We got up this morning, gathered our things and gladly said goodbye to Koh Tao and its beaches, excited for the long journey back to Bangkok. Taxi to boat to bus to train to Bangkok! We got all the way to the last mode of transportation before the dominoes stopped falling and…we missed the train. Thankfully, missing the train didn’t kill us, it just left us frustrated and trapped in Chumphon for 12 hours, waiting for the next train out. But, fortune favored the unfortunate and we found a reggae bar to hang out at and stash our stuff while exploring the streets. Frustration eventually faded and I turned this mishap into a good time by eating some street food, getting a new shittily-made fake Levi’s shirt and meeting a German girl who works at a gummy bear factory. None of those things were life-changing but sometimes you have to take the smallest of victories and smile. So, 12 hours, some sketchy food, a new shirt and one new friend later…we’re finally leaving.

Andrew and I got seats in a luxurious second-class car, complete with air conditioning…infinitely more comfortable than the third-class bench seats we took here from Bangkok. I lost five pounds on that train from a 10-hour aerobic workout, during which I never stopped alternating between wiping sweat from my forehead and neck. Third-class sure was a great idea…so good of an idea that we unequivocally opted for second-class despite the steep $2 price increase. In honesty though, now that it’s over, it really was a good experience. I’ve noticed sometimes I interpret life like this. I was talking to a friend and made a joke about it, then I thought about it and realized that it’s actually really depressing.

Anyway, Andrew and I didn’t get seats next to each other so I’m sitting next to an impressively inconsiderate guy who is pretty much begging me to to stab him to death. This guy is the reason I don’t own a gun. Let me calm down and change topics because this isn’t what I intended to write about. Indulging in every violent thought isn’t necessary or productive.

The original inspiration for this writing was a bohemian trio sitting behind me. A Tarzan-looking man with thick brown dreadlocks going beyond his buttocks; he looks like he’s wearing a giant overturned bald eagle’s nest on his head. The woman next to him appears as if she was transported from the gutter of some dirty city during The Great Depression. Her child, who has been naked for part of this trip, has a warm smile and sharp eyes. He looks like he could be at home anywhere. I wonder what kind of parallel universe these people are living in.

Though I don’t know it now (I’m writing this from the future), in a few weeks I’ll be living with these people. Almost one-thousand kilometers north of where we are right now, I’ll be repeatedly pushing a tick-infested cat out of my bed during the night, shoveling composted human shit during the day and constantly wondering if I will ever find or create a lifestyle that suits my disposition.