Farewell to Florida

Saying farewell to my much loved Florida is a post that is difficult for me to write.  And I’ve been putting off saying anything because there are some things still pending that could alter my final destination, but the bottom line is I will be out of my house here in Florida by September 30, exactly two years after I moved here.  And as of today, my destination is Bangkok, Thailand.

I retained a real estate agent in Bangkok prior to my leaving there last month, and I looked at some properties, so I am prepared.  I’ll be getting an apartment in the Sukhumvit Rd. expatriate area, not far from Embassy row on Wireless Rd.

Needless to say, I am pretty busy.  The house has to be packed up and furnishings stored, cars are being stored or sold.  I’ll need to make a road trip to a Thai consulate for my visa; after my recent experience I don’t think I’ll risk my passport to the mail again.  So now you know the reason I’ve been evading social invitations since my return, particularly ones for September and beyond.   

I leave Florida with mixed feelings.  I love Florida.  And it has been my dream to live here since I stepped off the plane in West Palm Beach as a child and discovered there are places that are warm in the winter. 

But I stepped off another plane as an adult, many years later, in Hong Kong.  It was the first of what would be many journeys to the Orient.  And the Orient has been singing her siren song to me ever since. 

More than a century ago, Somerset Maugham wrote: “It seemed to me that by a long journey to some far distant country I might renew myself…I journeyed to the Far East.  I went looking for adventure and romance and so I found them…but I found also something that I never expected.  I found a new self.”

And so it is for me.  I’ve known for a long time that on one of my trips across the Pacific to Asia that I would simply stay.  It’s time to pursue new dreams.