"I just do not understand why this moment has to be memorexed."
       
Said by the character, Sammy, in the movie Reality Bites.

I had to ride a ferry today on the Chao Phraya River, and it started crazily raining during the journey.

That's when I spotted a group of young kids on a faraway pier, and they were jumping into the water and having the time of their lives as the monsoonal rain poured down.

I wish I had a better camera, but I was able to capture the moment below.

I think we can all learn a great lesson from these young people; that hopefully, we are all living our lives as free and unfettered as they're proving is possible.

The more I look to the Internet for a distraction from my companionless reality, the more alone I feel.

We owe each other nothing.

There's a loser in all of us.

This is what I usually have for breakfast on a typical morning: fried mushrooms, tofu in a spicy basil stir-fry, and grain rice with a fried egg.

I try to limit my meat intake nowadays, and so this street-food dish that's sold near my place is the perfect way to start my day. Plus, the whole plate only costs a little over $1.

"He thinks, I'll remember this night for the rest of my life. And he's right." 
         
A Visit from the Good Squad, by Jennifer Egan. Page 63.

A good man is hard to find.

What the fuck am I doing?

The morning after my last post, the weather had finally cleared up and it was beautiful on Koh Lanta.

I woke up that morning feeling great, and drove my rented scooter out to a nearby restaurant for some food. Then as I was exploring the island to look for a quiet beach in order to take advantage of the sun's appearance, I realized that something was wrong with my front tire. It felt much different from the day before and after I finally located a small roadside motorcycle mechanic on the island, I discovered that the rubber hose in the tire had completely been rendered useless. I'm certain that there's no way I could have been solely responsible for that happening, and was annoyed that I had to foot the bill for it, but I paid the bill and just went on with my merry day.

Then a few hours later, I got into a minor mishap while driving the scooter... and I sorta ended up in a ditch on the side of the road haha. A local in a truck saw what happened and immediately came to my aid, and two other local passersby on scooters also stopped to assist me as well. Luckily I didn't get hurt and only had a few scratches here and there. I have to admit though that as it was happening, there was a moment when I felt as if I was unable to do anything and things felt completely out of control---and that sense of, "Holy shit, this is really happening right now!" really scared me for a split second. The four of us were able to get the scooter back onto the road, and after thanking them profusely and assuring that I wasn't in need of medical attention, I drove on to continue my search for a quiet beach.

Later in the evening when I returned back to the place I was staying at, the workers noticed that the scooter had been damaged. And then after getting a professional assessment, they told me I would have to pay for all of the work that the bike needed. The entire situation felt so unexpected and thinking about the possibly exorbitant cost made me panic a bit---but I was really lucky because it wasn't too crazy and I actually had enough money to cover all the repairs. Thinking about the incident, things could have been a lot worse so even though I wasn't thrilled about everything that was happening, I was humbled by the fact that I was physically unharmed and wouldn't be forced to do lap dances in order to repay the owners of the resort.

It's comical---but after paying for all of the damages, I had just enough money remaining for some cheap meals and a train ticket back to Bangkok. 

So the very next morning, I accepted the fact that my trip had come to an unanticipated end and I returned to Trang in order to head home. I purchased a train ticket back to Bangkok's Hua Lamphong station and ended up having about 5 hours to kill before its departure, so I walked around Trang and tried to do as much exploring as possible. I eventually found this beautiful temple that was deserted and high up on a small mountain, and it was great because the weather was so perfect as well. After walking around and discovering all that I could, I rented a room directly across from the Trang train station for a few hours to be able to rest up and shower before my upcoming 15-17 hour train ride.

I already arrived back in Bangkok this morning, and while it sucked that I had to come back 5 days earlier than I planned, I still had a great time. I'd like to go to the area again, most likely in the busy season to check out some more islands and possibly some caves---and hopefully not alone.