Sober in Thailand

AA Medallion Given to Me by My Daughter on my Tenth AA Birthday

For those of you that didn't know I am a sober alcoholic. I got sober in the what we call the Fellowship. To the outside world it is known as Alcoholics Anonymous or AA. Today I celebrated my 19th year of sobriety. In AA we call that our AA birthday as opposed to our "bellybutton birthday". I am not a big one on celebrations and such but today I gave a call to one of my friends in the Fellowship who lives in Mukdahan and said I wanted to brag, that it was my 19th birthday today. After getting the normal "congratulations" 1 was asked the question "How did you do it?". Now normally when you are in a AA meeting and you celebrate a length of sobriety. Someone will always ask "Why did you do it?" and "How did you do it?". This is an invitation to share and tell your story. Specifically, how I stayed sober in Thailand for 8 years with very few meetings. Here it is.

When I moved to Thailand almost 8 years ago I had been sober for 11 years. I was your typical garden variety drunk. I love drinking and getting fucked up. Specially the second part. I had been drinking since my early teens and from the first time I got loaded I knew this was for me! It made me feel great. Drinking gave me that warm good feeling that I could not get in any other way. So I wanted to repeat that feeling again and again as often as possible. At the time most of my friends were experimenting with alcohol and found many ways to get it. We had people buy it for us, stole it sneaked it from our parents' stash. There was always a way. By the time  I turned 16 or so we found underage places that would serve us and places that would sell us booze without an I.D. or with some laughable fake. It was great. We used to ride around drinking having a great time.

Growing Orchids in Thailand

Orchids from my garden.

Its orchid season here in Mukdahan and most of the rest of Thailand. Unlike in the west most orchids here are grown out of doors. Most orchids here are very cheap. A plant that you might find in America for 20 dollars would typically go for about a dollar here. There are several shops here in Mukdahan that specialize in orchids and they are surprisingly easy to grow, in fact they are so hardy you can hardly kill them. A friend of mine told me a story about how he had a few that never produced flowers and he just chucked them in a corner somewhere and basically ignored them. A few months later they were full of blooms.

I looked at a lot of the websites on how to make your orchids bloom and they give all these crazy directions about how to make them bloom and rebloom. Some of them had you cutting off old stalks and sterilizing the cutting tool with some kind of special stuff which I am sure they sold. I have found that the most important thing is to get the sunlight right. They need some direct light but not too much, especially when it gets really hot. I have mine hanging or sitting under a lamyai tree. During the rainy season I didn't do a thing and just cleaned out leaves that may have fallen into them. Nearing the end of rainy season the stalks started to shoot up and I had a problem with some insects that were leaving their larvae to eat the bloom pods after a month or so I went down to the plant store and bout some insecticide that I mixed with 5 gallons of water and gave em a spray once every week and boom no more larvae. The stalks started growing like mad even though it was a late rainy season. When I finally got blooms I got some red liquid that you mix about 2 tablespoons with a liter of water and give the roots a spritz about once a week after they have been watered and I got hundreds of blooms.

Like I said the most important thing is sunlight. If you get too much sun it will make the leaves have black spots. I find a place with perfect light and start rotating the plants into that area to start them blooming after that they seem to take off on their own no matter where they are. As for watering when it stops raining I give them a spray early in the morning with the garden hose about every other day. Just the root areas, and maybe a very light mist over the whole plant. Before I was doing it with a spray bottle and it didn't seem like they got enough. I think if they can drain out good it doesn't matter if you over water a little. They don't mind if the roots get dry a little either so don't freak out if you miss a day. Some are advocates of giving them a light mist at night but I don't bother and they seem to thrive. When all else fails and your orchids don't bloom there is one tried and true way of getting some fresh blooms in your garden. Go down to the local orchid shop and open your wallet. Cheers. Enjoy the pictures of my orchid garden. - Khun Rut

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