Nonetheless, he left for the city. Later he revisited her, and when he begged
her forgiveness, she gave it. This kind of loose obligation and adjustment of
family relations to the desires of individuals in it is not uncommon. In another
family with which first hand contact was had in Bangkok, the father, a governmental
official, had left his family to marry another woman and the first
wife looked after the children. One of her sons, also married, left Bangkok for
political reasons and left his small son with the grandmother. The man, in
his place of exile, married another woman. When informed of this development
the mother and sisters were interested but not surprised; and one sister remarked,
“He always liked to have a lot of women around him.”