The Cable-Walker of Ban Khrua

I woke early, a little before dawn, and set off into my favorite lanes of the Ban Khrua community. Jim Thompson may have wandered them once – his house museum stands nearby. He revived the Thai silk industry, founded the Thai Silk Company in 1948, and did this community a great deal of good.

My own ways are more humble: I keep company with the local cats. I watch them, catch moments out of their cat lives. Their furry, almost soundless presence heals me.

Today’s character is a kitten tightrope-walker – or, more precisely, a cable-walker. I happened to catch his morning promenade along the notorious Thai wires. He gripped them tenaciously with all four paws and moved along quite briskly above my head. Then he froze for a second, and decided to touch a satellite dish red as the Sun – evidently catching some signal that only he could understand.