing was too complicated or impossible. We got our visas, our house, our car, a rental also, cheaper than buying until we decide to stay 3 more years maybe. I’ve got my hobbies fulfilled, I play pétanque, jump out of airplanes and ride my motorcycle, a Harley now! Lily, the lovely wife, followed me for this new adventure, she also had wanted to live in a different country, her first time doing that, my sixth adoptive one. I think I should come back to this point at some point, future chapters indeed. Anyway, we’re coming up to a year here already and we’ve committed to each other to stay “a few” more. For my part, I can’t see myself going back to the states while I ‘m still phisycally valid. Approaching seventy, not quite, give me another year and a half, I think and hope I’ll still be vibrant and verdant well into my eighties, why not? I’ve spent almost 46 years in America, that’s long enough of a stretch… We’ll go back eventually, when we won’t be able to travel as much as we usually do, when we’ll retire from this golden retirement. We still have a house in California, we’ll get back to our American families and friends, in the meantime we can visit there and take vacations from our vacations. I was thinking today that people pay good money to vacation in Thailand, but they also paid dearly (until recently anyway) to also vacation in California. We are fortunate to be able to live in these parts of this world, after all we could have been born blind, disabled and extremely poor in Sudan or Myanmar. That’s the luck of the draw, an unfair cosmic lottery with no merit involved whatsoever, undeservingly or not, I say to all who will listen , enjoy ya’ll, there might be no tomorrow …

I’ll continue these written musings of mine from time to time, delving in unrelated topics in haphazard fashion as my troubled mind will dictate, so stay tuned and remember: Life is Beautiful.